Congress needs to spend $1 trillion on coronavirus stimulus. Here's how they should do it.

The U.S. government did a lot of things wrong in the Great Recession of 2008. But one of the most consequential screw-ups, made when it really counted, was low-balling the stimulus. President Obama's economic advisors rapidly concluded it would take $1.8 trillion to plug the hole in the economy, but never pushed for that amount for fear of the politics. The stimulus that passed was less than half that number, and the grinding decade of slow recovery that followed was the inevitable result.

Now, the global coronavirus pandemic means the president and Congress are faced with the same choice again. Numbers out of China, where the virus began, show a staggering hit to the country's economy; here in America, activity in various service sectors was down by as much as half before the mandatory shutdowns began sweeping the states; economists project output will shrink 5 percent in the second quarter; White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett told Politico the next jobs report could be the single worst we've ever seen.