After one final marathon round of negotiations, the Senate Republicans and Democrats unanimously passed “the largest economic relief package” in U.S. history… Or at least, that’s what many news outlets, politicians, and Washington power brokers would have you believe. It’s an attention-grabbing, big, loud, sound bite of a claim. But it’s not the largest relief bill, not by a long shot. No, there’s a massive historical shadow hanging over the Phase 3 proceedings--The New Deal.

When factoring in population size, inflation, GDP, and economic development, the Phase 3 bill is only a quarter the size of FDR’s signature piece of legislation. $2.2 trillion (the Phase 3 price tag) might sound like a lot of money, but considering the U.S GDP is over $21 trillion, it’s only 10 percent of GDP. By comparison, The New Deal cost taxpayers a whopping 40 percent of U.S Gross Domestic Product in 1933. Let that sink in.

The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis published an extraordinary article in 2017, comparing The New Deal to President Obama’s Recovery Act. Maligned by Republicans at the time of passing, the Recovery Act clocked in at a little over 5 percent of GDP. Now the Phase 3 stimulus, a Republican-lead effort to bolster the economy, looks to double Obama’s stimulus spend.

But why does any of this matter? Why does it matter that the Phase 3 stimulus is dwarfed by FDR’s New Deal? So what if Obama’s Recovery Act was only half the size of a Republican-lead plan? Who cares if news outlets and politicians are willfully misleading the public with claims of outsized spending? Two words: Phase Four.

The Coronavirus pandemic is wreaking havoc on every aspect of American life. Businesses are closed, schools are shut down, millions and millions of Americans are now unemployed or laid off. In New York, where state, local, and federal agencies scramble to provide medical care, Mayor Deblasio admits that the threat from Covid-19 will not subside for months. Speaking at a press conference yesterday he said, “Expect April to be worse than March. Expect May to be worse than April.”

No, the Phase 3 Stimulus bill is not the “Largest Relief Package in U.S History.” But combined with equal or larger Phase 4 and Phase 5 bills, the steps taken by the Federal Government to combat Covid-19 could soon total a $10 trillion dollar investment. No we are not out of the woods yet, but we are now well on our way to actually surpassing the fiscal behemoth that was The New Deal.