People approximate this and think they can just reduce it to one government office when the truth is that literally every single participant in the economy is responsible. If I had to dumb it down I would say that the economy tries to be in balance. If the government appears to be doing one thing, it isn't alone, there are private companies and private individuals doing the complement.
In macro economy it is quite common to split an economy into two asymmetric entities. You, and the rest of the economy. If you earn, they spend, if they spend you earn.
If you borrow (known as printing in conspiracy theory jargon), they save (in aggregate), if they save, you borrow. Of course I am assuming that the balance is being maintained. If someone spends less than they earn, they save but if there is no net borrowing the balance is being disrupted. What happens then is deflation but that implies that the economy is in disequilibrium and must shake off some of the people earning more than they spend. It is kind of ironic that savers want deflation because in a perfect market they would get fired and wouldn't be allowed to work more which prevents them building up more savings.
In any case, I think I was incorrect about the nature of the direct lending program, here is the report from Congress about the CARES Act (the first pandemic relief bill) and how its "expanding the Fed’s traditional role beyond lender of last resort to the banking system and even beyond the more expansive role it took in the 2007-2009 financial crisis"
Its really not a simple "treasury does this, federal reserve does that"
These programs are not handouts, they are loans. The Fed did this in 2008 when they bought bonds and even stock in some big companies.
Overall, the Fed made a big profit on all of that when the bonds were paid back with interest and the stock was sold back in tranches over time as the market recovered.
Disagree that QE-2020 was a "one-time event." I can think back 13 years to 2009 and recall both monetary and fiscal stimulus to provide post-2008 relief.
1) Congress directly modified the Federal Reserve's charter to give money directly to private persons.
2) There were also payments directly from the US Treasury.
3) There were also things that involved that traditional convoluted process of the Treasury selling more bonds to the international market and pretending not to know that the Federal Reserve is the biggest buyer showing up.
In this case, because of 1), we really did create several trillion out of thin air, from the Federal Reserve itself. Basically Congress always could, but didn't. Easiest way to accumulate dollars is to scare people into believing dollars won't be relevant.
Although the US otherwise doesn't simply dilute the money supply with direct issuances for nothing, opting to primarily create dollars in exchange for corporate bonds and treasuries, there is a market tolerance and demand enough for dollars to support a much greater level of it. Disclaimer: I'm not advocating for anything.