March 26, 2020
Permission to republish original opeds and cartoons granted.
The battle to reopen America will be difficult while coronavirus fears remain
Benjamin Franklin is often
quoted as saying, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a
little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety,” and this
sentiment is particularly pertinent to these times of state lockdowns and
social distancing as our nation seeks to stop our medical systems from being
overrun by the Chinese virus. And while short-term prudence is wise and even
necessary, the battle to reopen the country is going to be difficult, as those
who are using fear to shut down our economy are not going to allow capitalism
to be restored easily. President Trump’s simple mention of April 12, Easter
Sunday, as a date that he is aiming at for life to return to normal for most of
the United States was met by collective howls from those who apparently want to
be certain that there is no risk from the Chinese virus or apparently any other
disease before we can resume life. It is immoral to deny Americans life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Videos: Small businesses across America urge government to reopen economy ASAP
30 millions small businesses
nationwide employ 60 million Americans, and many of them may not reopen after
the coronavirus passes. Now some are asking the government to reopen the
economy as soon as possible as Americans for Limited Government has uploaded 62
testimonials from small business owners who think they'll only last a couple
more weeks before they go belly up.
Senate passes coronavirus relief bill, paves road to reopening economy, but when will states reopen the schools?
By a vote of 96-0, the U.S. Senate
has passed a $2.2 trillion legislative package, by far the largest in U.S.
history, to keep tens of millions of Americans on payroll and expand
unemployment benefits to those who are laid off while the country waits out the
deadly Chinese coronavirus that poses additional risk to seniors and those with
underlying conditions. President Donald Trump has offered April 12, Easter
Sunday, as a national goal to begin reopening what he says are “sections” of
the country where the outbreak is not so bad. Every state for the moment has
effectively shut down their schools, creating a daycare problem for tens of
millions of parents, many of whom are temporarily working from home or are
furloughed. To get the economy reopened, President Trump and his administration
will have to work with governors in all 50 states, who have 50 different plans
about how long everything should remain closed. So long as schools remain
closed, the country and the economy will largely remain on standby and the
longer the recession we are in will last.
3.2 million jobless claims gives 3.2 million reasons to get back to work as soon as possible
Americans for Limited
Government President Rick Manning: “The devastation of the Chinese virus has
washed across the nation. No, it isn’t in millions ill and hundreds of
thousands dying, no, it is the despair of unemployment as the weekly
unemployment claims skyrocketed from 270,000 last week to 3.2 million this
week. After the free enterprise system created a record economy with more
people employed in history and fewer unemployed than at any time since the turn
of the century, the response to the Chinese virus shutdown has crashed it. But
jobs are more than a place to go, they are the embodiment of how we achieve our
dreams, either through what we create or build or through what we do with the
money we earn. The threat of the Chinese virus to cause as many as a million
and a half deaths drove the shutdown decisions, but today we were given 3.2
million reasons to get America back to work as soon as possible. President
Trump is right to push ahead in his efforts to defeat both the virus and the
economic devastation it is leaving in its wake.”
Madeline Osburn: Inaccurate virus models are panicking officials into ill-advised lockdowns
“As U.S. state and local
officials halt the economy and quarantine their communities over the Wuhan
virus crisis, one would hope our leaders were making such major decisions based
on well-sourced data and statistical analysis. That is not the case. A scan of
statements made by media, state governors, local leaders, county judges, and
more show many relying on the same source, an online mapping tool called COVID
Act Now. The website says it is “built to enable political leaders to quickly
make decisions in their Coronavirus response informed by best available data
and modeling. An interactive map provides users a catastrophic forecast for
each state, should they wait to implement COVID Act Now’s suggested strict
measures to “flatten the curve.” But a closer look at how many of COVID Act
Now’s predictions have already fallen short, and how they became a ubiquitous
resource across the country overnight, suggests something more sinister.”
The battle to reopen America will be difficult while coronavirus fears remain
By Rick Manning
Benjamin Franklin is often quoted as saying, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety,” and this sentiment is particularly pertinent to these times of state lockdowns and social distancing as our nation seeks to stop our medical systems from being overrun by the Chinese virus.
And while short-term prudence is wise and even necessary, the battle to reopen the country is going to be difficult, as those who are using fear to shut down our economy are not going to allow capitalism to be restored easily.
President Trump’s simple mention of April 12, Easter Sunday, as a date that he is aiming at for life to return to normal for most of the United States was met by collective howls from those who apparently want to be certain that there is no risk from the Chinese virus or apparently any other disease before we can resume life.
Let me be clear. It is immoral to deny Americans life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. At some point, in the near future, the mass production of masks by companies like 3M and Haines will ensure that they are not only plentiful in the hospitals but on store shelves, and the human trials on the dosage and efficacy of the Chloroquine and other already approved drugs on the virus will yield effective treatments and production will roll forward here in America. Ford and General Motors will have ramped up the production of sufficient numbers of ventilators that every hospital will have what they need, and as hot spots crop up, those increased needs will be met.
This is not a dream, but the reality of what is occurring right now due to the aggressive mobilization of our private sector to defeat the virus. And this reality is taking hold very rapidly.
The $2.2 trillion Senate and soon to be House passed bill is designed as a safety net for both the American people and the businesses shuttered and damaged by the health emergency and the need for social distancing.
The ideal scenario is for most of that money to not be needed because we have returned to work. As much of the enormous spending spree is for items like food stamps, unemployment and low-interest, forgivable loans to keep small business afloat, the sooner we can get much of our economy back to work, the fewer of those dollars will need to be spent.
Unfortunately, Senate Republicans and the Trump administration’s lead negotiator, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin made one critical mistake in the legislation and then refused to amend it last night. That mistake was to make unemployment more profitable than actual work for employees who make less than $12 an hour. The abiding principle of our unemployment and welfare systems is that it should never be profitable to not work, but in one fell swoop, the Senate bill eviscerates that guiding idea.
In spite of allowing the left to incentivize government dependency, in states where governors move ahead to turn the economic spigot back on, the demand for labor will be strong as the pent up energy and quite honestly, much of the additional wealth accumulated by a vast majority of employees who remained on payrolls while working from home or maintaining their work schedule will be spent as small business reopens, providing a consumer driven stimulus to nearly starving businesses.
But what about those businesses? Americans for Limited Government has around 62 video testimonies from small business leaders begging for the economy to be reopened. Many flatly state that they cannot meet payrolls in two weeks, and that they will go under if the economy is not immediately reopened.
Losing these homebuilders, car detailers, community health clinics and tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of small businesses throughout our nation will create a massive hole in our economy, ensuring that double digit unemployment returns for the foreseeable future. It also sets the precedent that the federal and state governments can destroy our free market system when a crisis warrants it and few will object.
Don’t think the Green New Deal socialists aren’t watching this health emergency trial run and licking their chops. After all, they believe that the entire fate of the world depends upon shutting down industrialized America, and the example being set today will be used as their precedent for the future, as they seek to institutionalize the primacy of government over the means of production.
America needs to get back to work. The President has set Easter as a target date, and let’s hope that our nation’s small businesses can survive until then so we don’t have a Chinese virus hole in our nation’s economy for the decade to come.
Rick Manning is the President of Americans for Limited Government.
Videos: Small businesses across America urge government to reopen economy ASAP
To view online: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQVJtrhTmA8EHF60FH8JchlN9p4jtMin_
Senate passes coronavirus relief bill, paves road to reopening economy, but when will states reopen the schools?
By Robert Romano
By a vote of 96-0, the U.S. Senate has passed a $2.2 trillion legislative package, by far the largest in U.S. history, to keep tens of millions of Americans on payroll and expand unemployment benefits to those who are laid off while the country waits out the deadly Chinese coronavirus that poses additional risk to seniors and those with underlying conditions.
That way, when the virus passes, those businesses, particularly the 30 million small businesses that are struggling most of all right now, but also critical industries, will be able to rapidly reopen and we can get back to our lives.
President Donald Trump has offered April 12, Easter Sunday, as a national goal to begin reopening what he says are “sections” of the country where the outbreak is not so bad. Every state for the moment has effectively shut down their schools, creating a daycare problem for tens of millions of parents, many of whom are temporarily working from home or are furloughed.
To get the economy reopened, President Trump and his administration will have to work with governors in all 50 states, who have 50 different plans about how long everything should remain closed:
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So, when it comes to reopening the economy, the first thing to do would be to reopen the schools in some capacity. Parents are likely to take that as a cue from local authorities that it is safe to return to work.
As it is, many states are mulling over cancelling the remainder of the school year, which Kansas, Oklahoma and Virginia have already done. The more that do, likely the longer the recession we are in will last, because it will be that much longer that people stay home. That is because, again, if schools are closed due to public health concerns, individual families in localities are going to listen to their local authorities.
Adding a layer of complexity, many localities are extending closures even beyond what the states are ordering. For example, Chicago public schools will be closed until mid-April, while the guidance currently says March 30 for Illinois. New York City schools are closed until April 20, although the state guidance is for April 1.
That’s federalism.
Two decisions likely to weigh in favor of skipping the rest of the school year are President Trump’s decision to waive standardized testing requirements for states. It opens the door for states to take the additional steps of cancelling the tests, as many have already done, and potentially to cancel school until September.
And the Senate bill financially incentivizes states and businesses to remain in stasis until the virus passes.
That said, not even New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo has cancelled school for the rest of the year, at least not yet, saying that there is a “smarter” way to respond to the coronavirus without shutting down the entire state’s economy. New York far and away has the most coronavirus cases at the moment, but so far not so many that the hospitals are yet overwhelmed. He promised his state could be considered a template for other states to follow in terms of how to mitigate risk without shutting everything down.
At the end of the day, all the federal government can do is issue recommendations to the states to follow, and to ease travel restrictions when the President believes it is safe to do so. President Trump and his task force are setting the tone that many states will follow.
Real consideration should be given by the President and states to the potential lifelong consequences of cancelling education for the remainder of the school year for students, as well as the economic impacts of those closures. These must be weighed against the virus’ trajectory, the rate of infection, hospitalization and fatality.
When we get to day 15 of the President’s coronavirus guidelines, the task force has promised a better read on where the virus is and where it’s going to be.
It will be up to the President to coordinate with state governors responsible for the closures, and to come up with reasonable recommendations to help our schools and economy to be reopened as soon as possible.
Recommendations for each state for reopening should be criteria-based and geared towards how to reopen while keeping the elderly and those with preexisting conditions safe.
Perhaps if we get to the mid-April or the beginning of May and there are no new cases, maybe we can call that summer vacation and reopen the schools to finish their school years, with perhaps a two-week interlude between grades in September.
As it is, every state has closed their schools, and so long as that is the case, the country and the economy will largely remain on standby and the longer the recession we are in will last. Stay tuned.
Robert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government.
3.2 million jobless claims gives 3.2 million reasons to get back to work as soon as possible
March 26, 2020, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in response to the latest jobless claims numbers:
“The devastation of the Chinese virus has washed across the nation. No, it isn’t in millions ill and hundreds of thousands dying, no, it is the despair of unemployment as the weekly unemployment claims skyrocketed from 270,000 last week to 3.2 million this week. After the free enterprise system created a record economy with more people employed in history and fewer unemployed than at any time since the turn of the century, the response to the Chinese virus shutdown has crashed it. But jobs are more than a place to go, they are the embodiment of how we achieve our dreams, either through what we create or build or through what we do with the money we earn.
“The threat of the Chinese virus to cause as many as a million and a half deaths drove the shutdown decisions, but today we were given 3.2 million reasons to get America back to work as soon as possible. President Trump is right to push ahead in his efforts to defeat both the virus and the economic devastation it is leaving in its wake.”
To view online: https://getliberty.org/2020/03/3-2-million-jobless-claims-gives-3-2-million-reason-to-get-back-to-work-as-soon-as-possible/
ALG Editor’s Note: In the following column from Thefederalist.com’s Madeline Osburn, virus models about the infection, hospitalization and fatality rates of the Chinese coronavirus keep getting downgraded:
Inaccurate virus models are panicking officials into ill-advised lockdowns
By Madeline Osburn
As U.S. state and local officials halt the economy and quarantine their communities over the Wuhan virus crisis, one would hope our leaders were making such major decisions based on well-sourced data and statistical analysis. That is not the case.
A scan of statements made by media, state governors, local leaders, county judges, and more show many relying on the same source, an online mapping tool called COVID Act Now. The website says it is “built to enable political leaders to quickly make decisions in their Coronavirus response informed by best available data and modeling.”
An interactive map provides users a catastrophic forecast for each state, should they wait to implement COVID Act Now’s suggested strict measures to “flatten the curve.” But a closer look at how many of COVID Act Now’s predictions have already fallen short, and how they became a ubiquitous resource across the country overnight, suggests something more sinister.
The daunting phrase, the “point of no return,” is the same talking point being repeated by government officials justifying their shelter-in-place orders and filling local news headlines.
Democrats are not going to waste such a rich political opportunity as a global pandemic. Americans already witnessed Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats attempt to take advantage of an economic recession with a pipe-dream relief bill this week. Projects like COVID Act Now are another attempt to play the same political games, but with help from unknown, behind-the-scenes Democratic activists instead.
Our community leaders, the mayors and the city councils, deserve better than to be swindled by a handful Silicon Valley tech bros. Our governors and state officials deserve better data and analysis than a Democratic activists’ model that doesn’t adjust for important geographical factors like population density or temperature. Americans and their families deserve better than to be jobless, hopeless, and quarantined because of a single website’s inaccurate and hyperbolic hospitalization models.
To view online: https://thefederalist.com/2020/03/25/inaccurate-virus-models-are-panicking-officials-into-ill-advised-lockdowns/
