WEBVTT - Episode 24: Exposing Biden's COVID 'Experts with Phil Kerpen 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:01.840 For the past year, we've been told by the pundits 0:00:01.880 --> 0:00:04.359 and the politicians that we need to follow the science 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.480 when dealing with COVID. I agree with that statement, But 0:00:07.560 --> 0:00:09.879 what happens when the same elites, the ones and positions 0:00:09.880 --> 0:00:12.799 of power do precisely the opposite. You know, I'm talking 0:00:12.800 --> 0:00:15.440 about Gavin news From and Glew Como. Today I exposed 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:18.680 the hypocrisy and the hollowness of the so called experts 0:00:18.680 --> 0:00:22.279 separating COVID facts from fiction. This is out allowed. With 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:29.200 you want the COVID, we'll come back to allow with 0:00:29.240 --> 0:00:32.519 Giano calls well, I'm really excited for today's show. My 0:00:32.640 --> 0:00:35.440 guess is Phil Kirpen, the president of the Committee to 0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:40.120 Unleashed Prosperity, which promotes limited government, free market economics, and 0:00:40.159 --> 0:00:42.840 the commitment to the principles of the Declaration of Independence 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:47.199 in the Constitution. Phil is also a syndicated columnist, policy analyst, 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:50.239 and the chairman of the Internet Freedom Coalition. Phil has 0:00:50.280 --> 0:00:53.760 written extensively on COVID nineteen and that's what he and 0:00:53.800 --> 0:00:57.640 I are going to discuss today, COVID facts and COVID nonsense. 0:00:58.000 --> 0:01:02.400 Let's go phiil Urp and welcome to outline with Giano Caldo. 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:04.920 Where pleased to have you today. We know that you're 0:01:04.920 --> 0:01:07.880 an expert in the COVID space and you've been following 0:01:07.920 --> 0:01:11.880 this very closely. How are you doing, I'm doing all right. 0:01:11.959 --> 0:01:15.839 How are you? I'm doing well currently uh in Panama 0:01:16.440 --> 0:01:19.160 doing some research, but glad to be on with you. 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:20.840 So I want to I want to really begin by 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:24.440 digging into how much the government's response to COVID, especially 0:01:24.480 --> 0:01:28.480 in blue states, has been uh politicized. So many pundits 0:01:28.520 --> 0:01:30.800 politicians keep telling us to follow the science when it 0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:34.280 comes to COVID and listen to the so called experts. 0:01:34.640 --> 0:01:37.360 But sometimes I wonder if some of these people know 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:41.760 any more than the average person. And as an example 0:01:41.840 --> 0:01:44.600 of that, I want to place some tape from one 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:48.280 of Joe Biden's key experts, and one of his advisor's 0:01:48.360 --> 0:01:51.640 name is Andy Slavitt, and he's a senior advisor on 0:01:51.720 --> 0:01:55.560 COVID response. He was on MSNBC with hosts Stephanie Rule, 0:01:56.080 --> 0:01:59.720 and this is what she had to say. States like 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:04.720 Florida and California. California basically in lockdown and their numbers 0:02:04.760 --> 0:02:07.440 aren't that different from Florida. Look, there's so much of 0:02:07.440 --> 0:02:11.280 this virus that we think we understand that we think 0:02:11.280 --> 0:02:13.760 we can predict that just beyond a little bit beyond 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:16.240 our explanation. What we do know is that the more 0:02:16.280 --> 0:02:18.960 careful people are, the more they mask and social distance, 0:02:19.200 --> 0:02:21.880 and the quicker we vaccinate, the quicker it goes away 0:02:21.880 --> 0:02:24.240 and the less it spreads. But we have got to 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:26.760 get better visibility into variants. We don't know what role 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:31.080 they play, UM, large events, etcetera. But you know, this 0:02:31.200 --> 0:02:32.880 is as we all have learned by this time, this 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:35.639 is a virus that continues to surprise us. Um it's 0:02:35.720 --> 0:02:38.960 very hard to predict and you know all around the country. 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:40.760 We've got to continue to do a better job. And 0:02:40.800 --> 0:02:42.880 I think I think we are, but we're not done yet. 0:02:44.160 --> 0:02:47.720 That was interesting, in bizarre all at the same time. 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:50.480 Why because this is supposed to be an expert, someone 0:02:50.560 --> 0:02:55.280 who is advising the President of the United States too. 0:02:55.720 --> 0:02:59.960 By way of the last election, criticized the Trump administration 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:01.960 and said that they didn't know what they were gonna do. 0:03:02.200 --> 0:03:04.160 They didn't know what they were doing. Rather, and they 0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:08.240 were going to if Biden one uh, provide a strategy 0:03:08.280 --> 0:03:10.480 and a plan that would change the trajectory of the 0:03:10.560 --> 0:03:15.160 virus immediately, and he basically said he doesn't know what's 0:03:15.160 --> 0:03:18.320 going on in the host. I'll add was wrong on 0:03:18.360 --> 0:03:22.079 the number. She said that Florida in California were partly 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:25.520 the same, and recent numbers show that in Florida there's 0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:29.720 one point eight four million cases. In California that's three 0:03:29.760 --> 0:03:33.799 point five one million cases, So it's not the same 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:36.000 by any measure. What do you have to say to 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:39.520 something like that, Well, I think that you know, he 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:41.800 couldn't answer that question because there is no answer that's 0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:45.760 consistent with the things that the you know, lockdown artists 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:49.680 and the Biden administration, the Democrats in general have been saying, uh, 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:52.400 you know, it's a big problem for them that a 0:03:52.520 --> 0:03:55.480 state California that's been in some form of lockdown pretty 0:03:55.560 --> 0:04:00.200 much continuously for nine months has worse COVID measures than 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:03.360 the state of Florida, where all restrictions ended I think 0:04:03.440 --> 0:04:07.720 five months ago now. And you know, you can't, uh, 0:04:07.800 --> 0:04:10.600 you know, you can't explain that away the way he 0:04:10.640 --> 0:04:12.680 did by saying, oh, there's still a lot we don't understand, 0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:16.320 but what we do know are these various restrictions work. 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:18.000 And they say, well, no, no, the whole point of 0:04:18.000 --> 0:04:20.880 the question is we don't know they work, because the 0:04:20.920 --> 0:04:23.680 place that isn't doing any of those things is doing 0:04:23.720 --> 0:04:26.119 better than the place that's doing all of them, uh, 0:04:26.200 --> 0:04:28.600 you know, the most strenuously of any of the states. 0:04:29.080 --> 0:04:32.640 And I think the real lesson, contrary to what you 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:34.840 know the so called experts continue to want to tell us, 0:04:35.040 --> 0:04:38.040 is uh that the masks and the distance saying, and 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:41.880 the closes, school closures and the business closures actually have 0:04:42.880 --> 0:04:46.240 about no effect. You still get the virus. You just 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:51.200 get all of the educational and economic and social harms 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:55.000 of those interventions on top of still having the harms 0:04:55.040 --> 0:04:58.280 of the virus. And you know, early on it looked like, 0:04:58.560 --> 0:05:00.680 you know, they must be doing everything right. In California, 0:05:00.720 --> 0:05:02.760 they've got lower numbers. But I think it was just 0:05:02.839 --> 0:05:05.239 sort of luck that they hadn't had their turn yet. 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:07.400 And of course, you know, when they had their turn, 0:05:07.480 --> 0:05:10.520 they had a very very bad wave. And you know, 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:14.599 the lesson I think is you can't stop a highly 0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:18.920 infectious respiratory virus through uh, you know, government dictates and policies. 0:05:18.960 --> 0:05:22.240 You might be able to by developing vaccines and treatments, 0:05:22.240 --> 0:05:24.480 and we did, but that very quickly, but you're not 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:27.440 gonna do it through lockdown orders. That just doesn't work. 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:29.280 But they're never going to admit that, because if they 0:05:29.320 --> 0:05:32.040 admit that, what did they put everyone through all of 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:34.520 this pain and suffering for on top of you know, 0:05:34.560 --> 0:05:37.080 the virus harms that happened. Anyway, well, I can tell 0:05:37.120 --> 0:05:40.279 you the lockdowns work for a particular purpose, and that 0:05:40.800 --> 0:05:44.320 higher suicide rates and poverty, that's what we get with lockdowns. 0:05:44.320 --> 0:05:48.479 And interestingly enough, I lived in Los Angeles from seventeen 0:05:48.680 --> 0:05:52.240 up into May last year, when I decided to move 0:05:52.279 --> 0:05:56.240 two months into the lockdown to Miami, Florida. So we 0:05:56.360 --> 0:05:59.599 see what these lockdowns are doing. They're making poor people 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:01.960 we even more poorn is depressing the hell out of 0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:03.919 a whole lot of people. And it's interesting that you 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:07.400 pointed out something about Slavitte. You recently pointed out on 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:10.000 Twitter that he's a partisan with an NBA who actually 0:06:10.000 --> 0:06:12.960 worked as an investment banker. He only entered the world 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:15.080 of healthcare on the business side and has no real 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:18.440 medical expertise, and yet Biden and the media have declared 0:06:18.520 --> 0:06:23.599 him uh COVID expert. I just don't understand why Joe 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:26.520 Biden would have been ported appointed him as his point man. 0:06:26.560 --> 0:06:30.039 Do you have any idea why you would have? Well, 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:33.320 he uh, he was an executive vice president at United 0:06:33.360 --> 0:06:37.440 Health grew and um. He went into the Obama administration, 0:06:37.520 --> 0:06:40.520 he was an acting administrator for Medicare and Medicaid. He 0:06:40.520 --> 0:06:44.840 he was never the full administrator because uh, he had 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:47.040 to get an ethics waiver so that he could oversee 0:06:47.040 --> 0:06:49.000 his previous employer, and he sent them a bunch of 0:06:49.040 --> 0:06:52.839 bailout money. And the Senate, uh, you know, they didn't 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:55.960 confirm him, which was good, but they also didn't bother 0:06:56.040 --> 0:06:57.679 to have the vote to vote against him and actually 0:06:57.760 --> 0:06:59.400 knock him out of that office, which is what I 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:01.479 was trying to get them to do at the time. 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:04.279 But he is a his background is as a health 0:07:04.360 --> 0:07:09.200 insurance executive and then as an Obama administration bureaucrat. And 0:07:09.320 --> 0:07:11.480 you know, he certainly has no medical expertise to the 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:13.920 other thing that's kind of amazing about him is um 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:16.800 uh you know, up until when he went into the 0:07:16.800 --> 0:07:22.320 Biden administration, he was constantly hawking the sponsor of his podcast, 0:07:22.360 --> 0:07:27.600 which was a mask that claimed it could zap the 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:32.080 virus and disintegrate the virus, which is sort of quackery. 0:07:32.160 --> 0:07:35.760 I mean, it's a it's a fantastical claim. Uh, you know, 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:37.840 just sort of taking advantage of people are scared of 0:07:37.840 --> 0:07:40.800 the virus to sell them a product. Uh. And and 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:43.800 that wasn't a problem for the Biden administration either. Essentially, 0:07:43.880 --> 0:07:46.520 I think he's where he is in the Piden administration 0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:49.160 because he had a big Twitter following, and you know, 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:51.760 there's okay, let's get this guy. He's a he's you know, 0:07:51.840 --> 0:07:54.080 he's respected on the left on this stuff. But it's 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:56.800 a it's a very odd choice. It's not clear what 0:07:56.880 --> 0:08:02.240 he brings the table really. Uh. But I'm not sure 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:04.280 what he's actually doing other than doing these interviews in 0:08:04.320 --> 0:08:06.240 the daily briefing. So I don't know that that that 0:08:06.400 --> 0:08:08.160 his I don't know that he I don't know that 0:08:08.200 --> 0:08:10.280 it matters too much that he doesn't seem to you you, 0:08:10.800 --> 0:08:14.800 you know, have any particular relevant expertise. Wow, this is 0:08:15.800 --> 0:08:18.239 it's not just a guy like him. I mean, it's 0:08:18.280 --> 0:08:20.360 it's you know, you hear the same kind of stuff 0:08:20.360 --> 0:08:24.040 from people like Fauci, you know, from our new CDC director. 0:08:24.480 --> 0:08:27.040 You know, they don't you know, the fact that the 0:08:27.160 --> 0:08:31.120 data doesn't match the policies they've been prescribing. Doesn't cause 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:34.480 them to reconsider the policies they just they just gloss 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:36.760 over it and keep saying the same things anyway. Yeah, 0:08:36.800 --> 0:08:38.920 and then we talk about other experts. In one in 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:43.080 which you mentioned are on Twitter is Martin Colderoff, who 0:08:43.160 --> 0:08:47.840 was a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School who's 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:53.120 advocated against lockdowns. He wanted to balance approach um and 0:08:53.280 --> 0:08:56.319 if if I'm quoting you noted that he has advocated 0:08:56.320 --> 0:08:59.320 a balanced approach of COVID to allowing those minimal risk 0:08:59.400 --> 0:09:01.880 of death to of their lives are better protecting those 0:09:02.000 --> 0:09:05.320 at higher risks. But he has been shown by some 0:09:05.440 --> 0:09:10.559 of those elites who usually love Harvard because he um 0:09:10.640 --> 0:09:13.720 is advocating for people to live their lives. Can you 0:09:13.800 --> 0:09:17.600 go more into that please. Yeah. Martin Coldorf is one 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:21.240 of the top infectious disease epidemiologists in the world, and 0:09:21.880 --> 0:09:26.720 he partnered with two other top infectious disease epidemiologists, one 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:31.640 from Stanford named j Boicharia and one from Oxford, UH 0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:34.360 named Sunetra Gupta, and they put out something called the 0:09:34.360 --> 0:09:38.120 Great Barrington Declaration where they basically said, look, the principles 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:41.840 of public health and epidemiology are that you need to 0:09:41.920 --> 0:09:44.920 look at all of public health, not just one issue 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:48.400 or one aspect or one disease, and the lockdowns cause 0:09:48.600 --> 0:09:51.640 enormous public health harms. What we need to do instead 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:55.160 is focused, to the extent we can on focus protection 0:09:55.240 --> 0:09:58.079 for the truly vulnerable people who are advanced age or 0:09:58.160 --> 0:10:01.480 medically vulnerable. Used vaccines to protect them, now that we 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:04.040 have it. Before we have the vaccines, try to you know, 0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:07.560 shelter those people. But otherwise, younger people should be able 0:10:07.600 --> 0:10:09.440 to go about there. You know, younger people who are 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:11.959 not medically vulnerable should be allowed to go about their 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:15.040 lives normally. And you know, I've talked to Dr Coldorf 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:18.480 and he basically said, you know, this is what all 0:10:18.559 --> 0:10:23.720 infectious disease epidemiologists believe when they're not kind of uh, 0:10:23.760 --> 0:10:27.079 you know, being pressured into going along with this new 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:30.960 public narrative. This has been the normal conventional wisdom in 0:10:31.000 --> 0:10:33.600 the field forever up until last year, and yet now 0:10:33.720 --> 0:10:38.080 somehow it's become sort of a minority viewpoint to be dismissed. 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:40.720 And you know, from the perspective of somebody who's you know, 0:10:40.760 --> 0:10:43.040 not a doctor, not a scientist. What's been following these 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:46.040 issues closely from sort of the economic standpoint. You know, 0:10:46.160 --> 0:10:48.440 it's remarkable because whenever we say, you know, it doesn't 0:10:48.440 --> 0:10:51.720 look like these lockdowns are working. Here's the data. People say, well, 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:55.360 you're not an epidemiologist, you're not credit, you're not qualified 0:10:55.440 --> 0:10:57.480 to make that assessment. You say, well no, but I'm 0:10:57.520 --> 0:11:00.400 listening to people like Martin Coldorf from our verd and 0:11:00.520 --> 0:11:03.360 Ja Bodicharia from Stanford and Senetric Uptor from Oxford. And 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:06.360 they say, oh, well they don't count. Now that's not science. 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:09.240 It's anti science. If you listen to people like uh, 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:13.200 those top epidemiologists who are anti lockdown, it only counts 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:15.520 as science if you listen to the ones who want lockdown, 0:11:15.559 --> 0:11:18.960 the more political epidemia. Yeah, and then that's the thing 0:11:19.200 --> 0:11:22.720 is this. People are listening to those with the education 0:11:22.720 --> 0:11:24.680 in the background, who have studied the science, or are 0:11:24.720 --> 0:11:27.400 they looking at the folks who have the more uh, 0:11:27.480 --> 0:11:31.240 democratic leaning or liberal leaning political ideologies that align with 0:11:31.280 --> 0:11:34.880 the politicians who are advocating for these lockdowns. That's what's 0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:39.160 so disturbing about this process because you have folks who 0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:43.319 clearly have demonstrated I'm talking about Governor Ron De Santis 0:11:43.440 --> 0:11:46.320 is clearly demonstrating you can send your kids to school, 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:48.400 you can open up the entire state. You can go 0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:53.240 to restaurants, clubs and bars are open open in the 0:11:53.280 --> 0:11:56.520 state of Florida. There's a lot of different venues. People 0:11:56.559 --> 0:11:59.439 are actually living their lives, and folks are running away 0:11:59.480 --> 0:12:01.959 from Cali. For you in New York because it's a 0:12:02.160 --> 0:12:06.440 three state Now, I want to pick up from there 0:12:06.440 --> 0:12:10.839 in a moment, but first let's have a quick break. 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:14.920 We saw the dever. GAVINUSA recently has come up with 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:18.640 a stimulus package, uh to kind of prop up businesses, 0:12:19.440 --> 0:12:22.560 give six checks in terms of stimulus. Why do you 0:12:22.559 --> 0:12:24.400 think he's doing that now and he's still trying to 0:12:24.480 --> 0:12:28.800 keep some of these lockdown measures in place. Well, he 0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:31.720 doesn't want to admit that. He doesn't want tomit he 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:33.640 was wrong. I mean, I think this is the fundamental 0:12:34.559 --> 0:12:37.240 problem with getting out of these lockdowns and places that 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:40.760 still have lots of restrictions. As you know, they they 0:12:40.760 --> 0:12:42.280 don't want to come out and say, hey, we did 0:12:42.320 --> 0:12:45.240 all that for nothing. You sacrificed. You were locked up 0:12:45.240 --> 0:12:47.040 in your house, your kids didn't go to school for 0:12:47.040 --> 0:12:49.240 a years. That was my bad, that was a mistake. 0:12:49.600 --> 0:12:52.080 We got the virus anyway, that didn't accomplish anything. We're 0:12:52.120 --> 0:12:55.199 going to reverse all of that. Now, you don't want 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:58.080 to do that because uh, you know, nobody likes admitting 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:00.520 they're wrong and obviously the political consequence, so that would 0:13:00.559 --> 0:13:03.960 be tough. So they want to sort of, uh figure 0:13:04.080 --> 0:13:07.000 a way out where they can claim credit, claim they 0:13:07.000 --> 0:13:08.960 were the hero, they were the reason that it wasn't 0:13:09.000 --> 0:13:13.960 much worse. And and that's why I think, uh, the 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:17.240 media and the liberals and the advocates of these policies, 0:13:17.280 --> 0:13:20.280 they the most their number one most hated person in 0:13:20.360 --> 0:13:23.360 America as Governor on De Santis and Governor Christy nom 0:13:23.400 --> 0:13:26.000 is probably number two. Because when you have states they 0:13:26.040 --> 0:13:27.920 don't go along with what everyone else is doing. And 0:13:27.960 --> 0:13:30.240 Sweden and sort of the European version of this didn't 0:13:30.240 --> 0:13:33.000 go along with this stuff. When you have places that 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:35.400 didn't do it, and it say, oh wait a second, 0:13:35.400 --> 0:13:37.760 their virus numbers aren't any worse. And Vanian Florida is 0:13:37.840 --> 0:13:39.720 very right in the middle of the pack, very average 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:41.760 on all the virus numbers. They wait there. Their virus 0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:44.640 numbers aren't any worse than anywhere else. But they didn't 0:13:44.640 --> 0:13:47.720 impose all of this additional hardship. They didn't destroy millions 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:50.360 of businesses, they didn't lock kids out of school. You know, 0:13:51.160 --> 0:13:53.240 why did we do those things here? That's a problem 0:13:53.480 --> 0:13:56.160 and that's why when when that question gets asked directly 0:13:56.720 --> 0:13:59.160 of a Biden administration official, all they can do is sputter. 0:13:59.280 --> 0:14:01.839 They can't answer it. There is no good answer. But 0:14:01.920 --> 0:14:04.840 you know, if you're if you're Gavin Newsom, you don't 0:14:04.840 --> 0:14:07.319 want to meet you were wrong, but you don't want 0:14:07.320 --> 0:14:10.280 to get recalled. Uh, so what do you do? We're 0:14:10.320 --> 0:14:12.800 just send money out. We're gonna send checks out and 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:16.400 maybe that'll that'll he thinks that will help him survive. Uh. 0:14:16.400 --> 0:14:19.520 You know, it's an interesting thing because California actually is 0:14:19.520 --> 0:14:21.640 in a big budget surplus right now, which is a 0:14:21.680 --> 0:14:23.600 little bit surprising because you might think, you know, they've 0:14:23.600 --> 0:14:26.600 been destroying so many businesses, they're probably gonna destroy their 0:14:26.600 --> 0:14:28.720 own state finances and then they'll have to you know. 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:31.840 But but actually they're in a big surplus because the 0:14:31.880 --> 0:14:34.040 stock market has been going up so much. They've got 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:37.960 tons of income tax revenue from the stock market. Uh. 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:40.200 And also, you know, real estate prices are up for 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:42.640 whatever reason, they're kind of up everywhere. And so you know, 0:14:42.680 --> 0:14:46.160 California's got like a billion dollar surplus right now, but 0:14:46.800 --> 0:14:52.240 Democrats and billion dollars anyway, in this next Biden stimulus, 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:54.920 forty one billion goes to California to bail out of 0:14:54.920 --> 0:14:56.720 budget that they don't even need a bail out there 0:14:56.760 --> 0:14:58.880 in surplus. So you know, if you've got that kind 0:14:58.880 --> 0:15:01.280 of money coming that you've is coming and you're worried 0:15:01.280 --> 0:15:03.840 about a recollection, you know you you got the money 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:06.240 that you've got the money coming from Washington, send out 0:15:06.320 --> 0:15:08.280 checks to people by their favor. I think that's what 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:10.600 he's trying to do with You know, you you talked 0:15:10.880 --> 0:15:14.600 talked quite a bit about free market policies. You spend 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:17.400 a lot of your career studying it, how to stimulate 0:15:17.440 --> 0:15:20.360 economic growth. And I'm really interested in terms of what 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:23.440 you think about the current COVID package. And let me 0:15:23.480 --> 0:15:26.640 be very clip front. I've supported the two thousand dollar 0:15:27.280 --> 0:15:31.280 stimulus for American families. It was their money, it was 0:15:31.320 --> 0:15:34.240 their tax dollars. I think it should have went to them. 0:15:34.400 --> 0:15:36.600 I think it should have really went to them. Mitch McConnell, 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:39.560 I think he dropped the ball, and um new Gingridge 0:15:39.600 --> 0:15:42.680 is also advocated for this as well. When it came 0:15:42.720 --> 0:15:46.440 to the Georgia Senate, racist Donald Trump recently saying, Hey, 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:49.360 if it wasn't for Mitch McConnell dropping the ball and 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:52.280 not sending out the two thousand dollars stimulus to people, 0:15:52.680 --> 0:15:55.640 then Georgia might have looked different. What do you think 0:15:55.640 --> 0:15:58.440 the federal government should do in terms of COVID relief packages? 0:15:58.480 --> 0:16:00.880 Should we be spending another two trillion? Is Biden the 0:16:00.960 --> 0:16:03.880 Democrats want to do? Uh? Should we be given to 0:16:03.960 --> 0:16:05.800 me this check to Americans? What is the best way 0:16:05.840 --> 0:16:10.040 to help those whose jobs and businesses were damaged, destroyed 0:16:10.480 --> 0:16:15.240 at no part of their own while being fiscally responsible? Uh? Is? 0:16:15.400 --> 0:16:17.960 What is it? What do you think we should do here? Well, 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:20.880 first of all, we've got a really weird economy right now, 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:25.240 because it's not a six percent unemployment economy nationally. It's 0:16:25.520 --> 0:16:28.880 three percent unemployment economy in places like you know, South 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:31.560 Dakota and Nebraska and Iowa that never locked down. And 0:16:31.920 --> 0:16:33.800 you know, the virus came and went, but it didn't 0:16:33.800 --> 0:16:36.800 disrupt their economy because they didn't do the lockdowns. Uh. 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:39.560 And then you've got you know, nine percent unemployment in 0:16:39.600 --> 0:16:43.720 the real lockdown and disaster areas California, New York, Nevada, Hawaii, 0:16:44.240 --> 0:16:45.840 and then you've got kind of the other states that 0:16:45.880 --> 0:16:48.440 are sort of in the middle, and Florida unfortunately is 0:16:48.480 --> 0:16:50.360 more in the round, the six percent in the middle, 0:16:50.440 --> 0:16:53.040 because their tourism has been hit so hard that even 0:16:53.040 --> 0:16:56.040 though they didn't lock down, they've also been hit hard economically. 0:16:56.680 --> 0:17:00.120 Um and so I think to me, the key thing 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:04.159 to do for the economy is to get to sort 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:06.399 of the all clear where the lockdown states are no 0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:08.800 longer locked down, where everyone sort of we can have 0:17:08.880 --> 0:17:12.400 this great relief rally. We can people can feel comfortable 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:14.520 going outside, get rid of the mass, get back into 0:17:14.520 --> 0:17:18.280 normal social circumstances, and you know, the the economic boom 0:17:18.359 --> 0:17:21.000 from that, uh. In my jugument, it's going to be 0:17:21.000 --> 0:17:26.320 pretty dramatic and h long long awaited in the places 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:28.960 that have been the most locked down, especially and from 0:17:29.000 --> 0:17:32.080 a federal policy standpoint, the number one thing they can 0:17:32.080 --> 0:17:33.639 do to that you can do to make that happen 0:17:34.320 --> 0:17:36.960 is to get the vaccines out, because you know, the 0:17:37.240 --> 0:17:39.640 for the people who've been waiting for the vaccine, which 0:17:39.720 --> 0:17:41.119 is a lot of people who've been hold up in 0:17:41.119 --> 0:17:43.919 their houses. It's also a lot of politicians are going 0:17:43.960 --> 0:17:46.000 to keep restrictions on until there's a high level of 0:17:46.080 --> 0:17:48.640 vaccination for good or for ill. I mean, I think 0:17:48.960 --> 0:17:51.040 we shouldn't need vaccines to end all of this, but 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:53.520 for good or for ill, you know, that's I think 0:17:53.760 --> 0:17:56.000 what's gonna be the ultimate harbinger for the end of 0:17:56.040 --> 0:17:57.840 all of this. And so, if if I were in 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:01.760 charge of federal policy, my priorities one, two, and three 0:18:01.800 --> 0:18:06.680 would all be getting vaccines authorized and manufactured and out 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:09.760 as quickly as possible. I think it's ridiculous that the 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:12.840 FDA waits like three or four weeks from when one 0:18:12.880 --> 0:18:14.879 of these things is filed before they even meet and 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:16.840 decide on it. And that's what they're doing right now. 0:18:16.840 --> 0:18:20.280 On the Johnson and Johnson Uh, it was submitted weeks ago. 0:18:20.280 --> 0:18:22.359 They're finally going to meet next week, and we'll hope 0:18:22.359 --> 0:18:26.560 that that passes muster and that supply starts getting out. 0:18:26.600 --> 0:18:30.480 They've been sitting on astra Zeneca for months. Other countries 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:33.040 are using it. We basically told astra Zenica don't apply 0:18:33.119 --> 0:18:36.120 in the US. We don't want you to use your 0:18:36.240 --> 0:18:38.880 UK and Brazil trial data. We need to wait until 0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:40.879 you have a U S trial. I think that's ridiculous. 0:18:41.200 --> 0:18:43.399 If I were the Biden administration, I would direct the 0:18:43.440 --> 0:18:46.960 FDA to invite an EU A and author and an 0:18:47.000 --> 0:18:51.000 emergency use authorization from aster Zeneca based on their existing 0:18:51.040 --> 0:18:54.480 trial data. And if we got Johnson Johnson and Astra 0:18:54.560 --> 0:18:59.479 Zeneca authorized, there would basically not be vaccine scarcity we 0:18:59.480 --> 0:19:02.440 would have. We'd be basically, you know, within a month, 0:19:02.480 --> 0:19:04.439 we'd be at anyone who wants it can get it. 0:19:04.880 --> 0:19:09.000 And I think the the whole, uh, the main sort 0:19:09.040 --> 0:19:11.320 of line of advocacy that we should all be saying 0:19:11.560 --> 0:19:13.840 and and try to get liberals to agree on, is 0:19:14.359 --> 0:19:17.399 you know, you can't have any more restrictions once anybody 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:19.200 who wants the vaccine can get it, and you know, 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:21.200 it's a choice. If somebody doesn't want it, they don't 0:19:21.200 --> 0:19:23.879 have to get it. But you know, once everybody who 0:19:23.960 --> 0:19:26.520 wants it can get it, you know, really it's each 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:29.280 individual's decided for themselves. You don't need any more society 0:19:29.320 --> 0:19:32.520 wide restrictions. You really can't justify them. And I think 0:19:32.560 --> 0:19:34.440 you know that that should be the key, more so 0:19:34.520 --> 0:19:37.680 than trying to do more federal spending, are doing a 0:19:37.720 --> 0:19:40.560 new round of checks or especially the spending in this bill, 0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:44.040 I mean bailing out staying local governments with you know, 0:19:44.119 --> 0:19:46.840 the three fifty billion dollars when most of them already 0:19:46.840 --> 0:19:49.760 in surplus. That's just raiding the treasury because they can 0:19:50.359 --> 0:19:54.240 essentially uh. The K twelve education spending in the Biden 0:19:54.320 --> 0:19:58.720 stimulus is completely ridiculous when you consider that the fifty 0:19:58.760 --> 0:20:00.919 four billion dollars for K twelve that was in the 0:20:00.960 --> 0:20:03.600 bill the past in December hasn't been spent yet. Not 0:20:03.720 --> 0:20:05.600 one penny of it has been spent yet. So we 0:20:05.680 --> 0:20:08.120 got fifty four billion that hasn't gone out yet. They're 0:20:08.119 --> 0:20:11.240 asking for another hundred billion for K twelve. The Congressional 0:20:11.240 --> 0:20:14.080 Budget Office says the most that they could see of 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:17.199 the new hundred eight billion being spent this year is 0:20:17.280 --> 0:20:19.480 six billion. So the rest of it is all being 0:20:19.520 --> 0:20:22.200 spent in future years. Most of it is spent over 0:20:22.200 --> 0:20:24.520 the next eight years. It's you know, the idea that 0:20:24.560 --> 0:20:27.160 the schools are not going to open unless that gets approved. 0:20:27.400 --> 0:20:29.959 When none of the money gets spent for years anyway, 0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:32.159 I think just shows you that they're now you know, 0:20:32.200 --> 0:20:34.560 they know schools can be open and should be open, 0:20:34.560 --> 0:20:36.560 but now it's just a matter of let's keep them 0:20:36.600 --> 0:20:39.000 closed as leverage to raid the U. S. Treasury. And 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:40.960 I don't think we should reward that by giving them 0:20:40.960 --> 0:20:43.680