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| Unleash Prosperity Hotline Issue #14 1) Hero Of The Day – Attorney General Bill Barr Hugh Hewitt mined some radio gold yesterday from AG Barr: “These are unprecedented burdens on civil liberties right now. You know, the idea that you have to stay in your house is disturbingly close to house arrest,” Barr said. “I’m not saying it wasn’t justified. I’m not saying in some places it might still be justified. But it’s very onerous, as is shutting down your livelihood… and we are now seeing that these are bending the curve, and now we have to come up with more targeted approaches.” Barr declared that lockdown orders that are too strict could be analogized to a doctor who “keep[s] feeding the patient chemotherapy” to fight his cancer. The cancer might be killed, but so would the patient. He said his department was “looking carefully at a number of these rules that are being put into place. And if we think one goes too far, we initially try to jawbone the governors into rolling them back or adjusting them. And if they’re not and people bring lawsuits, we file statement of interest and side with the plaintiffs.” https://www.hughhewitt.com/attorney-general-william-barr-on-the-crisis/ 2) Liberal media wonder if unemployment paying more than work might be a problem They finally figured out businesses might have trouble hiring workers who can make more on unemployment. Politico has these quotes: “Heck, if they’re making more money sitting at home … I’m fearful that some may not want to come back,” said Adam Rammel, the co-owner of Brewfontaine, a bar and restaurant in Bellefontaine, Ohio. “If the intention was to get people back to work, they’re not doing it,” said Tom Colicchio, the “Top Chef” judge, who has been an advocate for small restaurants during the pandemic. “They’re not going to come back to work because unemployment is too attractive.” https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/20/restaurant-bailout-unemployment-coronavirus-197326 NPR reports on a Kentucky business that still had customers but closed permanently because it can’t find any workers. “We basically have this situation where it would be a logical choice for a lot of people to be unemployed,” said Sky Marietta, who opened a coffee shop along with her husband, Geoff, last year in Harlan, Ky. https://www.npr.org/2020/04/21/838879361/bitter-taste-for-coffee-shop-owner-as-new-600-jobless-benefit-closed-her-busines We wrote about it when the bill passed: https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/490476-the-2-trillion-relief-package-makes-unemployment-pay-more-than-work And remember: * Politicians did this on purpose. Senator Ron Wyden: “Our proposal was not a drafting error.” * All Senate Dems except Joe Manchin voted against fixing it. * Pelosi already demanded it be extended two more months from July 31 to September 30. We can’t let that happen. Pennsylvania’s Governor Wolf confirms it’s a backdoor minimum wage hike: “If we have employees that are currently laid off and we call them back to work and they tell us that they don’t or won’t come back because they’re getting paid more with unemployment and the $600 bonus, what can we do?” asked a business owner. “Can their unemployment be revoked?” “No,” said Governor Wolf. “And as a former business owner, if you ever face that kind of situation, there’s one really simple thing you can do as a business owner and that is raise the compensation of your employees.” https://www.abc27.com/news/local/pa-officials-clear-confusion-over-unemployment-pay-refusing-to-return-to-work/ 3) Corona Phase 3.5, because $472 billion is too small to be called Phase 4 Yesterday Congress voice voted a deal that took over a week because Democrats wanted to create as much pain as they could to extract their own wish list items before moving forward with refunding PPP. Frankly, they didn’t get much — with their top ask, a bailout for state governments, falling by the wayside. The bill adds $310 billion in PPP funds, $50 billion in SBA disaster loans, $10 billion in SBA disaster grants, and $100 billion more HHS spending for hospitals and testing, even though almost none of the last round has been tapped yet. Mnuchin says Treasury will tighten to prevent larger companies that don’t need the cash from grabbing it all. But it is still fundamentally the case that if a big pile of free money is on the table, the most sophisticated companies with the best lawyers are going to get a lot of it — whether they need it or not. 4) Italy: “The country’s engines must restart.” Italy, the epicenter of COVID-19 in Europe, was first placed under a national quarantine back on March 9. But its beleaguered citizens could take heart in Monday’s news that Italy actually reported for the first time fewer active cases than the previous day. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-52363044 They were also cheered by the news that the country will be joining neighboring France and Austria in dramatically opening up on May 4. “Now, we must loosen restrictions,” Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte told the Italian Senate. “We must do everything possible to preserve the industrial sector. The country’s engines must restart.” https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-21/italy-vows-to-reopen-as-europe-takes-steps-to-ease-virus-curbs Conte said citizens will still have to practice social distancing protocols and wear masks in public, but that he was hoping all stores could reopen by mid-May. Conte was encouraged by Austria’s experience. That country began to partially reopen stores on April 14 and has no surge of serious cases. 5) The media hates when *Republican* governors reopen Governors are starting to roll out schedules for reopening their economies and releasing their residents from confinement. Strict stay-at-home orders are being lifted in several states late this week and next. The Hill newspaper has prepared an informative guide to the status of every state’s restrictions. https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/493717-heres-when-all-50-states-plan-to-reopen-after-coronavirus-restrictions We can’t help but note how much of the media has a partisan double standard. Georgia’s GOP Governor Brian Kemp has been roasted on CNN and other networks for announcing he will allow some businesses to reopen this Friday. By contrast, Colorado’s stay-at-home order ends on April 26. Democratic Governor Jared Polis has announced he will not extend it (kudos to him!) and instead people will be recommended but not required to stay home. He hopes to open stores, offices, bars and restaurants by mid-May at the latest. He has also ended regulations that prevented health care professionals licensed in other states from working in Colorado. We hope for great success in Colorado! 6) Celebrating the suffering of America’s Energy Sector? Environmentalist lobbies have become very adept at using the coronavirus as political cover to pursue their draconian climate change agenda. Last week, Joe Biden told CNN that the response to the virus could be leveraged to “fundamentally change the science relating to global warming.” Some environmental activists can’t restrain their glee at the opportunity they see. AOC, author of Green New Deal actually celebrated the crippling of America’s energy sector, cough included.  https://nypost.com/2020/04/21/aoc-deletes-tweet-celebrating-oil-crash-low-interest-rates/ 7) Anti-Hero Of The Day: Governor Gretchen Whitmer Whitmer, the Michigan governor who has banned residents from buying garden seeds or paint, continues to careen between incompetence and partisanship. During a news briefing on Monday, the governor complained about protests against her policies, likening them to opposing the American war effort in World War II. https://youtu.be/1QtZdbCMQiQ Apparently, no one on her staff had explained to Whitmer that while during World War II people did make sacrifices, they were paid to work while they were making them. Today, over a quarter of Michigan’s workers have filed for unemployment insurance and the rest are barred from leaving their homes except for essential travel. Whitmer has suggesting extending that lockdown until an extensive surveillance and tracing system can be built and awarded the contract to do it to… a group using her campaign’s outside data vendor, Every Action Van, which has no experience in public health. Adam Laxalt’s Americans for Public Trust was quick with FOIAs and started pressing for answers… and Whitmer’s office announced that the contract was canceled. I guess hiring DNC data guys to do public health tracking is the kind of thing you can only do if nobody notices. 8) Quote of the Day: Jay Lehr Today’s quote comes from a loyal reader, eminent scientist Jay Lehr of the Heartland Institute. Jay wrote: “Your new newsletter is the best thing to happen on the internet since it was invented.” We agree. Please forward to your friends and note the subscription link below! 9) Our new favorite children’s story  |
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