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| Unleash Prosperity Hotline Issue #25 By Stephen Moore 1) Time to Cut the Payroll Tax. Now.The U.S. needs to put more than 20 million people back to work and such a cut would encourage employers to hire. Workers who have a job would get a pay raise, with lower-wage workers benefitting the most.https://www.wsj.com/articles/suspend-the-payroll-tax-11587316945?mod=article_inlinePresident Trump supports the idea and insists he won’t sign another stimulus bill without it being included. But he is not only getting opposition from Democrats, but from some Republicans too.“I’m not a particular fan of that,” said Majority Whip John Thune, the Senate’s No. 2 Republican. “I’ve never thought that really would be effective,” Senator Susan Collins of Maine told the Washington Post.These Republicans need to get their act together. The president has called the play on the strong advice of CTUP gurus Art Laffer, Steve Forbes, and others. We already have the Pelosi program that makes unemployment pay more than work. The GOP needs to draw a sharp contrast that we as supply siders stand for boosting the rewards to work. 2) State Lockdowns Didn’t Correlate with Lower COVID deathsJust as we had said in our governors report: there is no relationship between lockdowns and death rates from coronavirus. This chart from AEI’s Ed Pinto proves the point:  Death rates are no lower in places with severe lockdowns.3) Cuomo Inadvertently Shows NYC Lockdown Failed New York surveyed its hospitalized COVID patients to try to prove that transit was not the carrier of the virus. Here is what the survey found:”This is a surprise: Overwhelmingly, the people were at home,” Cuomo said. “These people were literally at home.”You know — the place he wants everyone to stay as much as possible.CNBC reports:”Cuomo said nearly 84% of the hospitalized cases were people who were not commuting to work through car services, personal cars, public transit or walking. He said a majority of those people were either retired or unemployed.CNBC even dinged Cuomo for his now-disproven statement on April 13: “If you isolate, if you take the precautions, your family won’t get infected.” Wrong, it turns out.https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/06/ny-gov-cuomo-says-its-shocking-most-new-coronavirus-hospitalizations-are-people-staying-home.htmlAnd the New York lockdown continues…New York Coronavirus Cases:  4) Public Revolt Forces Merkel’s Hand; Germany Is Open For Business“Germany is planning an almost complete return to normality in May, with schools and shops reopening and the return of top-flight Bundesliga football matches, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday.” That report from the French Press Agency marks the successful culmination of a protest movement that has rarely been in Germany.https://www.afp.com/en/news/3954/germany-accelerates-return-normality-doc-1r04yb5Demonstrations against the national lockdown have been seen in several German cities, and a new political movement calling itself Widerstand 2020 (Resistance 2020) quickly signed up over 100,000 members.The protestors also had some big-name political sympathizers. Armin Laschel, is the premier of North Rhine Westphalia, which is home to nearly one out of four Germans. He told ARD television last week that the negative effects of the lockdown must be “weighed up.” He noted that concerns the health care system would be swamped by new cases were overblown since “40 percent of intensive care beds are empty” in his state. 5) Lockdown Racking Up Massive Third World Death TollThe rogue left site The Intercept reports that “poverty, hunger, diseases, and violence exacerbated by the pandemic may dwarf the number of those who die of the novel coronavirus itself.” An estimated “500 million people” could fall into poverty this year.https://theintercept.com/2020/05/03/exceptionally-dire-secondary-impacts-of-covid-19-could-increase-global-poverty-and-hunger/In a World Economic Forum survey of Africa, 69% of respondents said “getting enough food and water would be difficult if they had to stay home for 14 days.”https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/05/africa-covid-19-coronavirus-pandemic-food-water-perc/Good old Imperial College now says the lockdown will increase tuberculosis deaths by 1.3 million. (They forgot to include that in the model that shut down the world?)https://www.newsweek.com/study-shows-63-million-people-could-develop-tuberculosis-because-coronavirus-lockdown-1502271Former CTUP member turned World Bank President David Malpass is doing everything he can to blunt these impacts, and good for him:https://blogs.worldbank.org/voices/may-1-2020-end-week-update-debt-relief-worlds-poorest-countriesBut the lockdown is a global humanitarian catastrophe. Don’t let lockdown supporters steal the moral high ground. 6) Going Crazy With Cabin Fever Is RealAlmost half of Americans say the coronavirus is harming their mental health says a Kaiser Family Foundation poll. A federal emergency hotline saw a more than 1,000 percent increase in calls in April compared with the same time last year.It stands to reason that lockdowns will only make the situation worse. The Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute warns against a rise in “diseases of despair.” Its models show an additional 4,000 people could commit suicide and another 4,800 people die from drug overdose if unemployment rises by five percentage points. If the jobless number rises by 20 percentage points to the level seen in the Great Depression, suicides could rise by 18,000 and overdose deaths by more than 22,000.”https://www.texasstateofmind.org/blog/mhsud-impacts-of-a-covid-19-economic-recession/ 7) America’s Worst GOP Lockdown Artist Eases UpLarry Hogan got the lowest score among Republican governors, a gentleman’s D, for failing to lay out any opening timetable — despite the fact that in the past week, Maryland reported just 353 COVID deaths and 288 of them (82%) were in nursing homes.Yesterday he finally eased up, in a surprise announcement that golf and tennis are no longer crimes in the State of Maryland. We try to appreciate the little things. 8) Why Can’t the Politicians Just Keep Nursing Homes Safe?In the past week:· Pennsylvania reported 680 Corora-related nursing home deaths out of 911 total deaths from the virus. (75%). Overall now 68%.· Massachusetts reported 671 nursing home deaths out of 1,015 total (66%). Overall now 60%.· New Jersey reported 1,014 nursing home deaths out of 1,779 total (57%). Overall now 50%.· Virginia actually increased its nursing home tally by 294 deaths in the past week while only raising its total deaths by 191. Figure that one out. Overall now 57%. 9) Government-Made Disaster Closes an Oregon LandmarkFor 32 years, The Pacific Way Cafe has served as the gathering place for the coastal town of Gearhart on the Oregon coast. No longer.Owners Lisa and John Allen had to tell their 20 employees that the cafe was permanently closing. Governor Kate Brown has extended the state’s emergency order through July 6, and even after that new social distancing rules would mean the cafe could only serve half the number of normal diners. “We cannot financially ruin ourselves to the point where we would sell our home and live on the street,” Lisa Allen said.The Allens applied for the Small Business Administration disaster relief program but never heard back from anyone.The couple hope to reopen their adjoining bakery in June, but the restaurant is gone. “Thirty-two years and the whole thing disappeared overnight,” mourned John Allen.https://www.seasidesignal.com/coronavirus/pacific-way-cafe-to-close-after-32-years-due-to-coronavirus-impact/article_b866232c-8cd2-11ea-9e53-2b1d98b374d1.html 10) Hero of the Day: Shelley LutherThe Dallas, Texas hair stylist and business owner was sentenced to a $7000 fine and a week in jail for the lockdown-crime of opening her salon by Judge Eric Moye, who said he would suspend the jail term in favor of a fine if she admitted she’d been “selfish” and apologize.“I have much respect for this court and laws. I have never been in this position before and it’s not someplace that I want to be,” Luther responded. “But I have to disagree with you sir, when you say that I’m selfish because feeding my kids — is not selfish. I have hair stylists that are going hungry because they’d rather feed their kids. So sir, if you think the law is more important than kids getting fed, then please go ahead with you decision but I am not going to shut the salon.”A GoFundMe page set up to pay Luther’s legal bills has raised over $280,000.https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2020/05/06/texas-attorney-general-ken-paxton-immediate-release-jailed-dallas-salon-owner-shelley-luther/ 11) Anti-Hero of the Day Cuomo – A Repeat WinnerNew York governor Andrew Cuomo is requiring that thousands of health care workers who answered appeals to come to New York to fight the Coronavirus pay state income taxes.”We’re not in a position to provide any subsidies right now because we have a $13 billion deficit,” he said at a news conference.New York’s tax authorities are infamous for tracking down people who set foot in the state, and that isn’t changing. Health care workers will have to pay New York state taxes, even on income they might make from their home states that they were paid while in New York.Any out-of-state resident who’s come to the Empire State to work on coronavirus relief is subject to the tax after 14 days here.https://www.pix11.com/news/coronavirus/health-workers-that-volunteered-to-come-to-ny-during-pandemic-have-to-pay-state-income-tax-cuomo 12) It worked! |
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