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| Unleash Prosperity Hotline Issue #26 By Stephen Moore 1) Don’t be stupidBLS – “Total nonfarm payroll employment fell by 20.5 million in April, and the unemployment rate rose to 14.7 percent… If the workers who were recorded as employed but absent from work due to ‘other reasons’ had been classified as unemployed, the overall unemployment rate would have been almost 5 percentage points higher than reported.”https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htmEnd all the lockdowns now, governors. Don’t be stupid. 2) Pelosi readies another $2 trillion monstrosity Speaker Nancy Pelosi is burning up the phone lines trying to corral her Democratic members to vote for another spending bill that could top $2 trillion. Congress has already spent a shocking $2.47 trillion on stimulus. As our friends Phil Gramm and Mike Solon pointed out in a note that is enough to pay 100% of all wages and salaries in the private sector of the U.S. economy for four and a half months. But Nancy says we need more: “What we’re talking about now is a stimulus to our economy at a time when people are crippled with concern about their physical well-being as well as their economic well-being,” she said yesterday. We might lack her sophistication, but we think the problem is that half the country is still banned from producing anything by lockdown orders. The Senate should make clear her bill is dead-on-arrival. https://justthenews.com/government/congress/mccarthy-pumps-brakes-more-coronavirus-stimulus-says-congress-already-allocated 3) Pennsylvania’s Epidemic Is Over… and never made it to the hospital Dr. Steven Shapiro – chief medical officer of the sprawling University of Pittsburgh Medical Campus has called for lockdowns to end. His system never used more than 110 of its 5500 hospital beds for COVID patients. “What we cannot do is extended social isolation,” he said. https://t.co/yrUVkTkNwV Pa. Speaker Mike Turzai gets it. He wrote a tremendous letter to his colleagues pointing out that the average age of Pennsylvania’s 3,000 deaths is 79, about 70% are in a nursing homes, 30% have two or more comorbidities, 50%+ with hypertension / heart disease, and COVID patients currently occupy 7% of the state’s hospital beds and 1% of its ventilators. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EXc98C7XQAAaZ_l?format=jpg&name=900×900 The headline numbers are misleading because Pennsylvania is still catching up on reporting nursing home deaths. Yesterday Pennsylvania reported 247 nursing home deaths and just 63 non-nursing home deaths. Oh and Governor Tom “F” Wolf extended his lockdown for most of the state to June 4. 4) Nursing Home Deaths by State Because the media wasn’t doing it, we’ve put together a spreadsheet of nursing home deaths by state. Here’s a fun factoid: Yesterday New Jersey reported more nursing homes deaths (295) than total deaths (252). Take a look and let us know if you know where to find any of the data we’re missing! https://t.co/udR43a2BSY?amp=1 5) Germany’s Lockdown Wasn’t All We Were Told Now that Germany prepares to reopen for business, we’re learning some of the reasons it seems to be more economically intact than its neighbors. It also only has about one-quarter as many virus deaths than its similarly-sized neighbors – Italy, Spain, France and the U.K. The Wall Street Journal reports: “German authorities, unlike those in Italy and Spain, gave all factories the option to stay open through the pandemic. More than 80% of them did so, and only one-quarter have canceled investments.” Germans were also very innovative in how they kept firms open: “Businesses implemented strict safety rules early on. Managers involved unions and employees in safety planning. Regional governments moved quickly to test and trace chains of infection. And strong ties to China, where many German firms have operations, gave companies a jump on planning.” https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-germany-kept-its-factories-open-during-the-pandemic-11588774844 6) Governor DeWine’s State Legislators Revolt Ohio’s state legislators are losing patience with Governor Mike DeWine’s aggressive lockdown. On Wednesday the GOP-controlled House moved to limit the authority of the state’s health director. They also voted to require legislative approval for any stay-at-home order after 14 days. DeWine vowed to veto the bill if it reached his desk. But legislators aren’t backing down.“We are dealing with orders of the director of the Department of Health that had no due process whatsoever,” said Rep. Bill Seitz, a Cincinnati Republican. “That had no hearings, that had no public comments, that had no oversight, that had no review by anybody save those in the executive branch.” https://www.daytondailynews.com/news/local/coronavirus-dewine-give-update-pademinc-state-response-virus/j38rnhRf4t8nfOj48BjLGN/ 7) King Corn Demands The Taxpayer Tribute Continue Whoever said that the only eternal things are death and taxes could had added ethanol subsidies. The country may be in a pandemic, but nearly one of four U.S. Senators sent a letter to President Trump yesterday demanding he not modify requirements that oil companies add ethanol to their products. Several governors from such fossil-fuel states as Texas and Louisiana point out that volumetric mandates are literally impossible to meet when retail sales collapse, and there isn’t enough volume to blend into, “a clear threat to the industry.” President Trump has in the past bent over backwards to appease the ethanol lobby but they refuse to stay bought. At a time of pandemic he needs to remember that propping up corn prices will only hurt the hog and poultry farmers who are also struggling. 8) Heroes Of The Day – Texas State Officials Yesterday, we wrote about Shelley Luther, the Dallas hair salon owner who was jailed for a week over reopening her business so she and her employees could care for their families. We’re happy to report she is now free after two days in jail after a bevy of Texas leaders intervened. Lt. Governor Dan Patrick announced he would cover the fines she owed. The Supreme Court of Texas also intervened and ordered her release pending appeal. Governor Greg Abbott then issued an executive order retroactively nullifying her offense: “Compliance with executive orders during this pandemic is important to ensure public safety; however, surely there are less restrictive means to achieving that goal than jailing a Texas mother,” Abbott wrote. 9) Anti-Hero of Day: Jay Inslee We’re hoping some reporter will ask Governor Inslee why in the world this astonishing document exists on his state Department of Health website. You’ll note this “voluntary quarantine” threatens that “we may use a detention order, enforced by the police” if you don’t volunteer to quarantine yourself *or your child* at an address designated by the state.  This document is absolutely 100% real. Here’s the link on the official state site: https://www.doh.wa.gov/Portals/1/Documents/1400/IsoQuar-RequestVoluntaryQuarantine.doc What is wrong with this guy? 10) Quote Of The Day- At Least She Is Being Honest to Her DonorsPelosi on private party call with House Democrats, speaking about next coronavirus package. She said they’re going big: “It’s going to be expensive,” she said.https://twitter.com/JakeSherman/status/1258460167215120384 11) Remember the Spirit of 1776! |
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