Unleash Prosperity Hotline
Issue #35 Written by Stephen Moore
1) Ron DeSantis, The Anti-Cuomo
What is it about Florida that they keep producing such world class governors. First, Jeb Bush (great governor, terrible presidential candidate), then Rick Scott (now U.S. Senator) and now Ron DeSantis.
In case you haven’t already seen this viral interview of the Gov. Ron DeSantis take-down of the media, we guarantee you will enjoy it very much.
The media is fervently and openly cheering against DeSantis and Florida because the record of this state is contradicting their absurd doomsday predictions. We love that he fights back. Watch this:
2) Right Problem, Wrong Solution
Ohio Senator Rob Portman has proposed a new $450 per week wage subsidy to entice the people currently on unemployment back into the workplace. We’re glad that Sen. Portman wants to reward work, but this isn’t the right way to do it.
Instead, now that we are in a recovery phase, Congress should phase out the $600 per week unemployment plus-up, and stop paying over 100 percent of pay benefits, and revert to the old UI system with payments less than one gets from working. The DOL should also remove people from the UI roles if they decline legitimate employment offers.
The best work incentive is a major payroll tax holiday, which we have repeatedly explained. This will significantly increase the incentive to work as well as lower employer payroll costs allowing them to more rapidly create jobs. Senators who want a sharp recovery need to run the play the president has already called.
3) Evidence shows Lockdowns Can End Without Disease Risk — NBC News Pouts
Hotline readers know we have been on this story for many days and have seen charts like those below before, showing there is no statistical evidence that lockdowns are actually effective at limiting the spread of the novel coronavirus.
But it’s notable that JP Morgan has now looked at the data from the U.S. and confirmed what we have been reporting:
and internationally:
and reached the obvious conclusion that there is no evidence ending lockdowns increases disease spread.
Remarkably, NBC News reporter Carl Quintanilla referred to this happy finding as “devastating.” Devastating for whom? The scaremongers in the media?
4) CDC Quietly Admits It Was Wrong (Again!) About Surface Transmission
Months after detailed European data showed surface transmission played little or no role, the U.S. CDC was still pushing outdated theories suggested widespread transmission from contaminated surfaces — leading to many virus-phobic Americans obsessively cleaning and disinfecting surfaces. There’s nothing wrong with cleanliness of course, but the CDC quietly edited its website yesterday to acknowledge that SARS-CoV2 is overwhelmingly spread by person-to-person close contact.
“The virus spreads easily between people. The virus does not spread easily in other ways.” Has CDC been right about anything?
5) Doctors Finally Stand Up for Kids — In Germany
Still puzzling silence from their American equivalents, but great news from Germany that the major medical associations have stepped up and spoken the plain truth that children are not at risk of gettin sick or infecting others.
In their statement, the German Society for Hospital Hygiene, the German Society for Pediatric Infectiology, the German Academy for Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, and the Professional Association of Pediatricians in Germany say:
“Day care centers, kindergartens and primary schools should be reopened as soon as possible with no restrictions.”
https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/bildung/corona-krise-mediziner-fordern-komplette-schul-und-kita-oeffnung-a-4d1a0336-680d-4259-818e-7a263732f811
6) Bipartisan Warning On China’s Thought Control In The US
In these hyper partisan times you wouldn’t think the national College Republicans and national College Democrats would ever agree on anything.
But that’s wrong. China’s egregious attempts to delay and distort information on the origins of COVID-19 have made the two youth groups discover some common ground: the Chinese government-funded Confucius Institutes that have popped up on U.S. campuses. In addition to promoting propaganda, these act as a shadowy monitoring network aimed at Chinese students in the U.S. During the COVID-19 crisis the Institutes have been attempting to squelch any real discussion of the role China played.
That prompted the College Republicans and the College Democrats to sign a letter calling for the closure of the institutes. “The Chinese government’s flagrant attempts to coerce and control discourse at universities in the United States and around the world pose an existential threat to academic freedom as we know it,” their letter reads. “In the fight against authoritarianism, universities can continue to benefit from the largesse of an emboldened authoritarian state, or they can stand on the right side of history. They cannot do both.”
7) “Operation Haircut” Trolls Governor Whitmer
Gretchen Whitmer, the Cruella De Ville of the nation’s governors, has extended Michigan’s lockdown until May 28. Even after that, she says it’s not likely barbers and hairdressers will be allowed to ply their craft anytime soon.
This hair-raising news has given protestors at the state capital in Lansing the idea of showing people just what they’re missing. At Wednesday’s protest, several barbers gave free trims to some of the 350 attendees. Others helped with dog grooming. The vast majority of protestors wore masks and practiced social distancing as they stood in line.
The police issued disorderly conduct citations to three of the barbers, but their heart wasn’t in it. At least one officer was overheard asking one of the barbers exactly where his shop was located in anticipation of Governor Whitmer someday allowing it to open.
8) Hero of the Day: An Update
Our April 24 Hero of the Day, Snohomish County, Washington Sheriff Adam Fortney, finds himself under attack for opposing Jay Inslee’s iron-fisted lockdown. “The impacts of COVID 19 no longer warrant the suspension of our constitutional rights,” he wrote.
Now he finds himself the first elected official in the country to face a recall over refusal to enforce a lockdown.
No good deed goes unpunished, it seems, especially out of the Left Coast.
9) Chart of the Day
