After making a full recovery from COVID-19, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) returned to Congress with some stern words for his colleagues who have taken to giving relief to Americans by printing and distributing more money rather than lifting “draconian lockdowns” and allowing commerce to resume.
“No amount of money—not all the money in China—will save us from ourselves,” Sen. Paul said in a Tuesday speech before Congress eventually passed another multibillion-dollar coronavirus relief bill to provide forgivable loans to small businesses. “Our only hope of rescuing this great country is to reopen the economy.”
“If you print up billions of dollars and give it to people, they are unlikely to spend it until you end the quarantine,” said Paul, a fiscal conservative and the son of revered libertarian Rep. Ron Paul.
“The good news,” Paul went on to say, is that coronavirus has proven to be less deadly than preliminary models indicated.
“The models that used 3.4 percent mortality were, fortunately, very wrong,” Paul said, pointing to a handful of randomized studies demonstrating such. “The number of people who have already developed antibodies to the coronavirus is 25 to 50 times higher than the number that is being reported as infected. This is great news. This means that the mortality rate may well be 25 to 50 times less deadly than previously thought.”
“The virus is still dangerous, and we shouldn’t ignore the risks, but we should put those risks in perspective,” Paul clarified, adding that the mortality rate could, in fact, be as low as one to two-tenths of a percent.
“We now have solid, scientific evidence from randomized studies that we can manage this disease without continuing the draconian lockdown of the economy,” Paul went on. “The question before us isn’t ‘do nothing’ or ‘print endless amounts of bailout cash.’ The debate should now include the one choice that will get our economy growing again: reopening American commerce.”
“So today, I arise in opposition to spending $500 billion more. The virus bailouts have already cost over two trillion dollars. Our annual deficit this year will approach four trillion dollars!” he said. “We can’t continue on this course!”
“No amount of bailout dollars will stimulate an economy that is being strangled by quarantine!” Paul proclaimed. “It is not a lack of money that plagues us, but a lack of commerce!”
Paul went on to praise Americans, particularly his Kentucky constituents, for “tremendous collaboration” in fighting the virus.
“People from all walks of life have come together to help each other,” Paul said, pointing to various incidents in which civilians and businesses made short work of mitigating the pandemic and helping those in need in their area—and all without government coercion.
Paul quickly returned to concerns that Congress’ attempts to bail out American individuals and businesses rather than to allow them to return to work would ultimately do far more harm than good.
“Over the years, the US has accumulated more than $23 trillion in debt, though, spending money that we do not have, borrowing from our kids’ and grandkids’ future,” Paul said, predicting a “point of no return” when our national debt becomes an “existential threat.”
“Make no mistake. The massive economic calamity we’re experiencing right now is caused by government,” Paul declared, criticizing the stimulus bill for sending cash to couples and families who earn nearly to $200,000 per year and continue earning an income during the pandemic. “Passing out $1,200 checks indiscriminately, to people who haven’t lost their job, will do nothing to rescue the country!”
“You could give everybody in the country $12,000 and it wouldn’t end this recession!” Paul exclaimed. “Our recovery only comes when the quarantine is ended.”
“I don’t want to see this massive accumulation of debt destroy this great country,” Paul concluded. “So my advice to the Senate and to the American people is, let’s be aware of what we’re doing by creating all this new debt and let’s think before we jump to a terrible, terrible conclusion.”
Watch the full speech below:
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