GOP senator directly asks Fauci: 'Did we do the right thing in shutting down society?'
Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana on Tuesday directly asked White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci whether shutting down society during the COVID-19 pandemic was the "right thing," and whether he would change the U.S. pandemic response if he had a do-over.
"In hindsight, knowing what you know now, had you known it then, did we do the right thing in shutting down society?" Kennedy asked of Fauci, who was called to testify before a Senate appropriations subcommittee on the National Institute of Health's budget.
"Would we have been better off saying, no we're going to protect the vulnerable, the elderly, the people who are immunocompromised, and we're going to isolate them but have the rest of American society — churches, businesses, universities, schools — go on about their business while at the same time providing them guidance about how to protect themselves?"
JUST IN: Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) asks Dr. Anthony Fauci point blank: "Did we do the right thing shutting down society?"pic.twitter.com/KY1P4H4fGT— Forbes (@Forbes) 1652799409
In his answer, Fauci suggested he would change nothing. He began by rejecting Kennedy's premise that society is able to identify who is especially vulnerable to the coronavirus and that it can separate them from the rest of the population.
"I think there's a misperception about who the vulnerable are. There are many, many more vulnerables in society," Fauci said.
"I think that society is very heterogeneous. And it isn't a question of shutting down completely, Senator, because we never shut down completely. If you do shut down a society you do it for a purpose. And the purpose is at that period of time when you're protecting people from interaction that you get as many people vaccinated as you possibly can," he continued.
Unsatisfied, Kennedy redirected by asking if Fauci would have changed anything in hindsight.
"It depends on when we got the vaccine," Fauci said. "Before the availability of vaccine, when we had no other situation, I would try to protect people by making sure that they masked and they kept themselves separated from this congregant indoor settings, that's what I would do in the absence of a vaccine.
"But right now, I think it's important, looking forward we still only have 66% of the total population vaccinated and less than half of those are boosted. I think we can approach what we are likely going to be seeing and are seeing now with an increase in surges, with the possibility of a surge in the fall and winter, one of the real things we can all do as a nation is pull together and try to get our people vaccinated and those who are eligible to be boosted, boosted."
Kennedy: Biden's $1.9 trillion bill is an 'orgy of pork,' shouldn't be called a COVID relief bill
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) on Wednesday slammed President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion "American Rescue Plan" as an "orgy of pork," criticizing Democrats for refusing to compromise with Republicans and for loading the bill with spending that is unrelated to coronavirus relief.
"President Biden said in putting together the bill, he said we want to meet you, us, the Republicans, halfway. If that's the case he's a damn poor judge of distance," Kennedy said during an interview on Fox News. "He's rejected everything we've proposed. This bill is dreadful."
President Biden’s $2,000,000,000,000 coronavirus bill is an orgy of pork. Calling it a coronavirus bill is like cal… https://t.co/ivwWVmPk2U— John Kennedy (@John Kennedy) 1614873115.0
The U.S. House of Representatives passed President Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus spending bill early Saturday morning, 219-212 on a mostly party line vote.
The coronavirus relief portion of the bill includes a third round of stimulus checks, this time worth up to $1,400 per individual and dependent that will begin to phase out for individuals making $75,000 and married couples earning $150,000. The bill would expand unemployment insurance to include gig workers and workers who didn't qualify before the pandemic, increase those payments to $400 per week, and extend unemployment insurance through Aug. 29.
Additionally, the legislation allocates $20 billion for a national vaccine program, $50 billion for virus testing, $30 billion for emergency rental assistance, $10 billion for mortgage assistance, and a new fully refundable child tax credit for 2021 that would give families that qualify $3,000 per child ages 6 to 17 and $3,600 for children under 6 years old.
But there's more. Democrats included $350 billion in funding for state and local governments they say are facing budget shortfalls because of decreased revenue during the pandemic. Republicans charge that this spending is "wasteful" and that these governments were under economic duress before the pandemic. They say the coronavirus should not be used as an excuse to bail out irresponsible local politicians in mostly blue states.
An audit of the bill conducted by Forbes found other instances of earmarked spending unrelated to coronavirus aid. Included was $1.5 million earmarked for the Seaway International Bridge, which connects Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's home state of New York to Canada. There was also $140 million allocated for a rail project near House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's home district in San Francisco. These two provisions were removed from the bill after the Senate parliamentarian ruled they were not acceptable under the budget reconciliation rules Senate Democrats will use to circumvent a filibuster attempt by Republicans.
Earmarked spending that was not struck from the bill includes:
- $50 million for "family planning" nonprofit organizations like Planned Parenthood;
- $852 million for civic volunteer organizations AmeriCorps, AmeriCorps Vista, and the National Senior Service Corps;
- $470 million for the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the National Endowment of the Arts and the Humanities;
- $128.5 billion to fund K-12 education that the CBO estimates will be paid out between 2022 and 2028, after the pandemic is over;
- $86 billion for pension plans; $50 billion for FEMA;
- $39.6 billion for colleges and universities;
- And $1.5 billion for Amtrak, among other spending.
The Wall Street Journal editorial board estimated that of the $1.9 trillion "American Rescue Plan," only $825 billion was directly related to COVID-19 relief and the other $1 trillion was "expansions of progressive programs, pork, and unrelated policy changes."
Congressional Republicans are united in opposition to the coronavirus relief package, which they say is too costly, has too many bailouts, and funds too many progressive causes that have nothing to do with coronavirus recovery.
"The only way I know how to improve it is with a shredder. It's not even a coronavirus bill. Calling this a coronavirus bill is like calling Harvey Weinstein a feminist," Kennedy said. "It's chock-full of spending porn, billions of dollars to states and local governments that have seen their revenues go up. Billions of dollars to pension programs, billions of dollars to schools with no requirement that they open."
"It's an orgy of pork and using a so-called coronavirus bill as an excuse to fund pork is like looting after a natural disaster."
Public support for the coronavirus aid bill remains high and bipartisan, however. A Morning Consult poll found that 71% of voters, including 53% of Republican voters, supported the $1.9 trillion coronavirus aid package when they were told it includes $1,400 in direct payments to some Americans, funding for schools and local governments, and extended unemployment benefits.
The poll questions did not address how much spending is unrelated to coronavirus relief.
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