Sinclair host and GOP senator agree that government should “open up” instead of passing pandemic relief bill
The COVID-19 death toll passed 3,000 in a single day this week for the first time
Published
Citation From the December 9, 2020, edition of Sinclair Broadcast Group’s America This Week
ERIC BOLLING (HOST): Senator, let’s just talk a little bit about what’s going on with the stimulus -- the timing of it. You know, now all of a sudden everyone's in a rush to get a bunch of -- a trillion dollars, basically, out to the people. Weren't Republicans ready to do that prior to the election?
SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): Yeah, I think it's a mistake though to think that government is really what should stimulate the economy. The economy needs to be left alone, basically. We need to free up the economy. Capitalism is the absence of government control, the absence of government stimulus. The reason our economy has been struggling is because the government shut down your economy. So really the only way to get a valid and verifiable and long-lasting stimulus is to open up the economy. We borrowed about $3 trillion in the spring and our debt now is over $27 trillion. So I don't think borrowing more money is the answer. There’s actually some good signs out there too. Unemployment is down in the 6% range, which is actually better than it was during most of Obama's administration. And GDP grew 11% in the last quarter and is predicted to grow again this quarter. So I think really what we need to do is free up the economy and not think that the old liberal idea of printing up money and spending money we don't have -- I think it's wrong for conservatives to adopt the ways of liberals and to pretend that this is the answer.
BOLLING: Amen, sir. I hope our audience hears that, because throwing more money at -- I watch the stock market go up because they're talking about more stimulus. Eventually they’re going to have to stop throwing out free money and stimulating. It's going to get ugly if we don't work our way off the junk, so to speak.
Sir, let’s talk a little bit about a back-and-forth you had with [Dr. Anthony] Fauci. You said -- and you’re a doctor, I’m talking to a doctor, Dr. Rand Paul -- if you had COVID, get back out there and let’s work towards herd immunity. Fauci got a little upset with you about it. Where you stand on that?
PAUL: Well, you know, I’ve never said that we ought to just lay back and take coronavirus and get to herd immunity. But what I have said is that that's what we've been doing, is right now we're headed in that direction until we get a vaccine. Obviously it’s preferable to take a vaccine rather than to get the disease. But those who have had the disease naturally, we should acknowledge that they do have immunity. They have the same immunity that you will get with a vaccine. In fact, they compared the vaccine to see if it's working by measuring your antibody level and then comparing it to people like me who have had the disease. So the thing is is natural immunity, while not preferable to get the disease, we should be -- we should acknowledge that there are some advantages once you have had it, if you’ve survived.
So for example, restaurants -- we shouldn't close restaurants down. We should give people advice and say if you’re older, might not be a good idea. But if you're younger, please go eat at restaurants. If you're younger and you're one of the 15 million who’ve had this and you survived, please go eat at restaurants, because you're not a risk. If you’ve had this and survived and you want to be a waitress or a waiter, restaurants should be encouraged to hire these people, because that helps to block the virus from infecting people coming to restaurants. You know, if I owned a restaurant, I’d have a whole wing for senior citizens and I would hire purposely people who have already had the disease so I could offer it as a benefit that there’s slightly less risk by dining because my waiters and waitresses have all had the disease. So we shouldn't discount immunity in the discussion, and I think Dr. Fauci and others, they're now saying that even after you get the vaccine -- The New York Times is telling everyone you’re going to have to wear a mask for the rest of your life. Even after we have a vaccine they want us to wear a mask. So somebody's got to push back on these lunatics.
BOLLING: The ugly overreach of government always looking to get more and more invasive into our lives. Talk a little bit, about a minute or so, sir -- schools. It appears that young people are not immune to it, but very unlikely to get COVID or actually have severe effects of COVID. These schools should be open, should they not?
PAUL: Absolutely, there's no scientific evidence to show that schools end up spreading the disease. Countries across Europe and Asia have opened their schools without a surge in disease. There's no evidence that teachers’ lives are being lost to this. What we're finding is you can open school safely. There are a lot of problems with keeping kids home. They’re not being educated. But there's also been an uptick in suicides and mental illness. So yes, we actually need to get our kids back in school.