Senator Bill Cassidy (R) - Louisiana
SBA loans, unemployment insurance, and stimulus checks are the backbone of the federal economic response to coronavirus but Congress has been pushing to address less talked about areas as well.
Senator Bill Cassidy says the latest round of federal stimulus sent tens of billions of dollars to hospitals. He says financially many are in a bad place right now.
“All of their elective cases are cancelled, they tend to lose cases if they are filled with ICU patients with COVID, and not to speak of all of the doctors and nurses and medtechs etcetera employed at say an ambulatory surgical center,” says Cassidy.
Cassidy says the feds are looking into intervening in the oil sector. He says it’s been frustrating to see America’s ally Saudi Arabia participate in price war that is crippling American oil.
“Why should I have somebody from Louisiana defending you from enemies when you are undermining the economy upon which someone from Louisiana’s family depends?” asked Cassidy.
The Senator also pointed out the feds are looking at investments that could allow economies to become close to fully functional even before a coronavirus vaccine is available.
Cassidy says aggressive, preemptive testing in hotspots will need to be funded. He says the key to reopening the economy safely is tracking transition rates and adjusting reopenings accordingly.
“Someone compared it to an accordion, you open it, you can keep opening it but you can always stow just a little bit back incase it gets out of control. We have to be driven by data,” says Cassidy.
Cassidy says the upcoming Phase One reopenings will be highly dependent on heavy testing and contact tracing. He says part of that is financially assisting those who are ordered to quarantine.
“It is what the South Koreans and Germans have begun to do. Those are the two democracies that have decreased the incidents of disease while they also are reopening the economy,” says Cassidy.
The 1,200-dollar stimulus checks helped float many through the first month of the shutdown, and Cassidy says if we can expand testing enough, we won’t need a second round.
“If we are able to flatten the curve rapidly and find out who is at risk and who is not then we will not need another stimulus check because the whole economy is reopening,” says Cassidy.
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