Transcripts For CSPAN2 Joint Hearing On COVID-19s Economic I

Transcripts For CSPAN2 Joint Hearing On COVID-19s Economic Impact 20240712

Peters, and delivering the opening statement, a minute to acknowledge the United States passed another milestone that we have lost 200,000 americans to covid19. Our hearts go out to their families, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, children, grandchildren and grandparents. Americans everywhere must fight to stop the virus from spreading, to protect millions more from experiencing this loss. As members of congress we will go to republicans, all united to be our part. We turn to opening statement, unlike every hearing, in the u. S. Congress economic committee, simply explore economic issues. We will focus on Public Health. With the closing of coronavirus is in march causing unemployment in april, democrats reset some of those Public Health experts in the country. Two all two nobel prize laureates, 5 former chairs of the president s council of economic advisers and 3 were president of the National Economic association over 2 dozen in all. Every one of them have the same urgent message, the top priority for healing our crippled economy is to contain the coronavirus. Economists Austan Goolsbee said the number one rule of fire is economics, you have to stop the virus before you can do anything about the economics. Tragically we failed to control the virus, 200,000 americans are dead, more than we lost in world war i, the korean war and vietnam combined. The United States is only 4 of the World Population but approximately 21 of the worlds deaths. There have been 7 million confirmed cases of covid19 in the United States and this is likely a severe undercount. The number of cases continue to explode, 40,000 new positive test the day. The economy has suffered a severe blow, nearly 12 million fewer jobs today than we had in february, the official Unemployment Rate is 8. 4 , two times what was in february. Jerome powell said the rate could be 2 higher, miss classifying workers in differentiating those who left the labor force. Us workers permanently unemployed and that number continues to rise, 30 million depending on unemployment check to survive. Economic devastation contains out of control and tragically know one person or country is responsible, the person who should be leading the fight to contain the coronavirus, the president of the United States. Donald trumps record, coronavirus is a stunning studying incompetent and callous disregard for human life. He lied to the American People, he said it would magically disappear, he privately said to bob woodward the coronavirus was 5 times as deadly as serious strains of the flu, quote, deadly stuff. The president in the early weeks of the crisis, purchase ppe ventilators and educate the public, a step allamericans should take but it took 7 weeks after the first confirmed case for him to declare a national emergency. A week or two sooner to implement social distancing measures, could have, would have saved hundreds of thousands of lives or according to research by columbia university. The president ignored the advice of Health Experts, said that he knew are about Public Health and they did, he refused to wear a mask despite the fact that masks can play an Important Role in slowing the spread of the virus. Endangered peoples lives by preventing use promoting the use of hydroxy chloroquine which has no impact on covid19 and carries substantial risk. He recommended disinfectants to fight the virus and sadly some americans actually did it. He claimed children are almost immune. In every case the president was wrong, dead wrong. Public Health Officials argue reopening too early would lead to a second wave of infectious deaths and the president ignores them. He said you cannot cure the important problem itself. The Public Health measures, to, quote, liberate michigan, and state capitals. And steve i experts, and these, coronavirus cases spiked and people died. A number of new impacts on labor they were double what they were, 40,000 new cases the other day. Reopening the economy to make the economy look stronger in months leading to election day. In april, it was a big deal, you gamble with american lives and gamble with the us economy, it has resulted in more cases and more deaths, between may and august the economy regained half of the jobs lost. The Unemployment Rate dropped from 50 to 8. 4 , still two times higher than february and the next job when they were released next friday will continue to show marginal improvement but the cost of reopening too soon wont the obvious until after the election. We dont know what the numbers will be one thing for certain, the true impact of the presidency wont be evident until it is over. Donald trump holds the power of the us presidency but has refused to use it. If not contained, the coronavirus, as a result, many more lives will be lost and in the longterm the economy will suffer. The president failed to make the most meager effort to contain the coronavirus, his economic legacy. I look forward to testimony of witnesses and recognize the chairman of the full committee, senator mike lee. Thank you so much, mister vice chairman, for chairing todays hearing on this important topic. The Novel Coronavirus as it has swept across the nation and worked its way around the world this year, left a trail of devastation in its path. Not only serious physical disease, and economic ills as well. Jobs have been lost, businesses have been shattered, entire sectors have been disrupted. In response to this unique crisis, taking unprecedented Government Action but as the successful treatment of any illness, we have to make sure we are using proper remedies, as we take stock of current response to this pandemic we need to consider how policy has heard and helped so far and what we can do to improve what might be the right Solutions Moving forward. Whatever might come next, whatever might play in our path in the future. Some called for still more aggressive federal response to more stimulus, nationally coordinated response and widespread lockdowns. The benefit of policies like those have to be weighed against the costs they impose economically and otherwise, theres a host of possible unintended and in many cases unplanned consequences. And that we exacerbate, a whopping National Debt can have a tendency to crowd out private investment. The enhanced Unemployment Benefits included in the cares act provide a disincentive for those unemployed to return to work those inhibiting economic recovery. In addition to economic devastation the lockdowns had other negative affects by their very nature. Mandated isolation, Mental Health issues, stops countless others from getting routine Health Screenings and vaccinations, discouraged others for maintaining health in other ways in these respects, in and of itself, might not otherwise happen, might otherwise have been prevented. Rebounding across europe, the continents government are intent on avoiding any largescale losses and focusing on more tailored, localized measures to combat outbreaks, the knowledge they have day today, we got to make sure federal policy and federal policy adopted in washington and not inhibiting sound and effective solutions. Evidence shows it already had. In early days of this particular crisis, outdated certificate of needs rules prevented hospitals from acquiring new beds and equipment and the fda and the cdc rules against at home testing, the worst failure of all was something that involved sheer bureaucratic chaos that faithfully delay did effective testing for an entire month. Thankfully we already removed these barriers. Stopping aust from making progress, two important changes have been allowing doctors to cut this medicine across state lines. As well as allowing doctors to provide care through the use of telemedicine and technology. With regulatory flexibility we should consider moving forward so that we can quite quickly and freely administer to those whose needs, where the patient might be. As we respond to the coronavirus we need to acknowledge, sweeping centralized 1sizefitsall federal policies and ultimately worsen our attempts at recovery. If we are to have flexibility and resiliency in the face of this crisis and faced with what might come our way in the future, empowering states and localities which best understand, their own needs and communities can be addressed and devoted. The American People play a critical role, innovating the response in times of crisis, i look forward to hearing our panelist contributions today how best we can continue doing that. Thank you very much, really appreciate it. Our four distanced witnesses, the dean of Brown University school of Public Health and brown soninlaw, wonderful recognized expert on pandemic preparedness. A member of Harvard School of Public Health, directed the institute in 2014, and degrees in harvard, acknowledging from columbia university. Next, Austan Goolsbee, robert quinn special of Economics University of Chicago School of business. He served as chairman of the council of economic advisers in 201011 and Economic Affairs member from 20096 hes been a member of the Economic Advisory bill, in the bank of new york, he writes regularly on economic issues, earned a phd in economics from Massachusetts Institute of technology at yale university. Doctor jeffrey singer from the Cato Institute where he works into the permit of Health Policy studies. Doctor singers principle encounter of the largest oldest group in arizona. At the goldwater institute, and Brooklyn College in the new york medical we will hear from doctor adam michelle, Senior Analyst for the federal budget at the heritage foundation. Research focuses on how it impacts the opportunity of america. Doctor michelles National News outlets appears regularly on broadcast television for economic doctor michelle was a program manager, in george mason university. With that, i turn it over to you for opening comments. Members of the committee, i am a practicing physician, it is my honor to be here today. 200,000 americans died from covid19. This is a tragedy of immense magnitude and we have to ask how did we get here, how did we become the world epicenter, the nation with the most cases, the most suffering, the most deaths. When we take a step back and look at these outbreaks there are two strategies any nation should pursue, Public Health measures that patrol the buyer us virus and biomedical measures that keep people from becoming infected. The fundamentally we find ourselves where we are because we failed to put in place Public Health measures that could stop the virus. It didnt need to be this way. The first is testing tracing isolation, infected people identify and isolate, an old and well tried approach. We failed to set up a testing infrastructure through january and february having only rudimentary testing through march and april. We cant perform nearly the number of tests, the result was much of the early months of the operation the nation was blind to the spread of the disease finding ourselves in march with large outbreaks and several parts of the nation and because we had little Testing Capacity we were forced into a painful National Shutdown were good testing would have allowed us to be more selective in measures which gets us to the second leg of the 3legged stool, social distance, the most extreme version of which is lockdowns. When we locked down we did so unevenly. We slowed the spread in different areas of the country, largely open and the virus spread and we opened up the nation more fully after memorial day we did so with little regard to social distancing it over the summer and finally the third leg of the stool is Wearing Masks. By the end of march the data on masks was pretty clear. In early april the cdc represented large scale mask wearing, even today 17 states dont have a mandatory mask order and mask wearing across the nation is highly variable. Failure to implement these Public Health measures meant we have more cases and more deaths than any nation in the world. Economic costs of failing to control the virus as well, large decline of Economic Activity and loss of business. Are these economic losses the cost of controlling the virus . Quite the opposite. When we look across the world nations the did a better job controlling the virus of largely suffered less in the way of economic process and i want to highlight three nations, south korea has largely relied on testing and tracing, building up an infrastructure early, fewer than 400 deaths, less than california had last week. Not as much on testing, 1500 japanese have died and germany has mask wearing and Clear Communication about social distancing and their death rate is 80 less than hours. Of these countries stopped their economies to control the virus . In fact, we look at the countries with the smallest declines in gdp, another standout in virus control, south korea and germany suffered large economic declines. Most high income countries, not all but most managed to save lives and jobs, we struggled in both areas. Ultimately as we look ahead we need to focus on a path that allows us to stave save lives, the best way to do this is Public Health approach and while i have my own feelings on how to do this the best guide today was published by this white house in april of this year, the document entitled opening up america laid out a clear Public Health approach, in a set of metrics and guidelines the nation ignored. A robust economic recovery, that is what the American People want, not at the cost of losing their lives. Thankfully all the evidence says we have to choose. When we commit to controlling the virus. The conditions to help america economically drive. Thank you very much. Now i would like to introduce Austan Goolsbee. I applied you before having this hearing. There is nothing more important. I wanted to make 3 simple points. There is a piece i wrote in the new york times, there was only a handful of deaths in the United States, and this disease it was not going to spread around the country. I will this article saying if i had a Health Outbreak in this country of the magnitude of what they had in china given the structure of the us economy, the structure of all the rich countries, the Economic Impact would be worse here than it was in china which was devastating, when theres more focus in Service Industries and facetoface interaction, and and the first point, it was not a tradeoff in the economy, and we could reinforce eyes that, what killed what put it in as fast a drop is what happened in the country was not a policy lockdown. Thats not what killed the economy. The data is overwhelmingly clear the economic drop began before the lockdowns were in place, the drop in Economic Activity is very similar in places that have lockdowns in places that did not have lockdowns, the main thing that drove the economic decline is the same thing that drives decline in a crisis, when people are afraid, they withdraw. In this case they were afraid of catching the disease so they stayed home. The United States is particularly vulnerable on a hillside as you know because the factors that are correlated with the disease having a negative impact, obesity, previous heart conditions, diabetes, being over age 65. If you look at all the groups at risk, by some estimates it adds up to a majority of the American People so you can see why people would be afraid when they hear a disease that has those features is spreading around, theres not enough testing for them to feel comfortable going out without catching it. You need only look at his Airline Industry where there are no laws or bidding people from flying but the demand for air travel plunged anyway because people are nervous. I have done some research i will cite in written testimony where we have access to the phone location records for visitors to 2. 5 million visitors around the United States. We compared across metropolitan areas where on one side of the border they had a lockdown order and on the other side they did not. An example would be quad cities on the border of iowa and illinois. Moline, illinois, had a shutdown order, in north iowa they did not. The demand went down only 7 more in places with shutdown orders then not with shutdown orders. It wasnt the policy that did it. As i always say the virus is the boss. If we cannot

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