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This weekend, the Senate will likely vote on Phase 3 of the federal coronavirus response. As they do so, I urge aggressive but prudent actions.

As a physician, we learn early and take an oath to do no harm. This is an important principle to apply to both the medical and the economic steps taken to combat the current situation.

Ive put together agenda items that fit this description. They will help. They are prudent. They are short term, and they are not an overreaction or a misdirection.

Right now, every special interest in Washington is fighting to lard up the response with their pet projects, from tax breaks to pet social issues. This is wrong, and we must avoid this temptation.

There are also those advocating for $1-2 TRILLION in new spending in the next few months. We simply cannot sustain that as an economy. We must look to be more precise with our actions.

I have already advocated for several commonsense proposals that would expand the availability of urgently needed items such as masks and respirators. Ive introduced legislation to speed the testing and production of drugs and vaccines.

The mask and respirator legislation was thankfully already passed in Phase 2 of our response.

I also want to make sure all Americans who are feeling economic hardship are helped.

First and foremost, we must enact a payroll tax holiday. The FICA tax is the largest tax most Americans pay. It is about 15 percent, split between employer and workers. I want to put a stop to that tax temporarily for BOTH business owners and workers to help both during this time of struggle. Thats a huge boost to everyones paycheck and to our overall economy. It would let people keep over $200 billion of their OWN money over the next two months. It would start immediately.

Second, I want to ensure businesses are not forced into bankruptcy or closure due to new mandates, while also seeking to guarantee that every person who needs assistance is able to receive it. Instead of placing the burden of paid sick leave on businesses already struggling with the virus impact, I want to shift the burden to the federal government by expanding the unemployment system to cover the most severely affected and offer immediate leave for those who need it due to the coronavirus. My proposal does this by incorporating reforms from an amendment to Phase 2 offered by Sen. Ron JohnsonRonald (Ron) Harold JohnsonGOP seeks up to 0 billion to maximize financial help to airlines, other impacted industries Dr. Rand Paul's prescription for combating the coronavirus crisis Senate passes House's coronavirus aid bill, sending it to Trump MORE (R-Wis.) that echoed the changes I have called for and that received strong, bipartisan support, although it unfortunately fell short of passing. The reforms allow for temporary enhancements to states unemployment programs, with the federal government afterward picking up the cost of the expansion, so that Americans who cannot work due to the coronavirus are protected. The reforms also remove the waiting period to receive the insurance. I have also added a provision to make self-employed workers eligible for unemployment insurance.

No one should have to worry about large tax payments right now, which is why I asked the IRS to extend the April 15 payment deadline to July 15, something theyve done this week. My plan would codify that into law. This would be for businesses, too, so they could focus on staying open or reopening, not on tax filing and payments.

Finally, I want to encourage all of our well-capitalized banks and lenders to aid their customers at this time by deferring payments on loans, both business and individual. From mortgages to car payments, from small business loans to large lines of credit for business operations, anything we can do to buy time is helpful here. To encourage this, I want to offer a tax credit of up to 3 percent of their corporate tax rate for lenders who postpone payment requirements for 60 days.

Im also working with the administration and leaders in medicine and economics to identify regulations and red tape that can be cut, new ideas for supplying the front lines of our medical teams, and anything else that can be done quickly by the federal government to help.

My office remains in operation, and my website, Paul.Senate.Gov, has updated information and links for assistance.

These are big ideas. They are bold, broad agenda items that will help those struggling, but without bailouts, without questionable long-term social policy changes, and without a trillion-dollar price tag. We should work together on these and other similar plans to slash regulations, return money to those who need it, help those who are struggling, and win both the battle against this pandemic, and also the battle to save our economy.

This week has seen a great upheaval in many of our lives. Social distancing is in full effect. Public schools and places of business are closing. Jobs are being put on hold or lost, and people are beginning to see the struggle that lies ahead.

I hope this time of uncertainty and great challenge will be brief, but I know we will make it through this together.

As counties, states, and the federal government spring into action, it is incumbent upon all of us to keep a watchful eye on both our liberty and our wallets. We dont have an unlimited supply of either of those. They must be preserved while responding to any crisis. In the past, times of crisis have been times of danger for both. We saw erosion of our liberty after 9/11 with the Patriot Act and expansion of FISA courts. We saw an erosion of our dollar and expansion of our debt with the bailouts after the 2008 Great Recession.

There is no doubt surrounding the severity of those crises or of this one. The question is, how do we act with prudence to help those who will be truly in need? And how do we protect our nations future with an already burdensome $23 trillion debt?

My plans address the crisis, with those important warnings being heeded.

Paul is the junior senator from Kentucky.

Originally posted here:
Dr. Rand Paul's prescription for combating the coronavirus crisis | TheHill - The Hill

WASHINGTON (AP) Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said Sunday that he had tested positive for the disease caused by the new coronavirus, becoming the first member of the Senate to report a case of COVID-19. He said in a tweet that he was feeling fine and was in quarantine.

Paul, an eye surgeon, said he has not had symptoms and was tested out of an abundance of caution due to his extensive travel and events. He said he was not aware of any direct contact with any infected person.

Paul, a deficit hawk, was among eight Senate Republicans who voted against a House-passed bill last week that provided more than $100 billion to boost testing for the coronavirus and guarantee paid sick leave for millions of workers. He also was only Republican senator who opposed an earlier bill authorizing $8.3 billion for initial response to the coronavirus.

The senator was on Capitol Hill this past week, including at a luncheon Friday among GOP senators. He spoke on the Senate floor on Wednesday afternoon, addressing the cornonavirus and an amendment he sponsored that would pay for virus relief efforts by withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan.

A spokesman for Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., said Moran briefly saw Paul at the Senate gym Sunday morning and that he shared that information with GOP colleagues at a policy meeting. Moran followed CDC guidelines and kept a safe distance between him and Sen. Paul,'' spokesman Tom Brandt said. Moran has spoken with the attending physician at the Capitol and has been told he does not need to self-quarantine, Brandt said.

South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the second-ranking Republican senator, said on the Senate floor that lawmakers will consult with the attending physician about all senators who have been in contact with Paul.

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said he was praying for Paul and noted that Paul's health is compromised. Paul, 57, broke several ribs in 2017 when a neighbor assaulted him over a long-standing landscaping dispute. Paul, who was later awarded $580,000 in damages and medical expenses, had surgery last year to remove part of a lung damaged by the assault.

Two House members, Reps. Mario Diaz Balart, R-Fla., and Ben McAdams, D-Utah,, have tested positive.

The Senate was in session Sunday seeking a bipartisan response to the pandemic. If approved, the bill would be the third measure Congress has approved in response to the coronavirus this month.

The White House has increasingly emphasized that testing should prioritize the elderly and health care workers who have symptoms of the virus. While most cases of COVID-19 are mild and tens of thousands of people have recovered, older people and those with underlying health problems are at higher risk for more serious problems, such as pneumonia.

We dont want everyone to go out and get a test because theres no reason for it," President Donald Trump told reporters in a briefing Friday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tells people to seek testing if they have certain symptoms of the flu-like illness caused by the coronavirus fever, cough and trouble breathing and if they have traveled recently to an outbreak area or have been in close contact with someone who is infected. They should first be tested for the flu and other routine infections.

The vast majority of people recover from the new virus. According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover.

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Read the original post:
Sen. Rand Paul says hes tested positive for coronavirus - oregonlive.com

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) tested positive for Coronavirus, according to his Twitter account on Sunday morning.

Senator Rand Paul has tested positive for COVID-19. He is feeling fine and is in quarantine. He is asymptomatic and was tested out of an abundance of caution due to his extensive travel and events. He was not aware of any direct contact with any infected person.

Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 22, 2020

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Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and the wealthy wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do.

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2020 demands.

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Rand Paul Tests Positive for Coronavirus - Mother Jones

Governments around the world are rushing to determine an appropriate response to coronavirus. COVID-19 (a new strain of coronavirus) was first detected in China in 2019 and, subsequently, elsewhere around the world. Yesterday, The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a pandemic.

In China, the hardest hit country, sporting events and theaters were closed, as were schools and universities. Mobile phone apps like WeChat were used to track peoples movements and stop people with infections from traveling. In Italy, which has the second-highest number of reported cases, public processions were banned, as were funerals. And in Japan, the government shut down schools around the country and is encouraging businesses to allow employees to work from home.

In Minnesota, five cases of the virus have been confirmed. The first case, confirmed last Friday, was a man in Ramsey County, older than 65, who had been on the Grand Princess cruise ship currently in quarantine in California (there are 42 other Minnesotans still quarantined on the ship).

At the state level, Minnesotas Governor and State Legislature are looking for a unified approach to prepare for the worst, but not inspire panic. The Legislature fast-tracked $21 million in response measures to the governors desk and the governor signed the bill this week.

What about in Congress?

Last Wednesday, the House of Representatives voted to allocate $8.3 billion to combat the virus in an emergency supplemental spending bill. Every single Minnesotan in the Minnesota congressional delegation, Democrats and Republicans, voted for the bill. It passed 415 to 2, with two Republicans voting against it. The bill then passed in the Senate, where both Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith voted for it, with one no vote: Rand Paul (R-KY). The president signed it into law last week.

REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

Sen. Amy Klobuchar

House Democrats intend to hold a vote on another multi-billion dollar coronavirus response bill on Thursday. That measure includes language to establish emergency paid sick leave, free testing, unemployment insurance, and provisions for food aid. Its unclear if the president will sign the bill or how Republicans in the Senate intend to vote, but House Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has said the bill comes up short, and he asked Speaker Nancy Pelosi to hold it for 24 to 48 hours. Pelosi said she still intends to put it up for a vote Thursday.

On Wednesday, the House Committee on Labor and Education discussed The Healthy Families Act, a bill that would require employers with 15 or more employees to provide one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked (up to 56 hours per year). Rep. Ilhan Omar, who serves on the committee, supports this legislation, pointing out that, during the coronavirus outbreak, most U.S. employees cannot work from home or access readily available sick leave.

MinnPost file photo by Tony Nelson

Rep. Ilhan Omar

Omar is also the author of a bill that would allow the U.S. Department of Agriculture to approve waivers to let schools continue to operate free and reduced school lunch plans even if classes arent being held, and even if it results in an increased cost for the federal government. Twenty-two million children rely on federal subsidized meals. For many kids, it is the only meal they get each day, Omar said in a statement. It is our responsibility to ensure that kids continue to get the meals they need.

Both of Minnesotas senators are also concerned about the virus impact on other government functions. Smith and Klobuchar were the lead authors of a letter sent on March 3rd to U.S. Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham seeking information on how the bureau planned to ensure census takers and the public are protected as the census is conducted.

In West Saint Paul last week, Rep. Angie Craig hosted a town hall with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in St. Paul, to discuss coronavirus preparedness.

MinnPost photo by Walker Orenstein

Rep. Angie Craig

And Rep. Dean Phillips, along with the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, met with Vice President Mike Pence last month to discuss the outbreak.

I am on a mission to serve and protect my constituents and all Americans, and will continue to ask critical questions and demand action during the months ahead, Phillips said in a statement. We must tackle this threat with a unified, nonpartisan front at home and overseas, and ensure that our public health officials are afforded the resources to protect our nation.

Originally posted here:
How Minnesotans in Congress are responding to the COVID-19 outbreak - MinnPost

President Trump is as scared of running against Joe Biden as he is of running. The question is, why? One reason he fears Biden is because Biden is like him. He's old, gets confused, mispronounces words, forgets things, and makes gaffes. But attacking him for these things invites the obvious response: "He sounds a lot like you!"

Indeed, Trump can't attack Biden without attacking himself. Biden's weaknesses magnify Trump's, which are far worse. There's nothing that Biden does that Trump doesn't do worse. Biden has been touchy with women; Trump has been criminal with women. Biden has hair plugs; Trump has something worse. Biden said Barack Obama was "articulate." Trump said Obama was Kenyan.

Trump hasn't addressed any of these yet. Instead, he is focusing on Biden's mental acuity. "Sleepy Joe," Trump said last week, "he doesn't even know where he is or what he's doing or what office he's running for. Honestly, I don't think he knows what office he's running for."

In typical narcissistic fashion, Trump is projecting his flaws onto his opponent. He did this in 2016 when he attacked Hillary Clinton for running a fraudulent charity and risking state secrets. When Clinton said Trump was Vladimir Putin's "puppet" in a debate, Trump shot back, "You're the puppet!" Which was unconvincing. By parroting Clinton's accusation, he effectively confirmed it. Trump's team learned a valuable lesson from that: Always accuse your opponent of that which you are guilty and do it before he or she accuses you. With Biden, Trump is shouting "You're the puppet!" preemptively.

Trump began the week by tweeting, "The Obama/Biden Administration is the most corrupt Administration in the history of our Country!" To paraphrase Dragnet, the names have been changed to protect the guilty.

This is the downside to the preemptive strike: Every projection is a confession of guilt.

The Republican Party is smearing Biden by likening him to Trump. Steve Guest, the RNC's rapid response director, tweeted: "Joe Biden confuses who his wife is and who his sister is during Super Tuesday speech." Unlike Trump, who confuses his daughter for his mistress.

Donald Trump Jr. said that Biden's "family fortunes" were "totally tied to him being in elected office." The next day, he tweeted, "It's almost like the whole Biden family is entity [sic] dependent on Joe holding public office?" It's almost as if Donald Trump Jr. became a best-selling author because the RNC bought copies of his book in bulk during his father's presidency.

On Tuesday, Eric Trump said, "If my father was making the same gaffes as he was, they would literally invoke Article 25 of the uh," by which he meant the U.S. Constitution.

This is the document Trump swore to uphold and hasn't read. Among the parts he hasn't read, he hasn't read the impeachment clauses the most. At a rally in North Carolina this month, Trump said that Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Pete Buttigieg "should be impeached." Trump is the third president to be impeached and the first president who, after being impeached, doesn't know how impeachment works.

Trump reveals his ignorance every time he speaks, which is too often. Last year, he said, "When I say something that you might think is a gaffe, it's on purpose. It's not a gaffe." Two days later, Trump said that one of America's "greatest strides" was the "abolition of civil rights." It's somehow just as unsettling for the president to declare his opposition to civil rights by accident as it is on purpose, and it's equally plausible.

In an interview on Fox Business in 2017, Trump managed to recount the details of a cake he was eating while launching missiles, but not which country he was attacking. Trump, who claimed to have "one of the best memories in the world" and then forgot he said that, says Biden has a deficient memory.

He does. On Tuesday, Biden, discussing guns, mistakenly said "AR-14" instead of "AR-15." This was the same day that Trump, asked about the coronavirus, said, "I've been briefed on every contingency you could possibly imagine. Many contingencies. A lot of positive. Different numbers. All different numbers. Very large numbers, and some small numbers too, by the way."

This is how Trump speaks: He uses a lot of words to say nothing at all. His mouth is always open and his mind is always closed.

"Have you ever seen a national candidate or nominee stumble over so many words and putting sentences together?" Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) asked. "I think he's really struggling. I think Trump will make mincemeat of him in a debate."

Paul has a point. It's hard to rebut Trump's statements. That's because it's hard to understand them.

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Why Trump fears Biden - The Week