Rep. Brett Guthrie sat down with Owensboro Times reporter Katie Pickens on Tuesday to address a variety of topics running from another round of stimulus checks to delaying in-person classes to his new Second Wave Preparedness Project.
Following is a Q&A with the Congressman:
Do you think Americans can expect a second round of stimulus checks soon?
Currently, with the President doing the executive order — and I’m still going through that executive order to figure out all the legal basis — you know, it’s always better if the legislative body acts. My understanding is, when you listen to the President and Speaker (Nancy) Pelosi and Chuck Schumer — they have a $3 trillion dollar proposal on the table, and that’s just not something we can meet in the middle on because that’s a substantial amount of money.
We’ve already spent over $3 trillion and, still, of the $3 trillion we’ve already appropriated, $500 billion — and quite a bit in Kentucky — is still sitting at state capitols that the governors haven’t spent.
We’re saying we need to spend the money that’s already been appropriated before we just spend more money. Every penny is borrowed, and it’s debt on our children and grandchildren. We’re in an emergency, so we’re going to have to spend money, but why appropriate more money when there’s money still being held at the state capitals, particularly?
But there’s certain things we need to deal with — unemployment, some smaller businesses that are struggling. And I think we need to scale down the PPP program, and that’s part of what Senator [Mitch] McConnell has proposed.
During a recent press conference in Owensboro, Senator McConnell said the federal government can’t afford another $3 trillion stimulus package. Do you think that’s true?
We need to spend what’s already been appropriated before we do any more spending.
What do you think that stimulus package should include?
We need to have unemployment (benefits) because they’ve truly lost their jobs and cannot find other work. But we need to make sure there’s not an incentive not to find other work. … So we’re trying to make sure people are held harmless if they’ve lost their job due to COVID, but we know they’ve got to be administered by the states and currently, I know people who’ve been signed up for unemployment since March — their businesses were shut down — and still haven’t gotten unemployment in Kentucky.
And so, there’s really not a lot of faith, from what I’ve seen, that the state can manage that very well. And I hope that turns around so we can move forward. But we still have people on unemployment that can’t get it.
Is that because a large number of them are sole proprietors?
Sole proprietors, yes, traditionally are people who weren’t in the unemployment system. Now, that’s not everybody. The people I’ve talked to have been sole proprietors who were authorized to get unemployment (but were) not typically in the system that have had the trouble.
Some people can’t get unemployment because the online system is so outdated. Have they improved that at this point in Kentucky?
I’m not sure how much they’ve improved that. I don’t know. I know there’s still people struggling with it. Hopefully they’ve improved it so people won’t have to continue to struggle with it.
Do you support another round of $1,200 stimulus checks?
I believe there’s some things that we’ve learned in this pandemic that would be better for public monies. One is access to broadband [internet] for children who have to learn at home. People who have to do business at home need access to broadband.
I mean, this is borrowing from our kids and grandkids. And I know it’s nice to get that check, but it’s also a struggle. It’s going to have to be paid back by somebody.
So I’ve always thought if you’re going to borrow money you have to spend, build infrastructure with it. Spend it on something people can use and can continue to have. Some of these bridges over the Ohio River were probably built in the 1930s or 1940s, but we still use them.
There have been arguments regarding the unemployment payments — namely, the additional $600 a week the unemployed were receiving until recently. Do you think the employed, many of whom have been getting paid less than the unemployed, deserve an incentive for continuing to work through the pandemic?
Oh, I’ve heard people who are employed say they’d be better off if they had lost their job. You don’t need assistance that makes people better off. You need assistance that gives people an incentive to work.
Owensboro and Daviess County public schools won’t start in-person classes until Oct. 12. What are your thoughts on in-person learning versus online?
I think in-person is always better, and I know our educators know that. And those are decisions that folks who work for the school systems have to make. Some communities have more cases than others.
The Russians announced a vaccine today that is similar to what we’re developing. And I do think we’re going to have a vaccine in October. But you’ve got to vaccinate 50 million to 100 million people before it starts to have an effect. So if we get a vaccine in October, I really think we’re going to get people vaccinated and into some semblance of immunity by December or January.
So, I just don’t know what’s going to be different a month from now until we get a vaccine. So, if it’s not safe to go to school today, I don’t know that it’s going to be much safer until a vaccine is approved and put out. So I think the question for educators is, “Why did you pick that date — Sept. 28?”
Owensboro’s low unemployment rate made national news lately. Despite the pandemic, the City had 4.2% unemployment in June 2020 compared to 4.4% unemployment in June 2019. What are your thoughts on that?
I’ll tell you, I talked to some bankers here when the PPP loans were going out, and they were aggressive with them. And I think that was the best program. (Employees) were getting paid, they were getting their benefits like their 401k, they pay their own occupational tax — which you don’t do with unemployment. And they were still tied to their employers. It wasn’t like you were losing money to bring them back to work because it was the same money.
Do you think the fact that it’s a forgivable loan is an issue for the federal government?
If it’s being spent on people who’d otherwise be unemployed, it’s forgivable, and it should be. Otherwise these businesses would put them on unemployment. So the government’s still spending the money. This way, they’re getting their benefits, their paycheck, their health insurance during a pandemic. And they’re still making their tax payments, whereas, with unemployment, it’s all money going back to them and not going anywhere else.
Can you talk about your Second Wave Preparedness Project for COVID-19 that you’ve been working on?
I think one of the biggest concerns for people is that they don’t feel like there’s a federal plan in place. I think, going back, nobody ran out of PPE. I mean they were struggling to get it — it wasn’t stockpiled — but it got there when it needed to be there. So we were reacting to a lot of things.
We had stockpiles of PPE, but not at the level it was required. The reason for that was, hospitals and facilities ordered gowns, masks, and they keep track of their inventory. … Even in Owensboro, if there weren’t hardly any cases, if someone showed up with a headache, we had to treat them like they had COVID. So they were going through the same level of PPE even though they didn’t have COVID at the time.
So that was one lesson learned. But getting everything moved to where it needed to be worked. So we want to make sure that we have a plan in place because, even as cases are going up, we’re still not adding flu season, which is going to cause people to think they have COVID when they have the flu.
We want to make sure we have testing in place. The implementation is with the executive branch, and we’re working with them on that. We want to ensure we have proper testing in place, therapeutics and vaccines. The third thing we’re working on, which should be out in the next few days, is the logistics of it all.
But the big thing is, you’re hopefully going to have a record number of people getting flu shots. We’re hoping everyone is going to want to get a flu shot now. So you have to have needles, syringes — you have to have, not only the flu vaccine, but the infrastructure for the flu vaccine.
And so, we’re producing that now because you’re going to have to have all the same equipment for the COVID vaccine. If we have 100 million doses when the vaccine gets approved, that means you have to have 100 million vials for the vaccine. You have to have 100 million needles. And we want to be prepared, so what we don’t have happen is we get a vaccine approved and run into the same problem with PPE, like “How do we get it? Why isn’t it here?”
If there’s a plan in place about who gets it and where it needs to go first — and obviously, it’s going to be healthcare workers, senior citizens, nursing homes — and once we start inoculating the most vulnerable people, the healthier people can function more. Because the real fear of COVID for a 25-year-old or a 30-year-old is not necessarily they’re going to get sick and go to the hospital. That does happen, but it’s rare. But giving it to their grandparents is the real fear.
And so we talk about schools. We want kids to go to school when it’s safe to do so. I don’t think there’s going to be some change in the dynamic (by Sept. 28). I’m not sure why that date was chosen. I don’t have the answer to that. But I believe there won’t be a change in the dynamic until there’s a vaccine available.
