Lawmaker: We Must Choose ‘Loss Of American Lives’ Over ‘Loss Of Our Way Of Life As Americans’

Rep. Trey Hollingsworth (R-IN) says the U.S. will always be forced to choose a “loss of American lives” over a “loss of our way of life as Americans.”

“Both of these decisions will lead to harm for individuals, whether that’s dramatic economic harm or whether that’s the loss of life,” he told Indianapolis’s WIBC radio station on Tuesday. “But it is always the American government’s position to say, in the choice between the loss of our way of life as Americans and the loss of life of American lives, we have to always choose the latter.”

Hollingsworth said there will never be a “zero-harm” option to re-open the government. Medical experts say that whenever the economy returns to normal function, the coronavirus will still infect people.

Financial experts, meanwhile, say a long-term shutdown could be disastrous to the economy.

“The social scientists are telling us about the economic disaster that is going on. Our GDP [Gross Domestic Product] is supposed to be down 20% alone this quarter,” Hollingsworth said. “It is policymakers’ decision to put on our big boy and big girl pants and say it is the lesser of these two evils. It is not zero evil, but it is the lesser of these two evils, and we intend to move forward that direction. That is our responsibility, and to abdicate that is to insult the Americans that voted us into office.”

Hollingsworth later clarified what he meant in a statement to CNN provided by his office. “It’s hyperbolic to say that the only choices before us are the two corner solutions: no economy or widespread casualties. We can use the best of biology and economics to enable as much of the economy to operate as possible while we work to minimize disease transmission.”

President Trump said on Monday that he would “soon” release guidelines to governors on how to reopen the economy. “We’re looking at a date,” he also said earlier this month. “We hope we’re going to be able to fulfill a certain date, but we’re not doing anything until we know that this country is going to be healthy.”

Trump has also said that closing the economy for too long could be worse than the coronavirus. “We can’t have the cure be worse than the problem,” Trump said. “We have to open our country because that causes problems that, in my opinion, could be far bigger problems.”

The coronavirus sweeping across the world will likely lead to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Tuesday.

The IMF predicted the global economy will shrink by 3% in 2020, a dramatic change from its prediction in January, when the IMF projected global gross domestic product (GDP) would rise 3.4% this year.

“It is very likely that this year the global economy will experience its worst recession since the Great Depression, surpassing that seen during the global financial crisis a decade ago,” Gita Gopinath, the IMF’s chief economist, said in the latest “World Economic Outlook” report.

“For the first time since the Great Depression both advanced economies and emerging market and developing economies are in recession. For this year, growth in advanced economies is projected at -6.1 percent. Emerging market and developing economies with normal growth levels well above advanced economies are also projected to have negative growth rates of -1.0 percent in 2020, and -2.2 percent if you exclude China. Income per capita is projected to shrink for over 170 countries,” Gopinath said.