Conservative economists school liberals over lockdowns

Five key facts prove the failure of Covid economic shutdowns

By Catherine Mortensen

The usual gang of liberal economists, Paul Krugman and Austan Goolsbee, etc. – the leftwing nut jobs who will be advising a potential Biden administration – is attempting to play down the economic devastation caused by blue state Covid lockdowns. They are pushing the narrative that ALL states are hurting economically because of COVID and claim there is no red state-blue state economic divide.

Our good friends at the Committee to Unleash Prosperity (CTUP) are calling them out. In their daily newsletter, the CTUP team wrote, “Let us state the point very slowly and concisely so our liberal friends understand what is going on here. These are the things we know with virtual certainty after 10 months of the virus.”

1. 1. Covid is a very dangerous disease for those over the age of 70 and it has been moving in waves through all regions of the country indiscriminately.
   2. Lockdowns have had very limited impact in reducing death rates from the virus. As you can see from the chart below, the correlation between lockdowns and death rates in states is slightly positively correlated, i.e., harder lockdowns correlate with slightly more deaths. By far the highest indication of death rates is the population density of an area. Pandemics are primarily urban diseases.3.
   3. The only statistically significant impact of lockdowns is they do SEVERE and potentially long-term damage to the local and state businesses and workers where they are enforced.
   4. Almost all of the severe lockdowns are in blue states with Democratic governors and these are the states with VERY HIGH unemployment rates.
   5. The blue states of America led by Democratic governors and mayors have tragically turned a health crisis into an economic crisis.
      

Editor’s note: Vermont is the bluest of blue states, but believe it or not, they have a Republican governor.

Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Rick Manning said Democrat shutdowns leave people sick and broke. “For millions of Americans this Christmas, all they want is their job back,” Manning explained. “They want their life back. They are sick and tired of dictatorial, hypocritical Democrat governors using fear to control them and take away their freedoms.”

Catherine Mortensen is Vice President of Communications at Americans for Limited Government.