March 23, 2020 • 7 mins
Rand Paul has become the first Senator to test positive for COVID-19. He is asymptomatic and now in quarantine. This is happening as Congress is working on another financial aid package that could be worth nearly $2 trillion dollars. This would provide help for small businesses, checks for Americans, about $3,000 for a family of four, and enhanced unemployment insurance. And while states try to grapple with the influx of patients, they are still desperately short on masks and protective equipment for medical workers. Some governors are calling for a coordinated national response to the shortage. Ginger Gibson, political reporter for Reuters, joins us for more.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Monday, March. I'm Oscar Ramiras from the Daily Dive
podcast in Los Angeles, and this is your daily coronavirus update.
Rand Paul has become the first Senator to test positive
for COVID nineteen. He is asymptomatic and now in quarantine.
This is happening as Congress is working on another financial
aid package that could be worth nearly two trillion dollars.
(00:23):
This would provide help for small businesses, checks for Americans
about three thousand for a family of four, and enhanced
unemployment insurance. And while states try to grapple with the
influx of patients, they're still desperately short on masks and
protective equipment for medical workers. Some governors are calling for
a coordinated national response to the shortage. Ginger Gibson, political
(00:44):
reporter for Reuters, joins US for more. Thanks for joining US, Ginger.
Continuing on with all of the coronavirus coverage, the US
is now reporting the fourth most coronavirus cases in the world,
were over twenty seven thousand in in the country, almost
four hundred deaths. New York has become kind of this
(01:05):
epicenter of COVID nineteen with about of the country's total cases. There.
Governor Andrew Cuomo has been on a lot of the
talk shows just talking about how much his state and
just kind of in general. I think it's a general
feeling around the country that the states and the governors
need help there. But I wanted to start off with
the new news that we've just got. Kentucky Senator Ran
(01:27):
Paul has just tested if positive for coronavirus. I think
he's the fourth member of Congress overall that has it. Now,
that's right, we now have several members of Congress. Additionally,
I know some reporters who cover the Hill that have
been tested for it, haven't seen their results yet, but
are showing the symptoms that have pursumed cases. These folks
have been walking around the building with each other for
(01:49):
the past week and what can sometimes be very close quarters.
So an example of what happens when you're not putting
that distance between yourself. Congress, the halls of the United
States Capital are full of people who can transmit diseases
to one another. So we've seen that play out. We've
seen reports said at least the sick members of Congress
who have contracted this disease say they are doing well.
(02:11):
They don't have any of the critical symptoms or conditions
that have hit other people. But again, as we know,
this disease progresses and they'll all be watching their health
very closely in the coming days and weeks. Yeah, Senator
ran Paul, they put out a tweet. They said he's
asymptomatic and he was tested out of an abundance of
caution due to his travel and everything, and they said
they closed their office down about ten days ago. They've
(02:33):
been working remotely, so they don't think that any staffers
have been exposed to him while he's had coronavirus, so
hopefully the spread is limited there. Let's move on to
this financial aid package that Congress is working on. They're
saying now it could be up to two trillion dollars.
That is a lot of money. But they're still going
back and forth. I think the last thing I heard
(02:55):
was that Nancy Pelosi said they're not just there yet,
so everybody's kind of go back and forth. They're still
trying to figure it out. But everybody does maintain that
this is very bipartisan right now. They've worked negotiating over
the weekend. Everyone has priorities there are priorities coming from
the White House, coming from the Republican controlled Senate and
the Democratic controlled House. I think it's fair to say
(03:16):
we're going to see something past in the coming days,
and I would expect that to be sort of a
dual focus piece of legislation here, and dual focus might
be a little too simple fuckation of it. This is
going to be a very large piece of legislation, and
that it appropriates a lot of money, as you suggested,
could be to trillion dollars. But I think we're going
to see something focused on business and something focused on people.
(03:38):
So they have been negotiating how to get cash into
people's hands, people who are facing real economic hardships, that
have lost their jobs, that are struggling, or that the
prospect of an illness means they couldn't work and it
would be bankrupt in the process. And then we're going
to see aid to business. We're going to see help
to the airlines and the rest of the track evel industry,
(04:00):
some type of assistance to small businesses that are having
to close down all across the country. So it's going
to be very large and very sweeping. And what is
the most unprecedented shutdown of economic activity and trying to
stave off what would be a really devastating economic fallout
because of it. They said that they're trying to make
this one last about ten and twelve weeks. It would
(04:22):
tie the economy over for about ten and twelve weeks.
They said, direct payments to Americans about a thousand and
twelve hundred dollars. Families of four would be getting about
three thousand dollars, and as you said, just a bunch
of other things, enhanced unemployment, insurance, things for small businesses.
You mentioned the number again, two trillion dollars. Where does
this money come from? Is this stuff from the taxpayers?
(04:43):
Are they just reapportioning money that we have? How do
we get all this money? This money would be coming
onto the United States debt. It would be increasing the
US debt. It would be basically borrowing money from the
future that the federal government would be responsible for paying back.
The argument being that better off to have the federal government,
(05:04):
which is capable of taking on this kind of dead
do it now and try to save the economy before
it's in a free fall, then wait and then have
to deal with it afterwards. There was efforts to try
to keep and stave off in two thousand eight, during
the financial crisis that led to a recession. There was
a lot of pushback that it would increase debt, not
as much money was spent as some people would have liked.
(05:26):
There was criticism then that the government didn't do enough
to get the economy to recover fast enough. And this
is an attempt to try to not repeat that, to say,
all right, well, let's put as much money into this
as we need to stop this from being another catastrophe.
So that's on the financial front. On the health front,
it's still very critical. States across the country are just
(05:48):
kind of desperate and angry. They need more and more
medical supplies. Hospitals are experienced a big shortage of masks
and other equipment that they need. I mentioned earlier Governor
Andrew Cole from New York. He said that states are
starting to compete with each other for some of these materials,
and he's calling for some type of coordinated national response
on all of this. Get people to start manufacturing these
(06:10):
things more, distribute them to hospitals and states so they
have it. So the administration is facing a lot of
pressure from the states individually on this. That's right. We
have seen a response to this epidemic that's really been
on a state level, more often state governors putting out
responses telling people what they should and shouldn't be doing.
(06:32):
Before we see it coming at a federal level, and
a little bit of a back and forth between governors
and the president over who should be sort of helming
some of these things. So, yes, we're seeing states trying
to get the resources their states need at the expense
at times of the other states that might be needing them.
And as you mentioned earlier, this is not uniform. We're
(06:55):
not seeing this epidemic evenly across the country. There are
pecular areas that are much more hard hit than others.
New York City, very hard hit, parts of Florida, very
hard hit. Other places along the East Coast also hard
hit Seattle, Washington. Those are the places that would appear
to need these resources more and they say it shouldn't
(07:17):
be left to just who can bid the highest or
who can buy the vast the fastest gets these resources.
Ginger Gibson, political reporter for Reuters. Thank you very much
for joining us. Thanks for having me. I'm Oscar Ramirez,
and this has been your daily coronavirus update. Don't forget that.
For today's big news stories, you can check me out
(07:37):
on the Daily Dive podcast every Monday through Friday, so
follow us on I Heart Radio or wherever you get
your podcasts.
It's Monday, March. I'm Oscar Ramiras from the Daily Dive
podcast in Los Angeles, and this is your daily coronavirus update.
Rand Paul has become the first Senator to test positive
for COVID nineteen. He is asymptomatic and now in quarantine.
This is happening as Congress is working on another financial
aid package that could be worth nearly two trillion dollars.
(00:23):
This would provide help for small businesses, checks for Americans
about three thousand for a family of four, and enhanced
unemployment insurance. And while states try to grapple with the
influx of patients, they're still desperately short on masks and
protective equipment for medical workers. Some governors are calling for
a coordinated national response to the shortage. Ginger Gibson, political
(00:44):
reporter for Reuters, joins US for more. Thanks for joining US, Ginger.
Continuing on with all of the coronavirus coverage, the US
is now reporting the fourth most coronavirus cases in the world,
were over twenty seven thousand in in the country, almost
four hundred deaths. New York has become kind of this
(01:05):
epicenter of COVID nineteen with about of the country's total cases. There.
Governor Andrew Cuomo has been on a lot of the
talk shows just talking about how much his state and
just kind of in general. I think it's a general
feeling around the country that the states and the governors
need help there. But I wanted to start off with
the new news that we've just got. Kentucky Senator Ran
(01:27):
Paul has just tested if positive for coronavirus. I think
he's the fourth member of Congress overall that has it. Now,
that's right, we now have several members of Congress. Additionally,
I know some reporters who cover the Hill that have
been tested for it, haven't seen their results yet, but
are showing the symptoms that have pursumed cases. These folks
have been walking around the building with each other for
(01:49):
the past week and what can sometimes be very close quarters.
So an example of what happens when you're not putting
that distance between yourself. Congress, the halls of the United
States Capital are full of people who can transmit diseases
to one another. So we've seen that play out. We've
seen reports said at least the sick members of Congress
who have contracted this disease say they are doing well.
(02:11):
They don't have any of the critical symptoms or conditions
that have hit other people. But again, as we know,
this disease progresses and they'll all be watching their health
very closely in the coming days and weeks. Yeah, Senator
ran Paul, they put out a tweet. They said he's
asymptomatic and he was tested out of an abundance of
caution due to his travel and everything, and they said
they closed their office down about ten days ago. They've
(02:33):
been working remotely, so they don't think that any staffers
have been exposed to him while he's had coronavirus, so
hopefully the spread is limited there. Let's move on to
this financial aid package that Congress is working on. They're
saying now it could be up to two trillion dollars.
That is a lot of money. But they're still going
back and forth. I think the last thing I heard
(02:55):
was that Nancy Pelosi said they're not just there yet,
so everybody's kind of go back and forth. They're still
trying to figure it out. But everybody does maintain that
this is very bipartisan right now. They've worked negotiating over
the weekend. Everyone has priorities there are priorities coming from
the White House, coming from the Republican controlled Senate and
the Democratic controlled House. I think it's fair to say
(03:16):
we're going to see something past in the coming days,
and I would expect that to be sort of a
dual focus piece of legislation here, and dual focus might
be a little too simple fuckation of it. This is
going to be a very large piece of legislation, and
that it appropriates a lot of money, as you suggested,
could be to trillion dollars. But I think we're going
to see something focused on business and something focused on people.
(03:38):
So they have been negotiating how to get cash into
people's hands, people who are facing real economic hardships, that
have lost their jobs, that are struggling, or that the
prospect of an illness means they couldn't work and it
would be bankrupt in the process. And then we're going
to see aid to business. We're going to see help
to the airlines and the rest of the track evel industry,
(04:00):
some type of assistance to small businesses that are having
to close down all across the country. So it's going
to be very large and very sweeping. And what is
the most unprecedented shutdown of economic activity and trying to
stave off what would be a really devastating economic fallout
because of it. They said that they're trying to make
this one last about ten and twelve weeks. It would
(04:22):
tie the economy over for about ten and twelve weeks.
They said, direct payments to Americans about a thousand and
twelve hundred dollars. Families of four would be getting about
three thousand dollars, and as you said, just a bunch
of other things, enhanced unemployment, insurance, things for small businesses.
You mentioned the number again, two trillion dollars. Where does
this money come from? Is this stuff from the taxpayers?
(04:43):
Are they just reapportioning money that we have? How do
we get all this money? This money would be coming
onto the United States debt. It would be increasing the
US debt. It would be basically borrowing money from the
future that the federal government would be responsible for paying back.
The argument being that better off to have the federal government,
(05:04):
which is capable of taking on this kind of dead
do it now and try to save the economy before
it's in a free fall, then wait and then have
to deal with it afterwards. There was efforts to try
to keep and stave off in two thousand eight, during
the financial crisis that led to a recession. There was
a lot of pushback that it would increase debt, not
as much money was spent as some people would have liked.
(05:26):
There was criticism then that the government didn't do enough
to get the economy to recover fast enough. And this
is an attempt to try to not repeat that, to say,
all right, well, let's put as much money into this
as we need to stop this from being another catastrophe.
So that's on the financial front. On the health front,
it's still very critical. States across the country are just
(05:48):
kind of desperate and angry. They need more and more
medical supplies. Hospitals are experienced a big shortage of masks
and other equipment that they need. I mentioned earlier Governor
Andrew Cole from New York. He said that states are
starting to compete with each other for some of these materials,
and he's calling for some type of coordinated national response
on all of this. Get people to start manufacturing these
(06:10):
things more, distribute them to hospitals and states so they
have it. So the administration is facing a lot of
pressure from the states individually on this. That's right. We
have seen a response to this epidemic that's really been
on a state level, more often state governors putting out
responses telling people what they should and shouldn't be doing.
(06:32):
Before we see it coming at a federal level, and
a little bit of a back and forth between governors
and the president over who should be sort of helming
some of these things. So, yes, we're seeing states trying
to get the resources their states need at the expense
at times of the other states that might be needing them.
And as you mentioned earlier, this is not uniform. We're
(06:55):
not seeing this epidemic evenly across the country. There are
pecular areas that are much more hard hit than others.
New York City, very hard hit, parts of Florida, very
hard hit. Other places along the East Coast also hard
hit Seattle, Washington. Those are the places that would appear
to need these resources more and they say it shouldn't
(07:17):
be left to just who can bid the highest or
who can buy the vast the fastest gets these resources.
Ginger Gibson, political reporter for Reuters. Thank you very much
for joining us. Thanks for having me. I'm Oscar Ramirez,
and this has been your daily coronavirus update. Don't forget that.
For today's big news stories, you can check me out
(07:37):
on the Daily Dive podcast every Monday through Friday, so
follow us on I Heart Radio or wherever you get
your podcasts.
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