NEWT IS A HIGH SCHOOL HISTORY TEACHER, NOT A HISTORIAN
A FAILURE AS SPEAKER,AS A WOULD BE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE
AND AS A CHRISTIAN HUSBAND (FOUR TIME ADULTERER)
March 26, 2020 By Sarah K. Burris
“The View” hosts Whoopi Goldberg and Sunny Hostin blasted the myth that nurses won’t want to work to help with the coronavirus crisis if the stimulus bill increases the unemployment benefits.
It was revealed Thursday that there have been more than 3 million unemployment claims even before the stimulus bill had passed. Prior to the coronavirus crisis, the unemployment rate was 3.5 percent, so the idea that people will want to be unemployed isn’t holding up to the evidence.
Goldberg called it outright “insulting” to assume that nurses would rather sit at home than fulfill their chosen profession and help people. But Newt Gingrich agreed with the claim
“Sure. As a practical matter, you have to — as I understand it — there’s one part of this where you can actually make more money not working,” said Gingrich. “That’s not a very good incentive.”
“That’s so disrespectful,” Goldberg said.
“I think when you have a problem on the scale, you’re going to have some things that aren’t quite right and you might be able to go back and fix later,” Gingrich rambled on. “They did the right thing to pass it. They did the right thing to pass it 96 to 0. get it to the president. I hope he’ll sign it tomorrow night or Saturday morning because the country needs to have a feeling that we are as a country can move and we can get things done. This is the third bill in a row they have passed now in three or four weeks which is a good sign. I think we have to take a deep breath, evaluate all this.”
“Lindsey Graham should be ashamed of himself,” said Goldberg.
Whoopi Goldberg Confronts Newt Gingrich for Suggesting Nurses Will Abandon Coronavirus Patients
Matt Wilstein,The Daily Beast•March 26, 2020
Newt Gingrich joined The View live from Rome on Thursday morning where he has been quarantined for weeks with his wife, U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican Calista Gingrich. And yet despite living in the horror that could be America’s near future, the former Republican Speaker of the House had only mild criticism for the way President Donald Trump has handled the coronavirus crisis.
Gingrich acknowledged that the president and his task force should probably be “social distancing” during their daily press briefings. And he threw some cold water on Trump’s promise to get the economy up and running again by Easter. “I think the president's direction is right, but probably the speed won’t happen as fast as he wants it to,” he said diplomatically.
But the most contentious part of the interview came when co-host Sunny Hostin asked Gingrich to weigh in on the $2 trillion stimulus package passed by the Senate Wednesday night.
Joe Biden Blasts Trump on ‘The View’: We Can’t Just ‘Let People Die’
“Several Republican senators are worried unemployment benefits will be so enticing that people will stop working,” Hostin said. “Senator Graham even implied that the benefits would incentivize well-trained nurses to stay home and collect a check.”
She was citing a joint statement from Senators Lindsey Graham, Ben Sasse, and Tim Scott that read, “If the federal government accidentally incentivizes layoffs, we risk life-threatening shortages in sectors where doctors, nurses, and pharmacists are trying to care for the sick, and where growers and grocers, truckers and cooks are trying to get food to families’ tables.”
“Do you share their concern?” Hostin asked.
“Sure, as a practical matter you have to,” Gingrich replied. “As I understand it, there's one part of this where you can actually make more money not working. That’s not a very good incentive.”
Of course, the unemployment relief in the stimulus package would only benefit workers who are laid off due to the economic crisis—not doctors and nurses who are needed more than ever in this moment.
As he continued talking, Whoopi Goldberg could be heard off-screen saying, “That’s so disrespectful!” She added later, “Lindsey Graham should be ashamed of himself.”
“It just seems to me the suggestion that nurses who are on the front line are not going to work and sacrifice the way that they have because they're going to be making a few hundred dollars more is ludicrous,” Hostin told Gingrich, “but that's just my opinion.”
“It's insulting! It's insulting!” Goldberg added. She repeated, “Lindsey Graham should be ashamed of himself to say something like that in the middle of all of this.”
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