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Jan. 15, 2021 - Epoch Times
19:15
California Shutdown Double Standard; Looming Economic Backfire | John Phillips
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Time Text
I want to talk to you about the shutdowns.
We have actual data.
You don't have to do it based on a model.
You can do it based on the data.
But part of the reason that they're doing this is they don't understand the science.
Is it all politics?
Is it that's what's coming down to?
People are thinking about their political, their career, More than they're thinking about the livelihoods or the businesses that are getting impact.
They do enjoy the power.
They do enjoy the fact that they have the power of God over you and your business and your livelihood.
What about the fact that the politicians don't actually follow their own rules?
They don't believe their own BS. Because if they believed it, they wouldn't be doing it.
But this is going to have a big backfire economically, right?
All these businesses that are impacted.
No, they're done.
Many of them are done.
So what's going to happen to LA or places that have had major shutdowns?
You are going to slit the throat of the middle class and small and medium-sized companies, and they will be replaced by the big guys.
What about the financial impact of this?
When these cities go to do their budgets next year, They're going to find a great big hole where a whole bunch of money used to be.
They are going to feel the pain eventually.
Unfortunately, they're not feeling it now.
Do you think the mom and pop and the people that work in these businesses, do you think they have a chance of making a change in the political environment just to get their voice heard?
Well, if they want to survive, they have to.
It is still important for those of us who stay here to dig in our heels and fight for the survivability of this state.
Because if we don't, we're all in trouble.
As a response to the CCP virus, California's politicians created strict guidelines for state residents.
For example, Los Angeles County officials mandated a second wave of Safer at Home orders.
My guest today is KABC talk show host, And Southern California News Group columnist John Phillips.
Today he discusses the economic impact the CCP virus has on California's future and the effect of state officials disobeying their orders.
Welcome to California Insider.
Thanks for having me.
I want to talk to you about the shutdowns.
We are facing another round of shutdowns and especially in LA. What's going on in the day right now?
Well, with all the restaurants shutting down, we're going to lose lots of weight.
No place to eat.
It's unbelievably devastating for the Southern California economy to have this happen to us, and it's totally arbitrary.
The decisions that are being made, not just in Sacramento, but at the local level, are not based on the science, which is what they always say when they do something draconian.
It's the science, the science, the science, the science.
Well, in LA, they just shut down all the restaurants and they are moving towards a mandatory stay-at-home order and they're citing the science.
But you look at their own website where they have contact tracing and they figure out where people contract the virus.
Restaurants aren't even in the top 10.
You have government offices.
You have grocery stores.
You have manufacturing.
You have construction sites.
And you have to go all the way down to number 11 to find restaurants.
Why they're closing restaurants down is because of a study that was done by the CDC back in September, which is a model.
We have actual data.
You don't have to do it based on a model.
You can do it based on the data.
But part of the reason that they're doing this is they don't understand the science.
The public health director for LA County is a woman by the name of Dr.
Barbara Ferrer, but she is not a medical doctor.
She's a doctor the same way Dr.
Dre or Dr.
Pepper is a doctor or Dr.
Seuss.
She has a PhD in social work.
She doesn't understand the science.
She's not capable of understanding the science.
She is essentially making arbitrary, capricious decisions that are not based on the science, and it's ruining people's lives.
So is she making the decisions on the shutdowns or is it the county supervisors that used her knowledge to do that?
Well, she's the guru.
She came down with the decision and then there was a vote by the county to overrule her, which went down three to two.
So they're in bed with her.
And to a certain degree, while I'm critical of her, it's not entirely her fault because she is incapable of doing the job.
When they hired her, they never anticipated a pandemic would happen.
They hired her to be a social justice warrior and to write papers about why Whole Foods needs to move into certain poor parts of town.
They never anticipated that there would be this massive issue that would face the county and you would have someone who is completely incapable of dealing with it.
Now, we have, and this is the first time something like this has happened, so everybody's running around panicking, right?
Not knowing what to do, is that?
Yeah, they don't know what to do, but they enjoy the power, and they know they want to keep the power.
How would you say that?
Why do you think they enjoy the power, and why do you think this is...
Well, I mean, just look at Gavin Newsom.
When he decided to create this color-coded system for counties that told us to what degree we would be shut down, and he enforced this, he didn't go to the state legislature.
He didn't go to other branches of government in California and go through the process where you could have committee hearings on it, you could have votes, and people who represent areas that are being shut down will have to go up or down, which is the typical way that legislation is done in California, not which is the typical way that legislation is done in California, not just in California, We have separation of powers, checks, and balances.
He did it himself.
And for whatever reason, the state legislature is unwilling to step up and say, wait a minute, dude, you have overstepped your bounds.
You do not have the authority to do this.
And they're doing it for a couple of reasons.
One is, ideologically, they're on the same page.
Democrats have a super majority in California.
Gavin Newsom is a Democrat, so they don't want to create conflict there.
But the other reason is that they're cowards.
Because if you vote on it, you have to tell your constituents which way you come down.
And if you don't vote on it, and you just give the authority to Newsom, you can be a critic if it goes bad, and you can say, oh yeah, I supported him the whole time if it goes good, and you never actually have to go on the record.
Well, that's not doing your job.
They were elected to be members of the state legislature to represent the people of California, their constituents.
They need to stop his power and get him to go through the right process.
So is it all politics?
Is it that's what's coming down to?
People are thinking about their political, their career more than they're thinking about the livelihoods or the businesses that are getting impact.
It's a couple of things.
One is it's a pandemic, so people will get sick and people will die.
They don't want to be blamed for any of those deaths.
Whenever a politician can be blamed for somebody dying, that sticks with them forever.
If they're going to err on one side, they're going to err on the side of, I'm doing something.
Whether or not that something they're doing works is immaterial to them.
They just want to say, see, I did something.
And the other part of it is they do enjoy the power.
They do enjoy the fact that they have the power of God over you and your business and your livelihood.
And oh look, if they put you out of work and they put you out of business, they'll come in with the EDD checks like Santa Claus and make sure you have money in your bank account.
So be thankful to them for that.
What about the fact that the politicians don't actually follow their own rules?
Is that the reason that you think they enjoy the power or do you think it's just they have to do these rules because they're scared about their career?
Well, it's a couple of things.
One, the rules don't apply to them.
The rules apply to us.
And the other thing is they don't believe their own BS because if they believed it, they wouldn't be doing it.
I believe that juggling knives is dangerous.
You'll never find video of me juggling knives because I think I might, you know, cut myself or injure myself in some way.
If they believed what they said, they wouldn't be at restaurants.
Gavin Newsom wouldn't be at the French Laundry, which, by the way, cost $350 a person.
You know why they call it the French Laundry?
Because when you get the bill, you feel like you've been taken to the cleaners.
Nancy Pelosi was getting her hair done.
Nancy Pelosi isn't going to go on TV without getting her hair done.
That's just the time she got caught.
We have Sheila Kuehl, who voted to shut down restaurants in Los Angeles County, the L.A. County supervisor.
Where did they catch her later that day?
At her favorite restaurant in Santa Monica, eating outdoors.
So they don't believe their BS and they don't think that the rules apply to them.
Do you think that, but this is going to have a big backfire economically, right?
All these businesses that are impacted.
No, they're done.
Many of them are done.
A lot of these businesses are done.
So what's going to happen to LA or places that have major shutdowns?
This is going to be the Jeff Bezos Enrichment Act.
You are going to slit the throat of the middle class and small and medium sized companies and they will be replaced by the big guys.
I mean, just look at the fact that so many of these mom and pops were shut down for so long.
Amazon.com was open the entire time.
You could always go to Amazon.com and Jeff Bezos' net worth went up.
Walmart was always open through the entire process.
Target was open.
Those people are doing just fine.
But if you're the small mom and pop and your state or your county or your city says that you can't operate because you could get the Rona over at the mom and pop, but not at the Walmart, which makes no sense, you're done.
Do you think the mom and pop and the people that work in these businesses, do you think they have a chance of making a change in the political environment just to get their voice heard?
Well, if they want to survive, they have to.
If you want to afford the very expensive real estate prices and cost of living in California, you have to have some form of income.
And they have been prohibited, many of them, depending on what industry you're in, they've been prohibited by law from operating their businesses or going to work.
Think about people in the movie theater industry.
They've been closed since March.
I live in an area that has a lot of comedy clubs.
They've been closed since March.
Bars closed.
Nightclubs closed.
And it makes no sense why some of these businesses are closed, but other businesses can be open.
In California, if you're a church, you're closed.
But if you're a strip club, you're open.
It makes no sense, but that's what's happening.
And unless there is some sort of fundamental change in the state and the state opens up, these people are going to be put out of business and they're not coming back.
What about the financial impact of this?
Do you think the state, the government officials seeing what they're doing in terms of financial impacts, the government is going to feel the pain if these people go out of business?
Eventually, but not now.
When everything shut down, the two types of businesses that got hit the hardest were businesses that were prohibited from operating.
Comedy clubs, movie theaters, cruise ships, people like that, and small businesses.
So tourism and entertainment.
Disneyland is still not open.
And then the mom and pops, because they live very hand to mouth.
If you own a small restaurant and all of your food spoils, that means something to you.
If you rely on big weekends like Thanksgiving for, you know, a huge portion of your income and you're closed that weekend, that means something to you.
But if you're talking about cities, school districts, hospitals, entities like that, many of them really haven't felt the pain because they do their budgeting year to year.
Well, revenue in the state of California is down 42%.
The only state that's been hit worse is Alaska because the cruise ship industry has stopped and tourism has stopped.
So when these cities go to do their budgets next year, they're going to find a great big hole where a whole bunch of money used to be.
The same thing with hospitals, the same thing with counties, the same thing with states.
That means there's going to be layoffs and furloughs.
That means you're going to see cities get rid of their police and fire department and have to do things like contract out to the county.
That means that public services like pools and golf courses, things like that, they're probably going to be sold or closed or go away.
You're going to have cities whose city halls aren't open five days a week.
If you need a permit from one of these entities, good luck with that.
They're going to be furloughing people and laying people off.
They are going to fill the pain eventually.
Unfortunately, they're not filling it now.
Do they anticipate, those leaders of these government entities, do they anticipate this pain or are they not even seeing it coming?
If they're smart, they should, which means no.
But they operate in a world where whenever they need money, what they do is they just raise your taxes.
Well, if there aren't any taxpayers left, because people aren't making money, you can't get any more juice out of the squeeze.
And so they will, I'm sure, come to the people and ask for bonds and tax increases and fee increases and any number of other ways to bring more revenue into the state.
But I think the people are fed up and they'll vote them down.
And I think a lot of people are also going to vote with their feet.
You are going to have people who move out of Los Angeles and who move to other parts of California.
You're going to have people who move from Los Angeles and other parts of California out of state.
And those people are going to be the people that were put out of business by the draconian policies of the state, of the counties, of the cities.
Do you think L.A., a place like L.A. that has had multiple shutdowns, do you think it will have a chance of coming back?
Do you think there will be a major change?
Yeah, well, because politics is always cyclical.
You have ebbs and flows.
And one thing that will not change is the good weather.
California will always have good weather, so people will always want to live here, because why would you live in Duluth if you don't have to?
And I've lived through this before.
In the 1990s, things in California were not good.
We had the end of the Cold War and all of these military bases in California that was the engine of our economy were closed.
The aerospace industry collapsed and many of these plants that were here either went out of business entirely or moved out of state.
We had a crime wave that was absolutely out of control, fueled by the crack cocaine crisis.
And you had numbers in terms of murders and shootings and a whole bunch of horrible things that were at astronomical levels.
And we had a riot.
And people moved out of the state.
People were scared to death of the future of California.
But then there was a correction.
We had Mayor Richard Reardon elected in Los Angeles.
And when he ran for mayor, his slogan was, Dick Reardon, tough enough to turn LA around.
And he did.
LA became a functioning city again.
Pete Wilson was elected governor in 1994, despite the fact that the polls said that he was going to get obliterated very early in that election against Jerry Brown's sister, Kathleen Brown.
He came in and won a double-digit victory statewide and got the budget in order and got the state back on track and we rebuilt.
And then we had the internet boom, the Silicon Valley boom, where revenue flooded into Sacramento and we were able to do things in the state that we wouldn't have been able to do had there not been a course correction.
So eventually there will be a course correction in California.
I hope it's sooner rather than later for the survivability of these businesses.
It has to be.
When it happens, I don't know, but it will happen.
And you had seen some cities that in LA County that are actually fighting on the shutdown, right?
Yes.
So the way it works is the state comes in with certain rules about the pandemic.
The counties and the cities can go beyond that, and they can make the shutdown more severe.
They can't make it less severe.
And so in Los Angeles County, the shutdowns have always been more severe than what the state is mandating.
And it's done through the County Department of Public Health, run by fake doctor Barbara Ferrer.
And you have had certain cities, Pasadena, for example, that has their own public health department.
And they said very early on, thanks but no thanks, we're keeping our restaurants open.
Other cities use the county health department.
And they are now saying, including Whittier, Palmdale, Beverly Hills, they are now saying, we want to explore coming up with our own health department or getting together with other cities and creating an independent health department.
So we don't have to listen to this woman who's destroying our cities.
So that one person is making, just to clarify, that one person is making this decision.
Yes.
And I have to reiterate over and over and over again, is not a medical doctor.
She has a PhD in social welfare.
Do you have any other remarks?
You have any other thoughts?
Well, I just, I hope this state opens up.
Because if California doesn't work, the nation doesn't work.
We're the biggest state in the Union.
We have more people than any other state.
And we have industries that the entire country relies on.
Our economy is bigger than most countries.
I think we're the seventh largest economy in the world.
If we don't fix this state, if this state doesn't function, we are all in trouble.
And so while a lot of people I know move out of state because it's too expensive, because they're tired of being on house arrest, because their businesses have been destroyed, and I understand all of those things.
It is still important for those of us who stay here to dig in our heels and fight for the survivability of this state.
Because if we don't, we're all in trouble.
Well, thank you.
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