When the United States went under lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, it tanked the country's economy to protect only 5% of the population, David Stockman, the “father of Reaganomics,” told Newsmax TV.
"We are in a bad economic decline caused by government, caused by the quarantine orders, caused by this insane idea that to protect 5% of the population — the elderly, the frail, people who have existing medical afflictions, serious ones, respiratory, heart and so forth — that we shut down the whole economy," Stockman told Newsmax TV's "The Chris Salcedo Show."
When the coronavirus pandemic struck earlier this year, economic activity fell by 4.8% in the first quarter on an annualized basis. Some economists predict it will plunge in the second quarter by a crippling 34%.
"That was nuts the day that it started, March 13. It was then taken over by the governors and mayors thinking they could shut down their economies and then go to Washington for bailout money, and now the thing is out of hand because it scared the living daylights out of America," Stockman said.
The U.S. unemployment rate hovers near 15% and Stockman said the shutdowns will make it hard to jumpstart the economy.
"Even if people heed Trump's admonition of 'let's reopen the economy and get back to work,' it's going to be a long, slow recovery because we've created hysteria," Stockman said. "Now, I think what Trump has to do is basically fire the malpracticing doctors that gave him such horrible advice in the first place.
Stockman places blame in the laps of the doctors on the coronavirus task force who he said gave the president bad advice on how to curb the spread of coronavirus.
"Get rid of Fauci. Get rid of the scarf lady [Dr. Deborah Birx]. Stop these daily shows of scaring the hell out of the American people by talking about one among the many, many things that cause hardship and even deaths among the American people," Stockman said.
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