Sen. Graham's 'wartime' battle plan to kill coronavirus
Senator Lindsey Graham lays out how Congress plans be defeat coronavirus and how he plans to provide financial aid to families in need
Americans are at war with the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and Congress is trying to restore Americans' income to aid the effort against the outbreak, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Wednesday.
In an interview on "Fox & Friends," Graham said the country is "moving to a wartime footing."
"How do you kill the virus?" he asked. "You deny it human contact. The battle plan is no social gatherings, no eating out, no school, no sports, staying basically hunkered down in place, reduced work opportunity, living off less income – that's how we kill the virus. Unlike 9/11, where one percent of Americans had been fighting the terrorist, 100 percent of us are foot soldiers in this battle."
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"So, if you're out of work," he continued further, "the Congress is going to try to give you a paycheck. Not a one-time check."
"The unemployment insurance system never envisioned everybody being unemployed at one time. The Small Business Administration never envisioned all the small businesses needing loans," he added. "So, this package we are working on called 'Phase Three' is designed, in my view, to give people income to get through this."
Graham told the "Friends" hosts that the premise of "Phase Three" is based on distributing government-supplemented unemployment insurance payments nationwide.
"I'm willing to pay 75 percent of people's income up to $80,000 to get us through that," he remarked. "This ought to be enough money to get us through the next six to eight weeks."
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"I want to restore your income. I don't want to give you a thousand dollars and say good luck. I want an income stream," said Graham.
"But, we have to work together like people are at home," he concluded.
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