If the federal government pays people not to work for too long, when the government decides its time to get back to work, many people will not. Coronavirus 2019 relief will be abused and misused, especially when it’s time to get the United States back to work.

The amount of money being printed and spent in the name of COVID-19 relief is astonishing.  On March 6, 2020 President Trump signed an $8.3 billion emergency coronavirus spending package.  On March 27, 2020 the President signed the largest financial stimulus rescue package ever in the history of the United States.  The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act is a $2.2 TRILLION monster that will flood our economy with new DEBT notes while doing little to actually get people back to work.  That’s 2,200,000,000,000 dollars.  It is hard to imagine how much money $2.2 trillion really is so let’s have a look.

How much does $2.2 trillion weigh if it is all in $100 bills?  Well $1 trillion in $100 bills weighs 22,006,244 pounds – that’s 22 million, 6 hundred thousand, two hundred forty-four pounds!   Divided by 2000 (2000 pounds equals 1 ton) equals 11,003 tons!  Just imagine 11,003 tons of $100 bills!   $2.2 trillion in $100 bills weighs approximately 24,207 tons!  To put 24,207 tons of 100-dollar bills into perspective – it would take approximately 600 tractor trailer trucks to haul $2.2 trillion in $100 bills.  The bottom line – it’s not a ton of money – it’s 24,207 tons of money – all in $100 bills! 

The population of the United States today is estimated at 330,568,224 people.  If the $2.2 trillion had simply been divided by the current population, each person in the United States, regardless of age, gender, race, or net worth, would get a check for $6,655.21.  You want to jump start the economy – do that and see what happens.  It’s still debt, but at least it’s in the right hands. 

We know that many of our elected officials at all levels – city, county, state, and federal, along with millions of bureaucrats are on a power trip like they have never experienced before.  The power is intoxicating.  Some of them will be very reluctant to let it go. To be able to tell Americans to stay in their houses, with few exceptions, and to have the power to fine, arrest, and incarcerate any individual that fails to respect the authority is totalitarianism dressed up as public safety.  Americans would be wise to break free from this oppression right now.  When law enforcement can stop any person traveling for no other purpose than to ask “Where are you going?” and “Where are you coming from?” the soul of LIBERTY is broken.  The longer we let these city, county, and statewide State of Emergency proclamations stand, the greater the chance is that greater methods of government monitoring and control will become part of our lives. 

The mainstream mantra now is test, test, test.  That, they tell us is the way to get America back to work.  There is nothing wrong with making testing available to as many people as possible.  However, if a person gets tested and is told he or she tested negative for COVID-19, then what?  The person will be relieved for sure, but they are not immune!  A negative test result will give a false sense of security for many people.  They’ll go about their business – letting people know that they were tested and the results were negative.  Fantastic, right?  The problem is people can and will contract the virus after testing negative.  So testing is great, but it has its limits.  To get America back to work now, we should conduct ourselves as if every person is COVID-19 positive. 

Do you know how much personal protective equipment (PPE) that $6,655.21 could have purchased?  Even at today’s price gouging prices, every American could have a few thousand masks, gowns, and gloves to keep safe from the virus.  The amount of hand sanitizer, soap, paper towels, and disinfectant spray that could have been purchased along with the PPE would have been enough for every American to adequately shield themselves from COVID-19, as well as the common flu.

If grocery stores, hardware stores, pharmacies, and other “essential” businesses can be open, then so can clothing stores, electronics stores, music stores, and any other retail outlet so long as the retailer only allows customers in the store if they are wearing personal protective equipment.  This is as simple as face covering that covers the mouth and nose.  All employees would be required to where protective masks.  As a courtesy, the retailer may decide to offer hand sanitizer, protective gloves, and even masks to their customers. 

Manufacturers that can operate while keeping workers safe in PPE, should be allowed to open.  Again, masks, hand-washing and sanitizing, eye protection, aprons, and so forth…it’s cheaper for our country to make the PPE readily available to the American worker and business owner than to leave our economy in neutral any longer.  If chicken processing plants can be open because they are processing food, then any other assembly line should be open so long as the employees are protected. 

If this is the focus – To get America back to work now, we should conduct ourselves as if every person is COVID-19 positive – the United States could get our economy moving again.  Other than dine in restaurants, bars, coffee shops, etc., America can, and should get back to work.  We cannot let the nanny state rule our lives.  We cannot let yellow-bellied mayors and governors who are afraid of being blamed for COVID-19 deaths (many of which are actual deaths from other causes), sit idle while our local businesses are bankrupted by the lack of vision and leadership.  And most important, for those elected officials that are on a power trip, it’s time to unplug them by collectively just going about our business.  Safely, let’s get the United States back to work.