Longtime United States Senator Roger Wicker joined The Gallo Show on Monday morning to discuss the ongoing effects of the coronavirus.
His Plan
For Wicker, the key to the pandemic is testing.
“If we had adequate testing, the rest of us could go back to work,” Wicker said. “What we need is a major Manhattan project to manufacture over 300 million tests.”
Wicker’s goal is for factories across the nation to work together to produce enough tests so that every American citizen could be tested.
According to Wicker, the people who test positive will be quarantined, and the people who test negative can return to a working economy.
“But just think if we could all be tested and we could know that everybody in the office place or everybody on the floor of the workplace didn’t have the disease, then our economy would be back where it ought to be.”
The Stimulus Bill
On March 26, the Senate unanimously voted 96-0 in favor of a $2 trillion stimulus package.
“That 2.2 trillion-dollar price tag is astounding to most of us, but it is designed in a way to get our economy going again,” Wicker said. “The provisions are that most of this money will be paid back to the taxpayers with interest.”
The legislation includes nearly $350 billion for small businesses, $500 billion in loan funding for major industries, expanded unemployment benefits, and a one-item $1,200 payment to most Americans.
Iran
As of now, the country of Iran has over 60,500 positive cases, and many believe this virus could be the end of the Iranian regime.
Even before the outbreak, the regime was already struggling with internal contradictions. Now, the coronavirus could be the final nail in the coffin as Iranian religious officials tend to reject the use of modern medicine.
Over two dozen members of the Iranian Parliament have been reported to have the disease.
“That regime will eventually fall, and we need to be prepared to help the freedom-loving people of this Persian region,” Wicker said.
Ingalls Shipbuilding
Earlier this week, Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula was awarded a $1.5 billion contract by the U.S. Navy.
The contract will go towards the construction of a San Antonio-class amphibious ship and is intended to help the company mitigate the destabilizing effects of the coronavirus outbreak on its workforce.
“At the end of the day, if you spend money on ships and United States highways and military aircraft…you have a huge, valuable asset that makes your country stronger,” Wicker said.
