Tucker Carlson breaks down Mitt Romney’s ‘well meaning, but foolish’ $1,000 giveaway plan

Screengrab Fox News

Tucker Carlson may not have realized it, but his take on Sen. Mitt Romney’s proposal to gift every American $1,000 was an accurate description of the senator himself.

“Well meaning, but foolish.”

On Monday, the Republican senator from Utah called for “urgent” measures to fight against the coronavirus pandemic. Among the things Romney spoke of was a $1,000 stipend to every American adult, courtesy of the US government, which is funded by taxpayers, of course.

(The price tag for the largess is estimated at $200 billion.)

“Every American adult should immediately receive $1,000 to help ensure families and workers can meet their short-term obligations and increase spending in the economy,” Romney said in the release.

The proposal calls to mind the campaign gimmick by failed Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Lang, who proposed a universal basic income of $1000 a month to every America who can fog a mirror.

On Monday’s edition of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” while discussing the coronavirus pandemic, Carlson remarked on an estimate that a million people could suddenly find themselves without jobs.

He then referenced Romney’s idea.

“That’s likely a well-meaning idea, a lot of smart people are behind it, but it’s also decadent and foolish,” the Fox News host said. “Name a place that’s become happier and more prosperous under a scheme like that.”

“Indian reservations? The inner city? Rural areas where half the male population gets monthly disability checks?” Carlson continued. “Or for that matter, if we’re being honest, how many happily idle inherited money people do you know? Rich people? None, they’re all drunk. Of course they are. People need to work, they want to work.”

He went on to say that work “gives them meaning and purpose and dignity,” citing Germany as an example of this.

“Happily, there is a model in progress for how we can save work,” Carlson said. “It’s underway now in Germany.”

“The German government runs a program called Kurzarbeit. It means ‘short time,'” he said.” Employees are encouraged not to lay off their workers but instead place them on reduced hours. The government then steps in to compensate some of those missing wages to help the companies with payroll.”

He explains that the program would cost more than Romney’s giveaway, but it will keep people on their jobs.

(The idea also throws the concept of fiscally responsible, limited government in the waste bin.)

“It’s also straightforward, unlike so many of the double-secret backward tax rebate programs the geniuses in Congress are always coming up with and telling you, you should love and be happy with,” Carlson said. “But you don’t ever understand them, and neither do they.”

He pointed to the 2008 financial crisis to say Germany’s economy shrank by a higher proportion than here in America, but that Germany’s unemployment rate actually fell and labor force participation increased.

“So amazingly, in the middle of an economic contraction, a bad recession, more people were working than before,” Carlson concluded. “That’s the key as we look forward to turbulent times. Employment, stability, meaningful work — if you want to help people weather this crisis, the one that’s coming, save their jobs. It’s that clear.”

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