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No, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick Did Not Say America Should Sacrifice Seniors to Save the Economy

No, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick Did Not Say America Should Sacrifice Seniors to Save the Economy

Patrick said that if Trump “says we need another week, I trust his judgement. But we have to have a time certain. We can’t say in three months or six months or twelve months. These businesses can’t wait that long.”

https://youtu.be/a9k-GeCtK9o

When I first had a chance to read comments Texas Lt. Gov Patrick made on Tucker Carlson’s program Monday night, I gasped at first, understanding why my elderly mom and others who read what was reported by major news outlets could have gotten so spooked.

But Patrick’s comments, in which he talked about how the U.S. economy could not shut down for a three-month-period, were wildly taken out of context by many media outlets, as I soon learned. Here’s a rare example of how they were reported somewhat fairly by The Hill:

“No one reached out to me and said, as a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves for your children and grandchildren? And if that’s the exchange, I’m all in,” Patrick, who turns 70 next week, said during an appearance on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News program on Monday night.

[…]

While discussing Trump’s remarks during his appearance on Fox News on Monday night, Patrick said he thinks Americans “should wait out his time, and if he says we need another week, I trust his judgement.”

“But we have to have a time certain,” he continued. “We cant say in three months, or six months, or twelve months. These businesses can’t wait that long.”

“So, my message is that, let’s get back to work, let’s get back to living, let’s be smart about it, and those of us who are 70-plus, we’ll take care of ourselves but don’t sacrifice the country,” Patrick said at another point during his appearance. “Don’t do that.”

Here are several examples of sensationalistic headlines about Patrick’s remarks:

NY Daily News: Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick suggests elderly should die to save economy from coronavirus
WaPo: Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick comes under fire for saying seniors should ‘take a chance’ on their own lives for sake of grandchildren during coronavirus crisis
CNN: Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick: ‘I’m all in’ on risking my health to lift social distancing guidelines for economic boost
LA Times: Sacrifice the old to help the economy? Texas official’s remark prompts backlash
Vanity Fair: Texas Lt. Governor: Old People Should Volunteer to Die to Save the Economy

Not only were headlines like that dangerously irresponsible, but nearly every single news report I read (outside of The Hill’s) about Patrick’s comments left out the beginning of Carlson’s segment and towards the end of it. It’s in those two areas of the segment where Patrick made it clear he was okay with Trump’s timeline. He said nothing about us getting back to normal right now while amid this pandemic.

Carlson started by reading a text Patrick had sent him in which he noted that he wasn’t speaking for all 70+ seniors, but that he felt like many grandparents want their grandchildren to “live in the America I did.” Patrick went on to say in the text message that the virus, which “experts say 98% of all people will survive is killing our country in a another way.”

Stating the Wuhan Coronavirus could “bring about a total economic collapse” or cause our entire society to collapse, Patrick said “let’s give this a few more days or weeks. But after that, let’s go back to work and go back to living.”

He went on to say in the text message that those who want to shelter in place can still do so, but that “we can’t live with this uncertainty.”

During the segment, Patrick made sure to note that everyone should follow the CDC’s guidelines. Noting he was “going to do everything” he could “to live,” Patrick said “we’ve got a choice here … we’re going to be in a total collapse, recession, depression, collapse in our society.”

Patrick then warned that if this “goes on another several more months, there won’t be any job to come back to for many people. So I’m going to be smart,” and other grandparents would, too, because they want to live for a long time and spend time with their grandkids. But “our biggest gift we give to our country and our children and our grandchildren is the legacy of our country. And right now that is at risk,” he said.

Noting the mortality rate for Wuhan Coronavirus cases is low, Patrick wondered if the entire country had to be shut down. “I think we can get back to work,” he said, affirming that he believed in Trump’s timeline for evaluating and reevaluating. “I think we should wait out his time, and if he says we need another week, I trust his judgement. But we have to have a time certain. We can’t say in three months or six months or twelve months. These businesses can’t wait that long.”

Watch the full segment below:

It’s clear what he was saying. We should wait this out a few weeks and reevaluate as Trump has said to determine when we can get the country moving again because this country cannot sustain itself if its people aren’t working and being productive and providing for their families.

There was nothing whatsoever in there about forcing seniors to sacrifice their lives “for the economy.” There was nothing in there about asking them to do anything of the sort “in the middle of the pandemic.” Patrick was just saying that this could not go on indefinitely, that at some point, we needed to try and move forward for the sake of those who come after us and that if we waited too long, the country we know and love would cease to exist.

I find it appalling how what Patrick said is being misreported by so many media outlets. Still, frankly I’m not surprised, considering how they ran with the “elderly couple drinking fish tank cleaner” story and decided to blame it on Trump. I can’t prove it for sure, but I’d be almost willing to bet money most “journalists” who reported on Patrick’s interview with Carlson did so based on the deceptively shortened clip that was posted by Media Matters.

In both the fish tank cleaner story and this one, the mainstream media engaged in highly erroneous reporting that needlessly scared senior citizens – including my parents – at a time when their fears are running high, and their nerves are on edge.

I’d say “shame on them,” but I really don’t think most national media journalists have any.

— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —

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Comments

2smartforlibs | March 25, 2020 at 11:07 am

No need for the propaganda machine to give the facts when they can push a narravtive

Epitaph commonly seen on gravestones when many understood the realities of life,

Reader beware as you pass by
As you are now
so once was I
As I am now
so you will be
Prepare therefore to follow me

Whether he said it or not, who can dispute it? If the only choices were to destroy the entire economy or to let the virus run its course, who in their right mind would choose the former? Saving lives is not and cannot be our only or our first priority; if it were we could have no freedoms, no progress, nothing worth living for.

Not only that but every blow to the economy costs lives too; destroying it would undoubtedly kill more people than the virus ever could.

    alaskabob in reply to Milhouse. | March 25, 2020 at 1:37 pm

    In any rescue operation….killing the rescuer is not an option. In this case, one needs a strong economy and available resources to fight a crisis. Since we really do not know how bad Wuhan virus really is… thank you ChiComs… the risks are uncertain, but doing nothing and spinning down the WORLD’S economy only serves the doomsayers. Civilization has a price tag… and one with our values usually costs more.

Meanwhile, Pelosi and Schumer are dithering in an attempt to lower DJT’s approval overall and corona virus response approval ratings, threatening damage to the country and the ruin of many of its citizens in order to improve their chances in the presidential election.

Per bite me all this can be summed up in 3 words – TDS.

“I’d say “shame on them,” but I really don’t think most national media journalists have any.”

Nor do they care.

The news is now showing Cuomo’s daily news brief. I think he just likes to lecture everyone. Yesterday, he was hysterical about the ventilators. Someone must have talked to him about the realities of producing a machine, since he talked about needing knowledge about how the machine is made, the supply chain issues, etc. He keeps repeating that he’ll give the machines to other states, once his crisis is over. Do you believe him?

Gees, someone just asked where the 4,000 FEMA ventilators will go and Cuomo just said he’ll put them in a stockpile and allocate them to hospitals as they need them. So, he is preventing another state that needs them right now.

He also said that the US gov. does not have a stockpile – perhaps it is because the extras are going to the various pop-up hospitals in NY another places?

    fscarn in reply to Liz. | March 25, 2020 at 12:13 pm

    “He keeps repeating that he’ll give the machines to other states, once his crisis is over. Do you believe him?”

    Believe/trust a Democrat or a Muslim at your peril.

    notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital in reply to Liz. | March 25, 2020 at 12:31 pm

    You do know don’t you that Cuomo

    DELIBERATELY REFUSED

    to Buy the Ventilators

    some time back before this DEM-PANIC as started.

      Give them some – but not all. Tell them to ration them. Take turns breathing. 😉

      Sorry, that isn’t true. There was never any proposal that NY should buy 18,000 ventilators and keep them on ice, just in case something like this might happen. So there was nothing he “refused” to do. Betsy McCaughey’s opinion piece merely pointed out that the state could have done it. Lots of people could have done it; each of us could have bought a ventilator just in case, but I don’t hear anyone saying we’re at fault for not having done so.

I certainly appreciate the message of hope, optimism, bold response to the Dem message of fear, doom, gloom and oppression.

When this is said and done, I hope there will be rational discussion about the response – perhaps never in the media – but between rational thinking people. I.e., IF as suspected the mortality rate for ordinary influenza proves higher than for Wuhan, why has there never been such a response (quarantine – declaration of disaster, etc.) for the flu? Hopefully a few of the young will see that the politicians manipulated this for gain and cure them of the socialism craziness.

Ask a small business owner how long they can stay down with zero income and make a comeback 3 months from now.

texansamurai | March 25, 2020 at 7:09 pm

“So, my message is that, let’s get back to work, let’s get back to living, let’s be smart about it, and those of us who are 70-plus, we’ll take care of ourselves but don’t sacrifice the country,” Patrick said at another point during his appearance. “Don’t do that.”
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this is pretty clear to me–what he meant by this(but didn’t verbalize the same as he didn’t figure his audience was full of dumbasses)was ” those of us over seventy will take care of ourselves, we’ll be all right–don’t fuss over us–do what you have to do to save our country, our way of life “

Former Governor Richard Lamm gives a speech where he claims that old people have “a duty to die”, to stop wasting precious resources and to get out of the way. His speech was not condemned; the proposal was seriously argued for quite some time among the glitterati of the scribbler service.

Ezekiel Emmanuel announced that he does not intend to live beyond age 75, because the expected decline in mental acuity is not something he cares to live with. He wrote his Whole Life plan for ObamaCare as the way to allocate scarce medical resources by denying them to the elderly since they have lived their lives, and to the very young because we don’t have much invested in them yet. He is acclaimed as a leading bio-ethecist.

texansamurai | March 26, 2020 at 7:11 pm

lamm is(and has been for a long time)a loon–lord

emmanuel’s brother is doing a helluva job with chicago–must be following ezekiel’s advice–afer all, was good enough for the kenyan/pelosi when they screwed americans with ocare