[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 197 (Thursday, November 19, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H5935-H5936]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  IN DEFENSE OF GOVERNOR GAVIN NEWSOM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. McClintock) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I rise this morning in defense of 
Governor Gavin Newsom, who recently defied his own idiotic COVID edicts 
as he partied at one of the few restaurants that has not yet been 
forced out of business. I defend him because he was doing what we once 
all did in a free society, make our own decisions over what risks we 
are willing to run and what precautions we are willing to take 
according to our own circumstances to protect our own health.
  Yes, COVID is a nasty bug, and a quarter of a million Americans have 
died while having it, but this isn't the bubonic plague. The CDC's best 
estimate is that if you are under 49, your chance for surviving COVID, 
if you get it, is 99.92 percent. Even if you are over 70, you have a 
94.6 percent rate of recovery. Forty percent who get it, don't even 
know they have it. And yet we have allowed our officials to ruin our 
quality of life over it, destroying countless businesses, throwing tens 
of millions into unemployment, robbing our children of their 
educations, and shredding our most cherished rights as Americans.
  Governor Newsom's night of partying should be a wake-up call for 
every American.
  Every time we step outside our homes, the risks that we face 
multiply. A free society assumes that its citizens are competent to 
assess those risks, balance them against the avoidance costs, and to 
manage their decisions in a generally responsible way. It is called 
common sense, and it is a necessary prerequisite for self-government 
and liberty.
  The choices of an octogenarian with emphysema might be very different 
from those of a healthy Governor from California. Only a fool would 
claim the omniscience to make an informed judgment for every person in 
every circumstance in every community. Yet sadly, this crisis has 
revealed that fools abound in public office, and that a fool with power 
can quickly become a petty tyrant.
  Which brings us back to Governor Newsom. These government nannies 
love to tell us that they are just following the science. Well, what 
does this science actually tell us? It tells us that COVID poses 
virtually no risk to children but can be severe among the elderly. So 
what did these lockdown leftists do? They closed all the schools and 
ordered infected patients into nursing homes.
  The science tells us that outdoor transmissions of the virus are 
extremely rare, and that 80 percent of infections occur in people's 
homes. So what did these lockdown leftists do? They closed our beaches, 
parks, and campgrounds and ordered people to stay at home.
  The science tells us that obesity is a contributing factor to the 
severity of the disease. So what did these lockdown leftists do? They 
closed all the gyms and kept the liquor stores open.
  The lockdowns haven't saved lives. The States with the most stringent 
lockdowns generally have the highest mortality rates from COVID. Utah

[[Page H5936]]

stayed open while next door, Colorado shut down. Utah currently has 
half the COVID mortality rate and three-fourths the unemployment rate 
as Colorado. But the lockdowns have cost countless lives from suicides, 
drug and alcohol abuse, domestic violence, and deferred health 
screenings and treatments.
  Recently, Governor Newsom demanded that restaurant diners replace 
their masks after every bite, but also minimize the times they are 
taken off. I guess that means you take really big bites. Thanksgiving 
dinners are allowed in California, but only when they are held outside, 
guests are seated 6 feet apart, and they last no more than 2 hours. Now 
it is all right to use the bathroom, but only if it is frequently 
sanitized, otherwise presumably you will just have to use the bushes. 
And for God's sake, no singing.
  I have wondered how much longer the American people are going to 
tolerate this nonsense.
  So let us not criticize Governor Newsom. Perhaps he has just offered 
us all deliverance from his own folly.
  Nor should we criticize the California legislators who ignored travel 
and quarantine restrictions to junket in Hawaii. Nor should we ridicule 
Speaker Pelosi for choosing not to wear a mask in a hair salon that was 
forced to close for the rest of us.
  Good for them. They are demonstrating by their actions the freedom 
that every American citizen needs to reclaim from these very same 
people. The Governor should make his own decisions about running his 
own life. I only ask that he and his ilk would stop telling us how to 
run ours.

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