As cable news hosts trash President Trump for daring to ask about what comes next as America fights the coronavirus epidemic, there’s a new report out in the Orlando Sentinel that the drop in sales tax revenue is about to hit the state of Florida “hard”:
New: Florida's finances are about to get hit.
— Jason Garcia (@Jason_Garcia) March 24, 2020
Florida, which has no state income tax, relies on the sales tax for “nearly $4 of every $5 in the state’s roughly $33 billion general revenue fund”:
“The sales tax is — by far — the state’s most important revenue source, responsible for nearly $4 of every $5 in the state’s roughly $33 billion general revenue fund.”
Flatlining sales due to #COVID19 are about to hammer Florida’s budget. Read @Jason_Garcia’s latest: https://t.co/eCVqfTQUa7
— Jeff Weiner (@JeffWeinerOS) March 24, 2020
The state won’t have a model for how bad things are until “mid- or late-May”? Gulp:
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Florida's top economists are building new forecast models based on the economic impact of previous pandemics, from the 1918 Spanish Flu to SARS, MERS and H1N1.
But it will likely be mid- or late-May before they have enough data to credibly estimate how much revenues will fall.
— Jason Garcia (@Jason_Garcia) March 24, 2020
This is why the president is right to start this conversation now:
A vital and very serious debate is under way about the dangers of either restarting the economy too soon and risking more Wuhan virus infections, or keeping it shut down for too long and causing severe, lasting damage. No one should think this is an easy or obvious choice.
— John Hayward (@Doc_0) March 24, 2020
It’s not just “dollars vs. lives.” In the very near future, this will be a functioning government or not:
It's not just a question of balancing "dollars vs. lives" or anything so facile. Lives are also at stake if the economy is damaged too severely. There is a point at which the people who die from a depression would greatly exceed fatalities from the coronavirus.
— John Hayward (@Doc_0) March 24, 2020
Oh, and things aren’t even as bad as they could get:
Take whatever you think the unemployment numbers are gonna be and triple it. It’s gonna be that bad. People are gonna be aghast.
— Jesse Kelly (@JesseKellyDC) March 23, 2020
We’re not sure what industry he’s talking about, but there are report the entire airline industry is in talks to shut down:
18 million. Eight. Teen. MILLION.
Just talked to someone in a certain industry who says that’s the number from their industry alone that are about to be laid off.
18 million. From one industry.
Shutting down this economy was the biggest economic mistake in world history.
— Jesse Kelly (@JesseKellyDC) March 23, 2020
Again, gulp:
Coronavirus Outbreak Puts 37 Million U.S. Jobs at Risk https://t.co/cfco80GydU
— Jack Murphy (@jackmurphylive) March 23, 2020
And so should everyone on cable news:
I feel sick
— Jesse Kelly (@JesseKellyDC) March 23, 2020
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