On New Podcast, Gov. Bill Lee Talks Juggling Public Safety Versus Keeping Tennessee’s Economy Going

 

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said this week that protecting public safety while also protecting the state’s small businesses during COVID-19 is his administration’s primary “balancing act” and it was “heartbreaking” to watch small businesses close.

Lee also said he and other state officials used stimulus money to help the state’s business owners.

Lee discussed this on a new episode of the Beacon Center of Tennessee’s Over-Caffeinated podcast. Beacon is a right-of-center think tank.

“As a small business guy, the idea of the government requiring me to close my business goes philosophically against what most of us actually believe should be happening, except in the case where there is an imminent public threat,” Lee said.

“We now know more about what is happening here. We also recognize it’s not just about people’s lives but their livelihoods.”

Lee also said Tennessee had to keep its economy going even as he and other state officials worked to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, knowing some people would get it and even die from it.

“When the federal government decided to give states stimulus money through the CARES Act, one of the very first things we did was pull aside $200 million and designate it for small business relief, companies that are $10 million in revenue and below. We developed a plan for that. That was in addition to $200 million we put in the state budget for businesses to use against Coronavirus relief,” Lee said.

“We had just announced last week $83 million more. My belief about stimulus money is it ought to go to businesses. That is how you’re going to stimulate the economy. That is how you’re going to keep them moving. That is how you are going to keep people’s jobs coming back. It’s been heartbreaking to watch small businesses close.”

Beacon President Justin Owen, meanwhile, said on the podcast that government “can protect both lives and livelihoods.”

“It doesn’t have to be one or the other. And I think the people who have misjudged this, particularly other governors in some states, are under this false assumption that they can just shut on and off the economy like it’s a light switch. You can’t do that. It affects real people,” Owen said.

“And there’s also this element of elitism that ‘If everyone just goes home and works on the laptop at their kitchen table for a few months that we’ll be OK.’ For the vast majority of workers in our country that’s not feasible. You can’t do that. Their work is in a plant. Their work is in a grocery store and in places where they have to physically be. To say that they are not essential is really a slap in the face. I’ve never met a person who said my paycheck is not essential to me.”

During the podcast, Lee said that a lack of civility in politics “does not contribute well to the dialogue in this state.”

Lee also said that, academically, children learn better in person, at school.

“We already have enough deficit in learning that we don’t need to add to that,” Lee said.

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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Bill Lee” by Bill Lee.