Sen. Cruz: ‘Our Priority Now Needs to Be the Immediacy of Beating This Pandemic’

HOUSTON, Texas - As the coronavirus continues to spread across the country, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) this morning appeared on Fox Business' ‘Mornings with Maria', The Hugh Hewitt Show, and The Mark Davis Show to discuss the $2 trillion in emergency relief that is on its way to the American people and continued steps the Trump Administration and Congress must take to defeat COVID-19 and save lives.

While on Fox Business with Maria Bartiromo, Sen. Cruz explained the Chinese Communist Party's involvement in this pandemic:

"The decisions of the Chinese government played a critical part in causing the pandemic to be as bad as it is. They suppressed information. They held out international health experts. They covered it up. They punished the whistleblowers. They did everything they could to hide the public health crisis that was spreading right in front of them. And had they not done so, the chances are we could have stepped in, and saved many, many more lives.

He continued, noting that China must be held accountable for its role in spreading this deadly disease:

"The Chinese Government has explicitly threatened cutting off life-saving medicines to America as economic warfare. And that's not just economic warfare, that's real warfare when you start killing people. We should not allow ourselves to be vulnerable and captive to a nation that behaves and considers itself our enemy. And I think that is going to prove one of the great challenges of the decade and centuries ahead. Decoupling from China and ensuring that we can be strong without China having that much control over us.

"Our priority now needs to be the immediacy of beating this pandemic. Once we defeat it, there needs to be serious careful inquiry into what the hell happened, how could it have been stopped and how could we have saved all of the lives that are being lost right now through this terrible disease."

While on the Hugh Hewitt Show, Sen. Cruz discussed how CARES Act will provide critical relief for the American people:

"Last week, we passed over $2 trillion dollars in emergency relief legislation. Let me start by saying the price tag is a big deal. $2 trillion dollars is an enormous amount of spending for the federal government. That's about 10 percent of our national debt that we spent in one day. And in ordinary circumstances, that never would have happened. These are not ordinary circumstances. This is a crisis, a public health crisis, and also a devastating economic crisis as millions of Americans have lost their jobs.

"I call it a relief package, because it's designed to help people who are hurting as a direct consequence of government policies that have been implemented to stop this global pandemic.

"One very important element of the bill is individual relief. Every American in the country, if you make $100,000 dollars or less, you're getting a check in the mail from the U.S. government. If you make $75,000 dollars or less, you're going to get a check for $1,200 per adult. That means a couple making $150,000 dollars or less will get a check for $2,400 dollars. And for kids, you get $500 dollars per kid. So a couple with three kids will be getting a check for $3,900 dollars. That's real money. That's designed to be an emergency bridge loan to people that are hurting."

While on the Mark Davis Show, Sen. Cruz laid out his all-hands-on-deck approach for combatting coronavirus and saving lives, specifically calling on the administration and his colleagues in Congress to focus on four critical priorities:

"Number one, testing. It needs to be much more widespread. It needs to be more accurate. I've laid out specific steps to the Administration we can take to move in that direction.

"Number two, protective gear. We need protective gear on the ground. Our first responders need it. Our healthcare workers need it to keep them safe.

"Number three, critical medical equipment. Things like ICU beds. Things like ventilators. [...] We want to make sure we have all of the ventilators we need so that we can provide life-saving medical care.

"And finally fourth, we need to be accelerating medical research and development towards a vaccine, towards an effective treatment, and ultimately towards a cure for COVID-19."

Sen. Cruz also discussed the RESULTs for Coronavirus Patients Act, legislation he introduced to fast-track approval for certain drugs and devices to combat COVID-19:

"I have for a long time championed legislation to reform how the FDA does its approval. [...] It's structural change. It says if any pharmaceutical, if any medical device, is approved in another major developed country, in Europe, or Canada that the FDA has 30 days to approve it here.

"I do think one of the positive consequences of this crisis is [that] we are seeing some of these bureaucratic processes be streamlined. I hope that principle will follow through, not just in this crisis, but going forward as well."

For more information and additional resources, visit www.cruz.senate.gov/coronavirus/. 

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