Georgia has been "winning" during the COVID-19 pandemic from an economic standpoint but is being "made out to be a loser" through the proposed stimulus bill because of provisions that favor states like California and New York that chose shutdowns over measured approaches to reopen their economies, Gov. Brian Kemp said Wednesday.
"If you look at the way cities around the country are treated, it is equitable, but it's not equitable in regards to the states," Kemp said on CNBC's "Squawk Box." "If they had treated Democrat [states] this way, the national media would be up in arms. All we're asking for is to be treated the same, just like with the previous stimulus packages."
He added that it's a "failed train of thought" to think that more money should go to states whose economies are weaker.
"They're focused on a one-size-fits-all approach that won't work," said Kemp. "They should be targeting the people that have been displaced by the pandemic, and that's different in different states."
He added that people who have lost their jobs and are hurting financially should be receiving far more than the $1,400 promised to everyone.
"Give them $3,000 or $5000 and let them go get, buy them some time new job training to go into the, you know, hundred plus thousand jobs that we have available in the state versus a bailout for past really that blue states have done with pension plans and other things that had nothing to do with COVID," said Kemp.
Meanwhile, he said he thinks Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's decision to completely reopen Texas has come "faster than we thought." Georgia has had many sectors open much of the past year, but it took a "very measured approach" while working with the private sector to keep factories open and never had a mask mandate.
"We have some stipulations on a small segment of the business population just to help protect lives in our state, but we've been for the most part open the whole entire time," said Kemp. "If you look around the country, states that have been locked down, their numbers are not any better than states that have opened."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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