It’s been nearly two weeks since the state of Alabama ordered so-called non-essential businesses closed, which has had a profound impact on the state’s economy, particularly small businesses.
Some small business owners have since cried fouled, noting the one-stop-shop big-box stores that sell groceries and other so-called essential items are allowed to stay open while the small business is forced to play by a different set of rules.
During an appearance on WVNN’s “The Jeff Poor Show” on Friday, State Sen. Larry Stutts (R-Cherokee) acknowledged the system in place now is picking winners and losers in a beleaguered economy.
“Absolutely, I agree with that 100%,” Stutts said. “The state should not be in the business of picking winners and losers. The stores that are selling essential goods — their sales should be limited to that. I agree with you 100% when the small clothing store in the small town is forced to be closed, but Walmart is open, and they’re selling clothes. That is absolutely wrong, and I think that should be addressed and something that should be restricted.”
“In other countries, I know their population is different than ours,” he continued. “But Sweden took the exact opposite approach. They told everybody that was in a high-risk group to quarantine themselves, and everybody else went about their business. If you have underlying medical conditions or comorbidities… that would make you a poor candidate to survive it, then you could be restricted, but everybody else could go about their normal business. They took exactly kind of the opposite approach. And I guess when it is over, we’ll find out who took the right approach.”
“But I agree with you on winners and losers, and the definition of essential services,” Stutts added. “That’s hard to determine. We don’t need to be hurting small businesses, and what we’ve done certainly has.”
Stutts, also a practicing medical doctor, noted his relationship with State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris and gave him credit for his handling of the pandemic thus far, but added time would come when a hard look would be taken at what the state got right and wrong.
“I think there will be a lot of that going on,” Stutts explained. “Dr. Harris and I were in residency together. I have known Dr. Harris for a long time, the state health officer. And I think he has done an outstanding job. But the fact is — he’s never directly dealt with anything like this before. We’ve not had a pandemic, I guess, since 1918 of this magnitude. There’s nobody there that has ever dealt with this personally. There’s going to be a lot of retrospection of saying, ‘Well, this worked, this didn’t work. If this happens again, this is the way we need to plan it.’ So I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of that.”
@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Alabama, the editor of Breitbart TV, a columnist for Mobile’s Lagniappe Weekly and host of Huntsville’s “The Jeff Poor Show” from 2-5 p.m. on WVNN.
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