Glenn Beck wants older people to work despite high COVID-19 risk: 'I'd rather die than kill the country'
TV personality Glenn Beck is urging all older Americans to work amid the coronavirus pandemic in order to keep the economy going.
He shared that younger people should be made to stay home in order to protect themselves from the COVID-19 virus while older people who are at greater risk, should keep working. "I would rather have my children stay home and all of us who are over 50 go in and keep this economy going and working," Beck shared.
"Even if we all get sick, I’d rather die than kill the country," he added in comments shared by Media Matters, Huffington Post reports. Beck's comments came after he revealed that he was concerned that the Democrats would "jam down" the Green New Deal in economic stimulus legislation while Americans are home and 'panicked' about the coronavirus pandemic.
His comments seem to imply that sending older people to work would prevent that legislation. "It’s not the economy that’s dying, It’s the country." Beck had been part of the many voices on the right that were opposed to the Affordable Care Act around a decade ago, claiming it would result in 'death panels' that would ration care to determine who should receive lifesaving treatment and who shouldn't.
Around the same time, he had argued that nature or market forces should kill older people instead. Back in 2010, Beck had said, "I would rather have nature off grandma, you know? “I’d rather, I’d rather have the free market off grandma because then nobody is controlling it."
Beck was slammed on Twitter for his comments with social media users telling Beck to sacrifice himself. One user shared, "And the world will be a better place without him. He contributes nothing positive," while another added, "Talk (as well as others lives) is exceptionally cheap to these guys. Don't think a single one has served in a life-threatening situation."
"Then let him die. Be Best. Thoughts and prayers," shared another fan while someone else commented saying, "You and trump go first."
"When did we get to the point that we chose flesh and blood people to line up to die for a ridiculously flawed economic system," a user wrote.
Even though the 'death panels' did not come, Beck is making a much more direct appeal to both nature and markets to "off grandma". Beck's comments come after POTUS Donald Trump who said in Fox News 'Town Hall' that he plans to have the economy back up and running by Easter much against the advice of health officials and medical professionals.
"If we lose those companies, we’re talking about hundreds of thousands of jobs, millions of jobs. The faster we go back, the better it’s going to be," Trump shared. Other officials both Republican and Democrat have not shared Trump's rosy approach to returning to American life so soon.
The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr Anthony Fauci, pushed back on having a specific timeline despite Trump's outlook on Tuesday, March 24. Fauci shared, "You can look at a date, but you've got to be very flexible on a literally day by day and week by week basis."