Breitbart Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told Breitbart News on Saturday that he is moving to reopen his state’s economy starting next week because the United States depends on Texas’s success to thrive.
Abbott, in an appearance on Breitbart News Saturday on SiriusXM 125 the Patriot Channel, said that Texas is “the economic engine of America” and must reopen now that the coronavirus crisis is in decline. Texas, he noted, is the world’s 10th largest economy on its own.
“As you and your listeners probably know, Texas has always been ranked number one in the United States for creating jobs and for leading in economic development and for gross domestic product. Texas is the economic engine of America,” Abbott said. “For America to get going, Texas has to get going. By God, Texas is getting going now.”
Abbott launched a series of executive orders on Friday this week to begin phasing in the immediate reopening of the Texas economy next week—ahead of schedule. Starting on Monday, the state’s parks will reopen. Then on Wednesday, Texans will be able to begin undergoing elective medical procedures again. On Friday, the state will roll out a “Retail to Go” effort whereby retailers in the state will be allowed to operate the way restaurants have, where consumers can order items online or over the phone and then pick them up at the store or have them delivered to their homes. The following Monday, April 27, the “strike force” Abbott has assembled will deliver more reopening recommendations on how to get the state booming again.
“So what I rolled out yesterday is this massive team making sure Texas is going to take a lead as we open up the state, and Texas is doing business again,” Abbott said. “What the team is doing is they are working from now all the way until April 27th. On April 27th, we will come out with recommendations for certain types of businesses that can open up in strategic, safe ways to make sure we’re not spreading the coronavirus, but also to make sure we’re going to be able to get people going back to work in May. Then, on top of that, we’re not even waiting until May, because I announced several proposals on top of that. One is you have too many doctors and nurses who have been sidelined as a result of an order to try free up hospital rooms and what’s called PPE [personal protective equipment]—the masks and gloves and all that kind of stuff. We wanted to make sure we would be prepared for the worst case scenario in the event we did have a spike in the coronavirus in Texas. Well it turned out all these forecasts that were made about all the dire circumstances and results that could have existed here—like what we saw in New York, like what we saw in New Jersey, like what we saw in some other states—they didn’t happen in Texas. As a result, we have an abundance of hospital rooms, we have an abundance of PPE, we have an abundance of availability for doctors and nurses to go back to work and begin to perform procedures that their patients desperately need. So, allow more surgery to take place. I also opened up our parks, but I did something else, because we know that one sector hit the hardest right now has been the retail sector. There are retail businesses going out of business and we cannot allow that to happen. So what I did is we allowed what’s called ‘Retail to Go.’ Retail to Go works exactly the way restaurants have been working in the state of Texas in this regard: Restaurants are closed but it doesn’t mean they aren’t allowed to serve people. What restaurants are able to do is you can place an order with a restaurant and you can go to the restaurant and pick it up or they can deliver it to your home. It’s worked well without spreading the coronavirus, so we want the exact same thing with regard to every retail outlet. Imagine any type of store—a clothing store, a jewelry story, whatever kind of store—we want to make sure that every retail outlet in the state of Texas is able to sell their products. You can order their products online or on the phone, however you want to order it, and then go and just pick it up or have them deliver it to you. This will get so many more retailers employing people again and opening their doors back again and in the future they’re going to be able to start making some money and it will get the products people want into their hands.”
Abbott explained the timeline of events next, beginning with reopening the parks in the state on Monday, then the elective medical procedures and surgeries on Wednesday, then Retail to Go on Friday.
“The first thing that happens is on Monday, the parks reopen on Monday. I would have done it beginning today but we had to get all the parks employees and staff up and running to be able to deal with reopening,” Abbott said. “So, parks open up again on Monday. On the surgery, I had a pre-existing executive order that was set to end on the 21st ,so I will allow that to end on its own terms on the 21st, and on the surgery it will begin on the 22nd when these doctors and nurses are able to begin performing more surgeries. Retail to Go begins next Friday, so six days from now—that will give these retailers the time to figure out the strategies on how to operate but also more importantly to begin advertising in connection with their consumers so they can let their consumers know they are going to be open and try to start—they can begin, if you would, the process of selling to consumers right now so the consumers can start coming up next Friday to start picking up everything they might start buying this weekend.”
Meanwhile, Abbott’s strike force is working on a plan for every element of the Texas economy and will report back to the governor on Monday, April 27, on how to get everything reopened soon.