Reason Magazine senior editor Jacob Sullum talks to Scott about some of the latest coronavirus news. He comments on President Trump’s headline-making claim that he has the sole authority to decide if and when the economy would reopen, which Sullum asserts really belongs to the governors. Trump has backed away from his claim, but he still appears to support making progress toward reopening businesses sooner rather than later. Doing so would probably be a good thing, says Sullum, since the economic toll of the current measures have already been devastating, and only continue to get worse. Sullum reminds us that political decisions are often made with respect to the obvious consequences, and rarely to the unseen ones. For us, this means that politicians are likely to be overcautious in shutting things down without properly considering the massive toll to both the economy and to human life that is sure to result from such drastic restrictions.

Discussed on the show:

“Trump Can Encourage States to Lift Their COVID-19 Lockdowns, but He Can’t Decree That Outcome (Reason)“The ‘False Debate’ About Reopening the Economy Is the One That Ignores the Enormous Human Cost of Sweeping COVID-19 Control Measures” (Reason)“U.N. warns economic downturn could kill hundreds of thousands of children in 2020” (Reuters)“L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva Says Gun Dealers Are ‘Nonessential.’ The Department of Homeland Security Disagrees.” (Reason/)

Jacob Sullum is a senior editor at Reason and a nationally syndicated columnist. Follow him on Twitter @jacobsullum.

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The following is an automatically generated transcript.

Show TranscriptScott Horton 0:10

All right, shall Welcome to the Scott Horton show. I am the director of the libertarian Institute editorial director of anti war.com, author of the book fool's errand, time to end the war in Afghanistan. And I've recorded more than 5000 interviews going back to 2003, all of which are available at scotthorton.org dot org. You can also sign up to the podcast feed full archive is also [email protected]. Slash Scott Horton show. All right, you guys introducing Jacob solem. He is senior editor over at reason magazine. Welcome back to the show. Jacob How are you doing?

Jacob Sullum 0:48

I'm doing all right. Thanks for having me.

Scott Horton 0:50

It's almost a stretch to say back to the show because it's been so long but I really appreciate you joining us here today. And boy, we have a bunch of important stuff. To talk about but I think if it's all right, I'd like to start with this article that you wrote. And Trump can encourage states to lift their COVID-19 lockdowns, but he can't decree that outcome. And this is the story of how Donald Trump made 10 thurs out of the liberal media for a day earlier this week by declaring that he has some kind of total power. What is up with that?

Jacob Sullum 1:26

Well, Trump frequently asserts powers he does not actually Have I mentioned a few in that post things he said in the past, where he clearly does not have the power that he's claiming. This is another example of that. I mean, historically, it's clear that the primary responsibility for responding to epidemics through quarantines in particular but other measures as well rests with the states that is a power that was reserved to the States under the Constitution.