Mr. President, I'm one of your biggest supporters. Few have worked harder or longer to elect, support and reelect you. Every day I praise you in speaking to my large and growing audience on national radio and TV, and through my nationally syndicated newspaper column. My audience loves and supports you. We have your back!
Do you know who doesn't have your back? The Ivy League eggheads; the Washington, D.C., swamp-dwelling politicians and bureaucrats; and the deep-state doctors surrounding you. No one elected Dr. Anthony Fauci president. No one elected Dr. Deborah Birx, Surgeon General Jerome Adams or hapless Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, either. And for good reason. They care only about being loved by the media, using big government to solve every problem and never saying something for which they might be blamed.
They're not my president. ... You are!
The academics and deep-staters just pass the buck. They have scared Americans to death with worthless, flawed, worst-case computer models that never work in the real world. Thank goodness the buck stops with you.
As anyone with common sense can see, the doctors and bureaucrats are giving you bad advice. The sad truth is they don't care whether their advice destroys this economy, this country and the great American middle class. Most are big-government-loving liberal Democrats who don't understand the U.S. economy or appreciate the brave business owners of America.
I have simple advice:
A) Stop listening!
B) OPEN THE DARN ECONOMY, AND DO IT QUICKLY.
I received the following email yesterday from a friend who is a small-business owner: "Not one soul asked me if I would sacrifice my entire business, which I have, in order to not take a chance of getting the virus. If anyone would have asked me, I would have said 'shoot me up with the virus, I'll take my chances in order to not lose my business and keep my employees on the job.' I have sacrificed for over 30 years to build my business. Overnight, I now have zip ... no income ... no business ... no employees ... nothing."
Let me tell you about Ivy League eggheads. When this dead-end kid from the Bronx borderline got to Columbia University, I was shocked to find my typical classmate was book-smart but dumb as a box of rocks, with no common sense and zero empathy for the common, hardworking Americans.
William F. Buckley put it best a half-century ago: "I'd rather be governed by the first 2,000 people in the Boston telephone directory than by the 2,000 people on the faculty of Harvard University."
Here's the tragic truth: We're dying out here, and not of coronavirus. Thousands of businesses are dying economic deaths. Hundreds of thousands of out-of-work employees are already financially dead. They have no idea how to pay for soup, butter, toilet paper or gas right now.
Each day this week, we in Las Vegas have witnessed a 4-mile line of people waiting at a food distribution center for cans of food and one roll of toilet paper. Yes, four miles.
We're already in a Great Depression. The American people are losing everything -- including their dignity.
The Ivy League geniuses you're taking advice from have destroyed the greatest economy in world history, in a month. Their computer models are horribly wrong. The world will not end, and millions will not die, unless you continue listening to them.
Listen to the American people who cannot pay for bread, soup, butter or gas. The shutdown of the economy is a fate worse than death. It's causing more long-term misery than any virus ever could. It's like using chemotherapy to defeat the flu. The disease is awful. But the cure will destroy America forever more.
Keep listening to the doctors and Ivy League eggheads and we'll soon have more suicides than coronavirus deaths.
It's time to make one of those tough decisions only a president can. Thank God it's you!
Here's a common-sense plan to save small business (and millions of small-business employees):
-- Stop listening to the government bureaucrats and those with fancy degrees but no understanding of business, or the real world.
-- Stop paying them. Let them know what it's like to go without a paycheck. Don't pay Congress either. Use an executive order to declare all bureaucrats and politicians nonessential. Freeze their paychecks until we reopen the economy. Watch how fast they change their tune.
-- Put National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow and CEOs who can tell us how and when to reopen the economy front and center at your daily briefings. And add a small-business leader to the stage.
-- Reopen our economy by May 1. Wait any longer and our economy will never recover from this man-made catastrophe. Tell governors to decide whether to comply or not. Maybe New York stays closed, but don't let New York hold the rest of the country hostage.
-- Protect older and sick Americans. They can stay quarantined at home as long as needed. But most of the rest of us are willing to brave the front lines. Give us the choice -- as long as we practice social distancing, space out customers and wear masks.
It's my life. I'll take personal responsibility, just as every Costco employee, supermarket cashier, UPS driver, first responder and hospital worker has been doing all along. We are a nation of risk-takers. Never forget that. It's our life. We should get to make the choice, not doctors and bureaucrats.
-- Double or triple the 2 1/2 months of payroll and bill protection for small business. Trust me, it's not enough. And provide the aid directly. Cut out the useless middlemen. Banks are not our friend. I can already see the money will not get to the small businesses that need it.
Lastly, Mr. President, declare a national income tax vacation for small business. A year off from taxes is the incentive we need to keep our businesses open, retain our employees and reinvest while the country recovers. Our income will be down dramatically for at least a year once we reopen the economy. We can't afford to pay half to taxes. We need to keep that money in order to survive for the next year.
Thank you for all you do. Thank you for your financial creativity. If you weren't in the White House, we'd certainly be finished as a nation. Thank God we don't have a President Fauci or a President Powell. You are the only one who can make the truly tough presidential decisions that will save the economy, small business, millions of jobs and the great American middle class.
God put you in the perfect place, and it is the perfect time to ... stop listening to Ivy League eggheads and open the darn economy!
Wayne Allyn Root is a CEO, entrepreneur, best-selling author, nationally-syndicated talk show host on USA Radio Network and the host of "The Wayne Allyn Root Show" on Newsmax TV nightly at 11 PM ET/8 PM Pacific.