Tim Kaine Falsely Claims That During COVID-19, the ‘Economy of South Korea Has Not Changed Dramatically at All’

Failed 2016 Democrat Presidential Candidate Tim Kaine took to the Senate floor today to grandstand against President Trump and the administration’s response to the Coronavirus during Dr. Fauci’s testimony.

Kaine showed a slide referencing Coronavirus deaths and unemployment in both the US and South Korea and then claims that “The economy of South Korea has not changed dramatically at all.”

Nothing could be further from the truth. On April 22nd, CNN released an article that painted a grim picture for the Asian nation. The headline read, “South Korea’s economy just recorded its worst contraction since the Great Recession because of the coronavirus pandemic.”

South Korea’s economy just recorded its most severe contraction since the 2008 financial crisis as the Coronavirus weighed on consumer demand and exports. And they believe the worst may not be over.

The fourth-largest economy in Asia shrank 1.4% in the January-to-March period compared to the fourth quarter of 2019, according to an estimate released Thursday by the Bank of Korea.

Research consultants Capital Economics forecasted the Korean economy will contract by 6% in the second quarter compared to the prior quarter, and shrink by nearly 3% over the year as a whole.

Alex Holmes, the Asia economist for the group said that “Widespread lockdowns across the world are weighing heavily on external demand, which will hit Korea’s export-focused economy hard.”

Multiple bailout packages have been passed and the South Korean government has already boosted virus-related spending to about $200 billion, more than 10 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.

President Moon Jae-in warned of “colossal” economic damage and has announced a “Korean version” of the US Depression-era New Deal, vowing to boost job growth via increased spending in technology and infrastructure as well as by expanding employment insurance.

Kaine also implied that they had done a better job containing the virus but 34 new cases were reported on Sunday after days of having no cases so it puts those efforts in serious doubt after they had started to reopen their economy. Clearly, despite all of their contact tracing efforts, infections are still able to slip through the cracks which also puts their reporting numbers in doubt.

China Daily EU Bureau Chief Chen Weihua praised Kaine for his Senate floor speech, saying, “No wonder the US has performed so poorly. Without contact tracing, the virus just spreads” after CDC director Robert Redfield admitted that we had lost the ability to contract trace.

He then called the effort “scandalous” while criticizing our military spending.

Shocking. Asked by Senator Tim Kaine whether US is not doing nationwide contact tracing, CDC Director Robert Redfield just admitted that the US “lost the capacity of contact tracing”. No wonder the US has performed so poorly. Without contact tracing, the virus just spreads.

This is scandalous. A rich nation that spends $700 billion a year on military cannot do contact tracing that is critical to contain and mitigate Covid-19.

This is scandalous. A rich nation that spends $700 billion a year on military cannot do contact tracing that is critical to contain and mitigate Covid-19.

— Chen Weihua (@chenweihua) May 12, 2020