Natural Experiment

It looks like Texas and Mississippi have decided to conduct a natural experiment by lifting all Covid-related restrictions by next week:

The governors of Texas and Mississippi both announced Tuesday that they are lifting statewide mask mandates and allowing businesses to reopen at full capacity even as the decline of daily Covid-19 cases slows and federal officials urge states to exercise caution.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said at a press briefing at Montelongo’s Mexican Restaurant in Lubbock that he will issue a new executive order that rescinds most of his previous Covid-19 restrictions, including a statewide mask mandate. He added that all businesses would be allowed to open “100 percent,” effective March 10.

Will Feuer, CNBC

As far as I can tell, these are the first states to completely lift all pandemic-related restrictions since it began last year. I call this a “natural experiment” because it will test at least two ideas.

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Blue Collar Billionaire

We’re at a place in American politics where conservative leaders make the claim the Republican Party represents regular Americans rather than Country Club elites.

This comes from a Senator who got his degrees from Princeton and Harvard. A Senator who ran to warm-weather Cancun from a winter disaster in his home State instead of volunteering to help out the…blue collar…workers in Texas who were freezing to death because the free-market policies he supports drive profits, not reliable utility services.

In support of someone who literally owns – and lives at – a country club.

Unlike Beto O’Rourke and Julian Castro.

Not to mention Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.