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John Duarte: “We handled [COVID] probably a little bigger hammer than we…”

Featuring: John Duarte, Republican | Former U.S. House, California, District 13

March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA)

Published March 16, 2024 | Video Starts at 22:27

The nice thing is, four years ago, before COVID five years, Americans knew what it was like to thrive broadly. Then we had Covid. We handled [COVID] probably a little bigger hammer than we needed. And then coming out of COVID we chose scarcity policies. We chose to not drill, optimize our domestic energy. We chose not to free our business. (22:27–22:30)

CLAIM

Asserts that the U.S. response to COVID-19 was overly aggressive.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.

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John Duarte

“We got $5 million for general street improvements for the city of Mendota.”
March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA) | Uploaded March 16, 2024 | 00:59-01:06
“We got them $1 million for [Madera's sewer main project].”
March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA) | Uploaded March 16, 2024 | 02:09-02:11
“Another million dollars for this Madera city storm drain, pipeline replacement.”
March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA) | Uploaded March 16, 2024 | 02:14-02:20
“They just lost their hospital. The community hospital went bankrupt there and had to close.”
March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA) | Uploaded March 16, 2024 | 02:22-02:27
“I'm on the transportation infrastructure committee.”
March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA) | Uploaded March 16, 2024 | 02:54-02:57
“The Biden administration put $3.1 billion towards the high speed rail boondoggle.”
March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA) | Uploaded March 16, 2024 | 03:26-03:34
“It's going to be $130 billion to go from Merced to Bakersfield.”
March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA) | Uploaded March 16, 2024 | 05:08-05:14
“Any farm bill that we do this year will probably have to go through suspension, meaning we need two thirds of the entire congress to vote…”
March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA) | Uploaded March 16, 2024 | 06:27-06:34
“There's a lot of money already in the farm bill.”
March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA) | Uploaded March 16, 2024 | 06:39-06:42
“There's a lot of money in farm programs for conservation that is going to be spent over the next two or three years.”
March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA) | Uploaded March 16, 2024 | 06:47-06:55
“There’s a current bill out there to hire 1500 farm service agency people just to spend the money that’s got to be spent within the next two…”
March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA) | Uploaded March 16, 2024 | 07:11-07:22
“I think we may be extending the 2018 farm bill, which is a good farm bill for specialty crops.”
March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA) | Uploaded March 16, 2024 | 07:44-07:51
“I’m on a bill with Jimmy Panett, a bipartisan bill called the Gates act, which would take the income limit off qualifications for some of…”
March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA) | Uploaded March 16, 2024 | 07:59-08:10
“The Gates act would make conservation participation and conservation programs eligible for everybody, including bigger farms.”
March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA) | Uploaded March 16, 2024 | 08:27-08:36
“We are already going to have a shakeout of farms in California.”
March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA) | Uploaded March 16, 2024 | 09:00-09:05
“There is nothing that farmers are growing right now that’s profitable and we are all eating our equity away.”
March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA) | Uploaded March 16, 2024 | 09:22-09:29
“We won a lawsuit at the World Trade Organization over the retaliatory tariffs from China that went for five years.”
March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA) | Uploaded March 16, 2024 | 10:32-10:38
“The retaliatory tariffs from China are still in place.”
March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA) | Uploaded March 16, 2024 | 10:39-10:43
“I’ve got a bill called the Market Facilitation Retaliatory Agricultural Tariff Supplement act.”
March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA) | Uploaded March 16, 2024 | 10:49-10:56
“The MF rats bill would take $6 billion from the Commodity Credit Corporation and direct the secretary to refund that back to ag exporters to…”
March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA) | Uploaded March 16, 2024 | 10:55-11:11
“The wage schedules that were put out by the Biden administration for the H-2A program must have been designed to crush the H-2A program.”
March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA) | Uploaded March 16, 2024 | 15:09-15:21
“By not making the H-2A program workable, we're literally forcing the exporting of our hand labor crops to Mexico.”
March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA) | Uploaded March 16, 2024 | 15:39-15:47
“If you look at the million tons of fresh produce coming in from Mexico, it's gone from 4 million tons in 2000 to about 20 million tons…”
March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA) | Uploaded March 16, 2024 | 15:48-15:59
“We're enriching the cartels by billions of dollars a quarter.”
March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA) | Uploaded March 16, 2024 | 16:09-16:13
“We've got folks coming across the border from all over the world, some of them getting flown in by the Biden administration on our nickel.”
March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA) | Uploaded March 16, 2024 | 17:48-18:04
“Families who've been living here in the shadows trying to go through the immigration process for decades are being stepped in front of by…”
March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA) | Uploaded March 16, 2024 | 18:10-18:22
“We’ve got food assistance in the farm bill at the highest it’s ever been.”
March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA) | Uploaded March 16, 2024 | 18:37-18:41
“We saw consumer debt go up in 2023 to record high levels.”
March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA) | Uploaded March 16, 2024 | 19:24-19:29
“Inflation continues to mount.”
March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA) | Uploaded March 16, 2024 | 19:32-19:35
“We're really looking at perhaps the first generation of American working families whose diets are actually being depreciated versus…”
March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA) | Uploaded March 16, 2024 | 19:34-19:43
“We have the water, we have the energy here domestically.”
March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA) | Uploaded March 16, 2024 | 21:24-21:28
“Americans knew what it was like to thrive broadly [before COVID].”
March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA) | Uploaded March 16, 2024 | 22:18-22:26
“Coming out of COVID we chose scarcity policies.”
March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA) | Uploaded March 16, 2024 | 22:30-22:33
“We chose to not drill, optimize our domestic energy.”
March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA) | Uploaded March 16, 2024 | 22:32-22:36
“We chose not to free our business.”
March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA) | Uploaded March 16, 2024 | 22:35-22:38
“We chose not to let the market take care of wages and such things.”
March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA) | Uploaded March 16, 2024 | 22:37-22:43
“We chose not to invest in infrastructure that we actually need.”
March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA) | Uploaded March 16, 2024 | 22:43-22:47
“This is a hispanic voting rights act district here in California.”
March 16, 2024: Representative John Duarte (R-CA) | Uploaded March 16, 2024 | 23:08-23:12