Last week was the first week in months that restaurants with video lotteries could open. However, they will not be allowed to serve food.

Senator Dennis Linthicum (R-Klamath Falls) released the following statement to call out the hypocrisy of Governor Brown’s tyrannical and chaotic pandemic response:

“According to the Governor’s “relaxed” guidelines, people can sit 6 feet apart at restaurants to touch video lottery machines but will not be allowed to eat. The only science that supports this decision is the fact that the lottery generates more tax revenue for the Governor to spend than do restaurants. With this decision, the Governor is making herself clear: tax revenue is more important than workers’ livelihoods. The Governor is putting the interests of state coffers ahead of the more than 28,000 people in the hospitality industry who were thrown out of work last December.”

Last week, Oregon’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) also made permanent temporary rules that have been imposed against law-abiding business owners. The agency claims that “we have not yet defeated this disease” so they must continue to strangle main street businesses. Yet, supposedly, they will repeal the rules “once they are no longer needed.”

“Businesses are again being asked to trust government elites, the Governor and OSHA, although there has been no consistent standard for them. Everyone can see the rampant failures of the Governor as she arbitrarily gives a few lucky businesses license to open because they have state-owned lottery machines on their premises. But this is not following any legitimate analysis or understanding of the data as COVID cases are higher now than when she shut them down in early 2020. The Governor is playing politics with Oregonian’s livelihoods. People deserve better.”


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2021-02-09 09:35:53