BRAUN: "Everyone is Respecting the Guidelines of Social Distancing," Unsure of Second Stimulus Bill

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A second relief bill might be a mistake, said Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.). In an interview on WOWO radio in Ft. Wayne, Braun said he believes people in Indiana are obeying social distancing, and hinted that perhaps the same restrictions that people in New York are observing shouldn't necessarily apply to everyone.

"Everyone is respecting the guidelines of social distancing and wondering, especially when you're not seeing any impact from it, how we navigate and do we keep pushing hard where you will flatten the economy," said Braun.

Braun pointed out that few businesses are able to hold their own or do better than they had before.

"Most are off minimally 10 to 20 percent, many in the 30 to 40 percent range," he said. "Many are off 70, 80 to 90 percent, where they've had to lay off all their employees, grappling with the programs we put across the finish line, which is not gonna be very quick when the demand is that strong for it."

Braun was referring to the relief bill that has passed and which is supposed to provide financial relief to businesses and individual people.

"We will have to have a point somewhere down the road where we see what we've done in terms of fighting the disease, take everything we've learned from it, maybe modify the approach."

Braun said he believes if the economic shut down lingers much further into the future, some businesses won't be able to handle it, no matter how much relief comes from the government.

He said talk of a second relief bill started almost immediately when the first bill was passed.

"That had a lot of involvement with other stuff that tried to get into the first bill. If you do do a second round, and if that occurs, that means that we are trying to replace government for the real economy," he said.