- Ken Blackwell with theFamily Research Council

joins me now with more.

Welcome, Ken.

First of all, your thoughts on the speech.

- Look, I think he could havefocused a little bit more

on bipartisan sharing

and what has been a remarkable response

by the private and public sectors

in getting the vaccine into people's arms.

The Trump administration was ridiculed

when it talked about Operation Warp Speed

and getting this to market

as soon as he was predictingwe would get it to market,

and he in fact met that goal.

Anyway, look, this $1.9 trillion,

only a small portion of itgoes towards making sure

that we are safe andshots are in people's,

vaccines are in people's arms.

A lot of it covered for failedfiscal policies of states

and localities that shouldn'tbe rewarded for those mistakes

with more national debt.

I mean, it was just unseemly

that he in fact tried to sellthis as a COVID-19 response

when it was, in large measure,

cover for a big government failure.

- The president took a lot of heat

that he took 50 days for himto come before the public

to hold a news conference.

Can you talk about, didlast night's address

quieten some of those criticisms?

- I doubt it.

He needs to sort of stand in the well

and take sharp questionsfrom a curious media.

I would hope that the media is curious

and has tough questions for him

and that they didn't runout of tough questions

when President Trump left office.

We have plenty to be concerned about.

One, this $1.9 trillion package

adds substantially to the federal debt.

He has to answer questions,who's picking up that debt?

How much of that debt is China picking up?

What is the national security threat

to China picking up debtthat is this covering

for bad fiscal policy?

Look, we need to get oureconomy open and growing again

and we need to appreciate

that one of the things thatthe Trump administration did

was it took $3 trillionthat was parked off-shore,

got it back into our economy.

That put Americans back to work.

This $1.9 trillion packageputs us in a situation

where we expand musculargovernment in our lives

and we all know thatthere's a relationship

between the organized powerof government, or the state,

and individual liberty.

When government gets big,bloated and bureaucratic,

our liberty is at risk

and that is what he needsto stand in the well

and answer questions from a curious media

and a public that wants answersto our real independence.

We put (indistinct) on government,

we, in fact, optimize individual liberty.

- And real quickly, to that very point,

The Wall Street Journal this week,

the editorial page talking about

this 1.9 trillion relief bill

as creating a COVID welfare state.

They went on to say that thisis basically a way station

on the Democrats' high speed train

to a cradle-to-gravewelfare entitlement state.

Is that what you see unfolding here?

- Absolutely.

You can't say it any clearer than that,

that what they moved towardswas an accelerated growth

in the political muscleof a big welfare state.

And when you couple that withSenate bill, House Bill 1,

you're talking about a oneparty controlled system

which is really similar to totalitarian

and authoritarianregimes across the globe.

- Okay, we'll have to leaveit there, Mr. Blackwell.

Thank you so much forcoming on the broadcast.

Stay safe, have a great weekend, okay?

- God bless.- God bless you.