HARRISBURG, PA – Pennsylvania Governor Toms Wolf has laid down the gauntlet for small business owners and politicians wanting to get back to work and reopen America. He accused politicians of surrendering to the enemy, committing a cowardly act of giving up to the virus. Wolf said right now, the true heroes in America are the people who are staying home, sheltered away from the virus, collecting unemployment, and struggling to pay their mortgage, rent, and bills.
“We Pennsylvanians are in a fight for our lives,” Wolf said. “The enemy is a deadly virus set on destroying us.”
“Still, over this past weekend, some have decided to surrender to this enemy,” Wolf said. “These are politicians who were elected to serve their fellow citizens. Others are business owners who have chosen to serve their customers by putting them in harm’s way.”
Wolf said those politicians and businesses are choosing to dessert in the face of the enemy in the middle of a war.
“We are, indeed, showing signs we have begun to flatten the curve of infection that many parts of the commonwealth, which is why 24 counties have already moved into the yellow zone and 13 moe will move into the yellow zone on Friday,” he added. “That’s over half the counties in this the commonwealth. Meanwhile, we have bought valuable time. That means we have not overwhelmed our healthcare systems.”
“The fight is not yet over,” he said of business owners who want to reopen. “To the politicians urging businesses to risk their lives and to risk the lives of their customers or their employees by opening prematurely, they need to understand that they are engaging in behavior that is both selfish and unsafe.”
Wolf threatened business owners with the risk of losing their health department certificates, liquor licenses, certificates of occupancy, and even suggested they could be arrested for violating his executive orders.
“You business owners, these politicians put you at risk losing your health department certificate. They put you, business owners, at risk of losing your liquor licenses,” he added. “They put you, business owners, at risk of losing your certificate of occupancy. All of these depend upon your doing everything you can to keep your patrons safe and by opening before the evidence suggests you should, you’re taking undue risk s with the safety of your customers.”
The Governor said the opposition politicians who are encouraging the people “to quit the fight” are acting in a most cowardly way.