Believe it or not, Texas Lieutenant Gov. Dan Patrick (R) is actually sticking to his pro-death solution to fixing the economy amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Claiming that he was “vindicated” by businesses being shut down by states’ stay-at-home orders, Patrick said on Monday night during a Fox News interview that the new plan to reopen Texas businesses was “long overdue.”

The Texas leader then doubled down on his grim argument for allowing people to be put at risk of death from COVID-19 to help the economy recover from the damage brought on by the outbreak – a proposal that was immediately met with a flood of criticism.

“What I said when I was with you that night is there are more important things than living,” Patrick told Fox News host Tucker Carlson, referring to when he first made the suggestion last month. “And that’s saving this country for my children and my grandchildren and saving this country for all of us.”

“And I don’t want to die, nobody wants to die,” he added. “But man we’ve got to take some risks and get back in the game and get this country back up and running.”

Patrick brushed off warnings from White House COVID-19 task force official Dr. Anthony Fauci and other health experts who say that it’s too soon to reopen the economy and that doing so at this moment would undermine the progress made in flattening the curve.

“They told us, Tucker, to follow the science,” the lieutenant governor said. “Well, what science?”

Watch Patrick below: