Editorial: The Coronavirus Pandemic Didn’t Create the Holes in Our System

One could conjecture that as much as the coronavirus pandemic has hurt our economy, it is the ongoing failures of lawmakers to truly champion Americans in need, and the lack of existing systems to work for their benefit, that  have done at least as much damage over time.

This weekend, tens of millions of unemployed Americans stand to lose the emergency supplemental unemployment assistance that has helped them through joblessness during the coronavirus pandemic. The federal benefit supplement, part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (the CARES Act), will expire on Saturday. Senate Republicans can’t agree on a new coronavirus legislative package to present to Democrats, and it’s uncertain how, or if, the bill will address an extension to the federal emergency jobless benefit supplement.

While the Republicans haggle over what to include in a new relief bill, millions of Americans fear losing their homes, no longer having health insurance, and figuring out which bills to pay and which they’ll have to let go for now.  Some are still waiting to begin receiving their first round of unemployment benefits, due to outdated and backlogged claims processing systems in various states.

Back in May, House Democrats passed an economic stimulus bill that would, among other things, extend the federal unemployment benefit supplement created in the CARES Act through the end of the year, as well as provide another round of one-time stimulus checks to Americans. That bill, however, has been sitting on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s desk.

GOP Senators hope to agree on their own bill to present to Democrats by Monday, July 27. It’s not certain whether the bill will include an extension of the emergency unemployment benefit, or whether that will be addressed separately.

The GOP bill is expected to include, among other items, funds for schools, some of which would be tied to reopening classrooms. It would also include a new round of stimulus payments to individuals. McConnell, however, is pressing for the stimulus payments to go only to Americans earning less than $40,000 a year, which would leave many Americans falling through the cracks.

President Trump had pushed for including a payroll tax cut, possibly instead of extending federal unemployment benefits. Though he had threatened not to sign a bill without a tax cut, Republicans have resisted, since it would only help those who still receive paychecks. Additionally, it would drain the Social Security and Medicare trust funds.

Reflecting the perspective of someone who has apparently never experienced financial hardship, conservative economist Stephen Moore, who advised Trump during his 2016 campaign, disagreed. “We’ve gone in less than 10 days from Trump saying that he won’t sign a bill without a payroll tax cut to the bill they’re drafting not having a payroll tax cut,” he said. “There is no benefit from dumping money from helicopters into people’s laps.”

If the supplemental benefit is not extended, unemployed Americans will revert back to receiving only their state unemployment benefits, which average $370 per week. One could argue that they are the people who would benefit from some money dumped into their laps.

Many Republicans have agreed on temporarily extending the emergency unemployment benefit, but reducing it from the original $600 per week to $200 per week.

But, says Ernie Tedeschi, who was a Treasury Department economist during the Obama administration, “U.S. Gross Domestic Product would be 1.33 percentage points smaller at the end of the year than if the benefit were extended at $600 per week for the rest of the year.” He added that the resulting reduction in spending would lead to more than 1 million fewer jobs.

Other Republicans oppose extending the unemployment supplement at all because they worry that it will be a disincentive for jobless Americans to return to work. A “back-to-work” incentive payment has also been suggested instead of an extended jobless benefit supplement.

“It’s not a difficult concept. You don’t get paid more to stay home than you do when you have a job,” said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

Perhaps they’re thinking that Americans should just heed Ivanka Trump’s tone-deaf advice and “find something new,” even in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

As Senate Republicans dicker over how little assistance they can get away with giving Americans, and what stipulations they can put on the assistance, it’s apparent that what concerns many Republican lawmakers most is the fear that some American somewhere might get a dollar he or she isn’t entitled to. They fret over the possibility that someone might not be jumping through enough hoops for the assistance they receive.

But let’s suppose that for some Americans, the lack of motivation to seek work is due to the fact that their unemployment benefit is greater than what they’d earned at their jobs. When someone can earn more from a jobless benefit than they can when they work full-time (or more), the problem is not with the employee, it’s with the lack of a livable minimum wage.

Republican lawmakers continue to collect their salaries and enjoy their excellent health insurance as they fail to act on behalf of American workers. Their squeamishness for what they see as “handouts,” and the requirements they continually want to set up to ensure that no one gets “too much” have perpetuated an inept and inadequate social welfare system, leaving many hardworking Americans without a safety net– especially if they were living paycheck to paycheck during better economic times.

When millions of Americans have no safety net, or fall through the holes of a weak safety net, it reverberates throughout the U.S. economy. The coronavirus pandemic has only magnified this. It may have exacerbated our economic situation, but more than that, it has highlighted the glaring ways in which our system has failed, and continues to fail, many Americans.

White House and Republican senators reach tentative deal on new coronavirus stimulus package | CBS News [2020-07-23]

Coronavirus stimulus: Mnuchin says there is a ‘fundamental’ agreement between White House and GOP | Yahoo Finance [2020-07-23]

Editorial: Does Trump Think His Fauci Smear Campaign Will Make the Coronavirus Go Away?

Many Americans wondered how long it would take for the White House to launch a smear campaign against Dr. Anthony Fauci. Dr. Fauci, a world-renowned infectious disease expert and member of the White House coronavirus task force, has displeased Donald Trump by daring to allow science to contradict Trump’s narrative about COVID-19. Last week, the Trump administration doubled down on its verbal attacks in efforts to discredit Fauci.

The world has become accustomed to Trump’s need to vaporize officials and others who disagree with him. Even experts presenting scientific facts are not immune; Trump sees adherence to scientific facts—at least those that are not in line with his messaging—as political ideology to be disempowered. Since science disagrees with the truth as created by Trump, science must be discredited. It’s not as surprising as it is disconcerting that Trump has attacked Fauci.

What’s a malignant narcissist to do, though, when he learns that 67 percent of Americans disapprove of his handling of the coronavirus pandemic? Or when he sees that X percent of Americans are taking the virus more seriously than Trump wants them to? What other option is there, really, than for Trump to detract from the crisis and sow doubt and mistrust for the medical expert who, according to polls, Americans trust more than they trust Donald Trump? (And who, for that matter, has been portrayed affectionately by Brad Pitt on Saturday Night Live?)

Fauci has not undercut the president, publicly undermined him, or attempted to discredit him. He has simply spoken the truth, however grim and frightening, about the coronavirus pandemic that has killed 135,000 Americans to date. Truth has rarely aligned with the president’s agenda and world view, though, so Fauci must be dealt with.

As early as April, Trump was criticizing Fauci in response to Fauci’s candidness about COVID-19, and even retweeted a call for him to be fired. The two have not spoken in recent weeks.

Trump needs for the virus to just go away so that businesses can reopen, children can return to school, the economy can boom, and Trump can be re-elected. The way for the virus to go away, in Trumpworld, is to simply gaslight it away (along with “slowing the testing down, please,” since in Trumpworld, the reason we’re seeing more cases is that we’re doing more testing).

Fauci presents us with the facts about why COVID-19 continues to spread (we’re not following the recommended health and safety guidelines, which are just too inconvenient for some Americans to tolerate); and how we can help contain it and keep the death rate down until a vaccine is available (take responsibility, follow the recommended health and safety guidelines, and take the virus seriously). Recently, Fauci corrected Trump’s claim that “99 percent” of coronavirus cases in the United States are “totally harmless.”

“Obviously, that’s not the case,” said Fauci.

One only has to look at the statistics across the U.S. for proof that Fauci is right about that, as well as about his recommendations for social distancing and mask-wearing. Those states that have more closely followed the public health guidelines have had greater success in containing the virus; those states, such as Florida and Arizona, that went along with Donald Trump’s narrative about the virus and refused to follow guidelines as closely, are now paying the price with skyrocketing numbers of cases and deaths.

Again, truth is often not palatable in Trumpworld. Better to malign the tellers of truth than acknowledge an error of one’s own, or take leadership and address the pandemic head-on. And what more subtly effective way than to plant the idea that the truth spoken by Dr. Fauci is not reliable?

“Dr. Fauci is a nice man, but he’s made a lot of mistakes,” Trump said last week.

White House Trade Advisor Peter Navarro said, “Dr. Fauci has a good bedside manner with the public, but he has been wrong about everything I have ever interacted with him on.”

It’s helpful to keep in mind this administration’s tenuous relationship with truth-telling.

In a different administration, President George W. Bush once called Fauci, who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, his hero.

In addition to its demeaning personal comments about Fauci, the Trump administration’s tactics have included using a video clip taken out of context where Fauci appeared to be downplaying the virus and advising against masks. Viewed in context with the cut portions of the video, it’s evident that Fauci was advising Americans early in the pandemic, based on what information was available at the time. Since then, as new information has come to light about the virus, Fauci has been candid about updating his advice.

Along with the video clip, the White House provided some journalists with what resembled opposition research on Fauci, as if Fauci were a political opponent instead of a member of the president’s own White House coronavirus task force.

On Saturday, a White House official said that “several White House officials are concerned about the number of times Dr. Fauci has been wrong on things.”

The White House has shown that they have to resort to vague comments, aggressive “research,” and cherry-picked, out-of-context video clips and quotes in its attempts to denigrate Fauci.

Donald Trump would have difficulty firing Dr. Fauci, who has served under six different presidents as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Not only would Fauci need to be fired for cause by a direct supervisor, it would be a lengthy process. It’s much easier and faster, then, to try to go about damaging Fauci’s reputation and credibility. Unfortunately for Trump, that may be a challenge, since Fauci is widely regarded as credible and competent by a great number of Americans, including members of Congress.

Donald Trump is not threatened by world leaders. He doesn’t care who is smarter than he is, though he likes to proclaim how smart he himself is. He’s not daunted by those who have made Nobel-worthy contributions to mankind. He is threatened by those who are more popular than he is, and that includes the people that others tend to give credibility.

Though it’s clear that Trump has many things to envy about Dr. Anthony Fauci, what gets to Trump is that people are listening to Fauci, whose science contradicts Trump’s meaningless and senseless happy talk, and interferes with Trump’s goal to pretend that the virus will just fade away and all will be well again. Americans trust Fauci.

Fauci’s goal is to help save Americans. Donald Trump’s goal is re-election. To get to re-election, Trump has shown that he needs to take down whatever, and whomever, is in his way. The coronavirus is in Trump’s way, and Anthony Fauci, by virtue of his response to the coronavirus, is also in Trump’s way. Perhaps Trump thinks that if he could just succeed at his smear campaign against Fauci, his coronavirus nightmare would be extinguished, as well.

Trump takes aim at Dr. Fauci as coronavirus cases surge nationwide |
CBSN [2020-0713]

As COVID Infections Soar, Trump Attacks Dr. Fauci, CDC & Pushes Schools to Reopen at All Costs | Democracy Now! [2020-07-13]