Like many, I have been totally confused by the Trump Administration’s refusal to have the full force of the Federal Government take control of a united response to the corona virus pandemic. The reasons finally became clear after I read this letter by Heather Cox Richardson.
Behind the confusion and foot-dragging as the White House confronts the global pandemic is the administration’s desire to dismantle the federal government and give power to business people.
The Trump administration has been clear that it does not want the federal government to assume responsibility for American citizens any longer. Trump has refused to issue a stay at home order from the federal government, insisting instead that governors make their own calls. He has refused to use the Defense Production Act to mobilize industry to produce the masks and ventilators Americans so desperately need. He is refusing to tell manufacturers where to place their supplies. In place of government coordination, his administration officials are counting on business people to assume leadership.
Instead, the fifty states are trying to respond on their own. They are making their own decisions about what to shut down, when, and are bidding against each other for supplies. This piecemeal response to the pandemic crisis means we are not effectively cutting off the spread of the virus, or supporting the healthcare we will need.
Letters from an American
April 2, 2020
This goes a long way to explain the reason for Jared Kushner and his shadow corona unit. Ms. Richardson’s letter goes on to describe Senator Schumer’s plea to Trump:
… and Trump’s very nasty response, which demonstrates exactly what’s on Trump’s mind (hint: it’s not the well-being of the American people.)
Dear Senator Schumer:
Thank you for your Democrat public relations letter and incorrect sound bites, which are wrong in every way.
(snip)
If you spent less time on your ridiculous impeachment hoax, which went haplessly on forever and ended up going nowhere (except increasing my poll numbers), and instead focused on helping the people of New York, then New York would not have been so completely unprepared for the “invisible enemy.” No wonder AOC and others are thinking about running against you in the primary. If they did, they would likely win.
(snip)
I’ve known you for many years, but I never knew how bad a Senator you are for the state of New York, until I became President.
Letter from President Donald J. Trump to Senator Charles E. Schumer
Ms Richardson’s letter continues by explaining why A Patriots plane full of 1 million N95 masks from China arrived Thursday in Massachusetts.
… While warmly complimenting the Kraft family’s generosity, state representative Katherine Clark said “this is not how it’s supposed to work…. What we need is a coordinated federal system.”
But there isn’t one. Instead, the White House is turning to private interests to manage the national response. It is a philosophical position embraced by those who would overturn the active government that has presided over the United States since the New Deal.
But wait! There’s more.
At the press conference, Weijia Jiang of CBS News asked the official in charge of the shipments, Rear Admiral John P. Polowczyk, what was happening to them. He explained they are not going directly to the states or to FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency). Rather, they are going to the private sector, which has systems in place for distributing such materials. But the states are in a bidding war in the private sector to buy this equipment, which is driving prices up.
Shouldn’t the federal government step in to stop profiteering and make sure states get the supplies they need? “I’m not here to disrupt a [commercial] supply chain,” the admiral said.
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Depressing? Yes. Ever since Lobbyist Grover Norquist famously said, "My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub" there has been a desire by the GOP to privatize everything government does from education to social security. Now, the Trump Administration is trying to privatize the distribution of medical supplies in the middle of a worldwide pandemic. Will they succeed? I don’t know. Every day shines new light on the reality television show called the Trump Administration.
The problem is that the goal of private business is to maximize profits, while the goal of government is to do as much good for as many citizens as possible. Those two goals are in direct conflict, and the reason why it is ludicrous to have private businesses manage government functions.
But here we are. I watch Trump on television and just don’t understand why his supporters think he is so wonderful. And then this morning I woke up and saw an article a friend had linked to in a Facebook post that said, “Part of our President’s genius is that he sees himself – once and forever – as the star of his own long-running, TV centered reality show.” I encourage you to read it because it gave me hope that Trump has finally met his match:
This post is not about whether President Trump is a good President or a bad one, it’s about the way two reality shows so different from one another are both airing every day and revealing so much about our politics, culture and maybe our future.
It’s not just a question of two different press conferences, it’s really about two different ways of looking at the world.
The Cuomo Brothers Versus The President: What A Show!