Fix the Coronavirus Crisis with a Tax Cut?

Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrump
Someone needs to tell the Democrats in Congress that CoronaVirus doesn’t care what party you are in. We need to protect ALL Americans!
Tweet 11:50 AM · Mar 11, 2020

“We’re not going to panic over this at all, because the economy is sound,and we will get through this, and then the virus will end. Secondly, frankly, short-termfixes never work. You know, these temporary tax cuts or rebates and things of that sort. You look at the history – I mean I’ve lived with this for decades… they will never work.”

President Trump’s closest economic advisor, Larry Kudlow, in Bloomberg Businessweek, March 9^th.

For a President with two major constituencies – the base and those driven by economic solidity and growth – the health of Americans does not seem to rise to the top of factors preserving Donald Trump’s electability for a second term. That he cut taxes for the rich and then cut the budget for incidentals he considered unnecessary – like reducing the budget for the Centers for Disease Control by 16% and disbanding the pandemic group entirely – seem to slide by the narrative. So, the President met with GOP Congressional leaders on March 10th to propose another payroll tax cut band aid in an effort to push the stock market back up to “electability.”

But before we “go there,” let’s look at some numbers that are often missed. With the COVID-19 not doing much damage to normal children (it tends not destroy young lung tissue), the focus in the United States has to be on the 49 million Americans over 65 (the virus definitely is bigger risk for older lung tissue). That’s were fatalities are heaviest. There are 18 million healthcare workers in the U.S. – including about 3 million nurses (average age 30) and 1 million doctors (average age north of 50) – to treat whatever comes their way. The system will be tested.

To be fully stocked with meds, respirators, test kits for all to handle pandemic in this country would probably take at least a year or more (a vaccine is 18 months away), putting pedal to the metal. We also have the military and National Guard to facilitate and expand shelters we might need to handle the expected volume of cases. We hope that most people who experience this disease will only have to deal with a milder version of the virus, but there are those who are vulnerable that clearly will need more.

What makes this disease particularly complex is that it is highly contagious and can linger for up to three days on exposed surfaces according to a just-released government test (by scientists from the National Institutes of Health, Princeton University and the University of California, Los Angeles, with funding from the U.S. government and the National Science Foundation).

America’s governmental expert on pandemic outbreaks (and on COVID-19 in particular) is Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and a member of the Coronavirus Task Force formed by President Trump in late January. Despite attempts to muzzle him, Fauci tells it like it is: “With the United States now over 1,000 confirmed cases of the novel Coronavirus, [Dr. Fauci] told Congress on Wednesday [3/11th] that with no vaccine ready in the near future, lawmakers should expect the number of cases to continue to rise, as the outbreak spreads around the country… ‘It is ten times more lethal than the seasonal flu,’ Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health told a House panel… ‘The flu has a mortality of 0.1 percent,’ Fauci told one GOP lawmaker. ‘This has a mortality of ten times that… Bottom line, it's going to get worse,’ Fauci noted.” AJC.com, March 11th.

Meanwhile, somehow our coronavirus Tsar’s (Mike Pence’s) press conference scheduled for March 11th was cancelled as the President scheduled a meeting with top bankers to address the crisis. Bankers? Electability based on a strong economy is still Trump’s priority? The mixed messages keep pouring out of the White House as urban areas all across the United States are increasingly limiting large gatherings (which, for example, impacts professional sports in a big way), and companies are encouraging “work from home” solutions.

While there are clearly financial aspects this pandemic, money seems to be the only segment that Trump really cares about. But, sorry folks, it is first and foremost a medical issue. And politicizing it, as noted by the above Trump Tweet, simply distracts from solving the problem and delays the required responses. Trump has caused enough delays already!

“Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who heads the U.N. agency, said the WHO is ‘deeply concerned by the alarming levels of spread and severity’ of the outbreak. He also expressed concern about ‘the alarming levels of inaction.’… We have, therefore, made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic,’ he said at a briefing in Geneva.” Associated Press, March 11th.

Yet Trump continues to downplay the impact of the virus, its seriousness, telling the press that the vital test kits required to contain COVID-19 are ubiquitously available. As of March 10th, CBS News reports that fewer than 5,000 Americans have actually been tested. So, he returns to economic, not health solutions, still contradicting his own top medical advisors. Economic solutions for a pandemic?

“One of President Trump’s key proposals to confront the economic fallout of the novel coronavirus — a payroll tax cut — got mixed reviews from Senate Republicans on Tuesday [3/10] during a Capitol Hill strategy-planning lunch that ended without agreement on the details of a possible stimulus plan… But in the first sign of bipartisan cooperation to address the growing health crisis, Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin was dispatched to begin negotiating an economic package with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco).

“The pairing of Mnuchin and Pelosi on a coronavirus bill comes as Republicans and Democrats are at loggerheads on an economic response. In addition to the payroll tax cut, the White House supports tax relief for the travel and tourism industries… But Democrats balked at tax cuts without financial support for sick or quarantined workers who may miss paychecks or currently receive no sick pay… Even some Republicans are skeptical about whether a payroll tax cut is the best approach right now, according to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and other senators. The White House floated a payroll tax ‘holiday’ — designed to boost the paychecks of workers —that could be valued at more than $300 billion, according to one Republican senator in the room.” Los Angeles Times, March 11th. What happened to “people”? Maybe the only way to deal with this crisis is to ignore the President entirely. Let Congress address this issue on a bi-partisan basis.

I’m glad the administration is jawboning insurance carriers to waive copays and expand coverage for those infected with COVID-19, but we need to get test kits out there, millions and millions more than currently promised and reduce the analysis from weeks to a day or two. If South Korea can do it, so can we! If there is to be government financial aid, let’s get the supplies and experts in place first. Use the military if we have to. Then let’s cover those without health insurance at no cost. No one with real doubts should be disincented from getting tested. It just might be the one who needed to be checked. Tax breaks are so lame and only impact those who make enough to be impacted by them. How about covering lost paychecks instead. Stop looking at industries first and focus on individual human beings? Institutional costs cannot be first priority anymore.

The DOW continues to plunge. The NBA suspended their season. And after repeatedly calling the coronavirus scare a “hoax,” contradicting federal medical experts for weeks, telling the world that outbreak was a contained and merely a minor event as well as blaming the Democrats for making the situation seem serious, Donald Trump issues an order late on March 11th suspending travel between the United States and the European Union because of risks of spreading COVID-19. Really? Donald Trump’s credibility and leadership have never been so severely rejected by the financial community. And even by his base. I wonder if he is still holding that planned Trump rally this week. If there is an F- grade for a presidency, Donald Trump has earned that in spades.

              I’m Peter Dekom, and if the failures to address mass shootings, the opioid epidemic and the delayed and lame response to the coronavirus, added to the litany of foreign policy debacles, don’t convince you and do not draw your vote to unseat Donald Trump, you are a clearly his dream supporter/always Trumper… and you just may get to live with the consequences.