April 15, 2020
OVERSIGHT AND ACCOUNTABILITY
Today’s subject is oversight and accountability. The daily historical revisionist and lying effluence that the President continues to espouse, needs to be rebuked. Here are the facts about the Covid-19 virus. In early Feb, when we only had 1 case in the U.S. Trump said it was “not a problem” and “would magically go away”. On Feb. 10 at the CDC Trump stated anyone that wanted a test could get a test. This is not true today (15 Apr 2020). On 26 Feb. when only 15 cases appeared, he said the Democrats were overly concerned and some were perpetrating a hoax. Trump said the 15 would soon go to -0- and with the heat in April it would go away. The states relied on the President for guidance and good advice and did not prepare. Now Trump chides the states for not being prepared.
Trump declared a National Emergency on 12th of Mar. and promised drive thru testing would be available (still not universally). On Feb 29th the CDC opened up the testing development to the private sector after weeks of failing to provide a test when, Korea had enough testing to be able to open up their economy. It wasn’t until 24 March that FEMA was ordered to take over test distribution. States have now developed their own tests and are preparing to deliver wide scale testing.
Now he blames the States, the media, and China for his inadequate response. He blamed the media for their reporting and not being concerned about the virus even though they were repeating exactly what the Donald had been saying. He is defunding the WHO for his lack of an adequate response. Without the WHO, the pandemic would have been devastating and any warning for other pandemics that are festering anywhere in the world, will be overlooked.
This stupidity is only because he did not respond and needed someone to else obscure to blame, since the governers (Newsome and Como) are doing the job Trump should be doing AND getting favorable ratings as a result. The media can replay his rhetoric and can discount his lies. China and Trump are in trade negotiations, so he can’t risk the optics of his big trade deal, as he desperately needs some type of win before the election in Nov. So it’s the WHO that gets his ire. Defunding the WHO has the effect of not having any warning for any other pandemic that appears 2 or 3 times a decade. Think of H1N1, MERS, SARS and Corona outbreaks. Early WHO warning for H1N1 had similar mortality rates of Corona. H1N1 was eventually contained and did not stop the economy and did not cost taxpayers 7 Trillion Dollars.
Enough with the accountability lets look at oversight. Trump’s corporate giveaway has the odor of a bathroom stall, that has not been mucked out for weeks. The largest dollar giveaway (170 Billion Dollars) is going to real estate investors and equity firms. These firms’ clients are being made whole and these firms will profit from the pandemic. This giveaway also rewards these firms with the ability to write off 100% of their loss AND write off the added 20% for losses in 2018 and 2019, having nothing to do with the pandemic. This $170 billion is more than is given to Hospitals and the relief to the states. So the same individuals that brought the last bailout found a way to not only get whole with a direct bailout, get a 20% windfall for losses in 2018 and 2019, and their clients and investments get bailed out all at the taxpayer expense. Hotels also want a hand out for the lack of business. They already get salaries reimbursed, and now they want to reimbursed for occupancy loss, as well as getting to write off their operating losses. All this without oversight.
By the way, you can expect a delay in the reimbursement checks. Trump halted the presses while Donald Trump has his name on the check. This is Autocratic behavior. No other president has requested such vanity. It’s all about him and with his name on the check he thinks you won’t think about the fact it’s your money he is sending to you.