by Ryan Sanghavi
“Because of all we’ve done, the risk to the American people remains very low,” President Donald Trump claimed at a White House press briefing on February 26th, referring to the virus that would rapidly shut down all non-essential business in the country. Two months after this statement, COVID-19 claimed the lives of over fifty thousand American residents, with a million individuals confirmed to be infected. Unfortunately, in the months since the coronavirus infected the first United States resident, the Trump Administration and the U.S. Congress have failed to protect and serve the American people.
Negligence was a major element in the coronavirus response even before it reached the White House or the floor of Congress. Despite Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar learning the danger of the virus in early January, President Trump was not informed about the threat for several weeks. Once he was notified of the situation’s severity, Trump continued to downplay the virus, stating, without evidence, that it would one day disappear like a miracle. The President instead touted the rising stock market, much of which collapsed to a forty-month low just days later.
Many Americans voiced frustration with the pandemic’s leadership. I previously had the privilege of speaking with former 2020 Democratic Presidential candidate Marianne Williamson about the crisis, who presented an abbreviated version of the Administration’s action: “Inadequate doesn’t even begin to describe it. It borders on criminal neglect.” Williamson, a best selling author, explained this accusation, saying, “Our President was told by our intelligence agencies at the end of last year that they felt that China was not being totally honest about the severity of the problem. He chose to ignore what he was being told.”
Williamson also mentioned the Defense Production Act, enacted during the Korean War, which gives the President the right to mandate production of necessary emergency goods from appropriate companies. Typically used during wartime, the Defense Production Act would have helped to replenish the federal stockpile of medical equipment that rapidly emptied in March. Ms. Williamson argued that the President should have said to clothing, textile, and pharmaceutical companies, “You are directed to manufacture respirators, ventilators, masks, protective gear, and medicine.” However, many of these corporations never were required to manufacture these essential items, and medical workers resorted to reusing inadequate Personal Protective Equipment.
The White House’s botched response to the pandemic reached beyond legislation, and to the misleading of the public. During an April 24th press briefing, the President suggested that Americans could try injecting themselves with disinfectant to cleanse the body of the coronavirus. Although he later announced that he was being facetious, the New York Times reported that dozens of people in Maryland were calling the state emergency hotline to inquire about whether ingesting such materials could cause bodily harm. These claims, due in part to President Trump’s adamant refusal to accept the legislative advice of White House Coronavirus Task Force leader Anthony Fauci, M.D., among other aids, threatens the possibility of ‘business as usual’ in the near future.
The Trump Administration is not the only body at fault for the delayed combattance of the pandemic - Congress and the varying elements of its COVID-19 aid packages have not properly helped families recover financially and medically from the crisis
Classrooms and non-essential business across the entire globe have moved to the virtual atmosphere, utilizing such platforms as Zoom, Skype, and others. However, many legislative procedures will still take place on the Congress floor well into the late Spring. With Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell at the age of 78 and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at 80, Congressional leaders are some of the most susceptible to the virus, which leaves Americans wondering why the legislative branch has yet to move online.
The most simple answer is a lack of preparedness. The United States government has functioned for centuries with the existing legislative voting system, and video conferencing has not been available for any pandemic with the magnitude of COVID-19. Therefore, hardly any offices on Capitol Hill were ready for such a swift change. In March, when the virus shut down businesses and schools, Congresspeople feared that leaving Washington D.C. would cause the two houses to lose the potential for discourse and cooperation. Of course, now that Senators and Representatives are required to shuffle onto the floor one by one in order to cast votes, while socially distancing from aids and officials, such debate is not as welcome. Instead of finding alternative methods of assembly, lawmakers decided upon calling a Congressional recess for all of the month of April and some of May. Thus, when the nation needed leaders to act more rapidly than ever before, debate was essentially suspended.
Among its struggle, Congress has managed to pass a number of large relief packages to help Americans struggling financially during the crisis. The stimulus bill passed in March, which allocated two trillion dollars to COVID-19 relief, did have a meaningful impact in several sectors. However, American citizens rapidly required further aid.
A key element of the act, a $1,200 stimulus check sent to those with a salary lower than $75,000, was largely based off of entrepreneur Andrew Yang’s concept for a universal basic income. However, for some Americans, the money from these stimulus checks went directly towards paying off debts and loans. Perhaps more concerning, these $1,200 payments are providing millions of Americans with basic necessities, though there is little guarentee that any similar stimulus checks will be sent in the future. It could take months for all non-essential businesses to reopen, or even longer for many to regain employment. Despite calls from economists and financial advisers, neither the White House nor Congress have called for a federal moratorium on evictions and residential rent payments.
Another section of the bill directed $350 billion dollars in loans towards small businesses, which, provided that no clauses of a small business’s loan agreement are violated, technically serves as a gift. Although, the fund was flooded by millions of applications, resulting in the almost immediate depletion of alloted money. Fortunately a second small business aid package passed in April, prolonged by days of unnecessary partisan disputes, temporarily replenishing the federal loan program.
Naturally, this legislation does not help Americans who work for more sizable companies. Some of Congress’s relief bills sent billions of dollars to multinational firms centered in the United States, but the conditions requiring small business loan recipients to retain all employees do not apply in the same manner to large corporations.
This, combined with dozens of other factors, has triggered countless layoffs in every state. Since the coronavirus pandemic began, tens of millions of Americans have filed for unemployment. This number is unprecedented for any crisis, and many constituents of that statistic have yet to receive their unemployment benefits.
The gross governmental inaction on the crisis has slowed exports, manufacturing, Wall Street, and surely quarterly growth. A Washington Post headline on April 9 exclaimed, “America is in a Depression,” which, if such a disaster should occur in the near future, could be the most devastating event that the country has seen in years.
If Congress and the White House want to avoid this catastrophe, the likes of which are appearing more apparent every day, lawmakers must put aside their partisan differences and ideological opposition to immediately reverse the perilous course the nation is barreling down. Providing stimulus checks on a regular basis, further suspending debt payment, and holding virtual Congress proceedings are only a handful of tactics that the United States government can utilize to save the American economy and people. Furthermore, the federal government must release a clearly communicated plan detailing the re-opening of non-essential businesses and schools, as opposed to the patchwork of some states returning to business as usual before any significant decline in new COVID-19 cases is observed. Only through consistent expanded national testing and clear scientific and medical leadership can an accurate timeline be issued. If the United States is unable to rebound from the weak orchestration of its coronavirus response, then the worst is certainly to come.
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