Despite the money earmarked for direct relief and hospitals, Republicans have also insisted that funds also go to large corporations: a quarter of the money in the current legislation will go to specific industries and specific companies like Boeing. The funds will be allocated at the discretion of Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, a former Wall Street banker who, before joining the Trump government, was known as the "foreclosure king." Unless there is proper oversight, one can imagine that Mnuchin will prefer to dole out the money to companies located in states where Trump needs help in his re-election effort.
Blue states like New York, where the crisis has become severe in a matter of days, are already seeing an imbalance, but no state is getting what it needs. The bill includes $150 billion for states and local governments, which are facing dramatic losses in tax revenue needed to provide basic services including police and fire protection, health care, and basic maintenance of infrastructure. But In a phone call with Trump, Democratic and Republican governors alike warned that the $150 billion was insufficient.
Trump immediately went on TV and Twitter to blame governors calling out the Democratic leaders of Michigan, New York, and Washington by name for being ungrateful. "Some of these governors, they take, take, take and then they complain," Trump tweeted. "They take, and you do a great job, you build them a hospital, and then they are always complaining." Then he told Fox News host Sean Hannity that governors and health officials are exaggerating the need for ventilators. "I don't believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators. You go into major hospitals sometimes, and they'll have two ventilators. And now all of a sudden, they're saying, 'Can we order 30,000 ventilators?'"
In these extraordinary times, we need our elected officials -- all of them -- to take extraordinary actions, and it will take more than money. Both the federal and state governments have the authority to limit price-gouging by businesses. Companies that jack up the prices of essential items hand sanitizer, masks, toilet paper, etc should be fined and jailed. There should be temporary emergency national rent control and other price controls, like there was during World War II. States should impose eviction and foreclosure moratoriums.
The United States has the resources and the authority to address both the public health crisis and the unemployment/income problem over the next few months. Once that is accomplished, and the COVID-19 outbreak has been contained, then it will be time to stimulate the economy by asking people to return to work, increasing consumer spending, and providing assistance for business and industries that truly need it.
Then we can return to the national debate about providing health insurance and child care for all, developing a job-creating Green New Deal, raising the minimum wage, mandating paid sick leave and paid vacations, reducing the cost of a college education, and other ways to make America safe and prosperous, while also making sure that the country is prepared for future national emergencies.
This piece originally appeared at Public Seminar.
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