America’s can-do myth is meeting coronavirus reality. The U.S. is winning in terms of how fast the epidemic is progressing, outpacing the spread in countries across the planet. In California and in New York, cases are doubling every three to four days. Heck of a job, Trumpie.
The Week summarizes:
The U.S. passed 1,000 deaths from the COVID-19 coronavirus on Wednesday, hitting 1,046 deaths by Thursday morning, according to a running count kept by Johns Hopkins University. Nearly a third of those deaths were in New York City, where health officials reported a jump from 199 deaths on Wednesday morning to 280 deaths by 6 p.m. The U.S. has about 69,200 confirmed cases of COVID-19, making it No. 3 after China and Italy. Spain overtook China in registered COVID-19 deaths, 3,647, while Italy is reporting 7,503 deaths. Overall, there are more than 480,000 confirmed cases worldwide, 21,600 deaths, and 115,850 patients who recovered. Nearly a third of the world’s population is in lockdown to slow the virus’ spread.
On Capitol Hill, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a $2.2 trillion relief package that now heads for the House where it is expected to pass this morning. But as Digby observed, we were not going to see this package passed without some grandstanding by Republicans.
Sens. Tim Scott and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, and Rick Scott of Florida held a press conference to show they were irked at the idea of paying some workers more in unemployment than their jobs ordinarily underpay them.
The group said in a statement, “If the federal government accidentally incentivizes layoffs, we risk life-threatening shortages in sectors where doctors, nurses, and pharmacists are trying to care for the sick, and where growers and grocers, truckers and cooks are trying to get food to families’ tables.”
Nurses and doctors are coming out of retirement to put their lives on the line to save others. This elite crew seems not to have gotten that memo.
Graham told reporters, “If you make $15 dollars an hour working in South Carolina — a lot of people do — this bill will pay $23 an hour not to work, and I think that’s perverse incentive.”
Graham’s statements suggest he thinks people who quit their jobs can draw unemployment. He might know that if he’d had a private-sector job for any length of time since leaving college. But Graham’s worried that people unable to buy food and pay rent with the economy in a black hole might cheat the system.
“Lots of the important industries in America have median wages that are lower than what would happen under the unemployment benefits portion of this bill,” Sasse explained. “And so we don’t want to accelerate the severing of that employee-employer relationship.”
Translation: Propping up large corporations that spent the last decade boosting executive pay and buying back stock rather than paying down debt is one thing. Nothing perverse about that. But disrupting the power dynamic that keeps hourly workers dependent on their paymasters is entirely unacceptable. Why, workers might be incentivized to stay home during the pandemic as states have ordered and as medical experts have recommended!
Even amidst a pandemic, these leopards cannot change their spots any more than the acting president can behave like a well-adjusted adult.
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For The Win, 3rd Edition is ready for download. Request a copy of my free countywide election mechanics guide at ForTheWin.us. This is what winning looks like.
Note: The pandemic will upend standard field tactics in 2020. If enough promising “improvisations” come my way by June, perhaps I can issue a COVID-19 supplement.