Tag: Covid-19

Republicans, Democrats Agree on Chinese Threat

WEDNESDAY 3/1/23

By Todd Lassa

In the refreshingly bipartisan House Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party’s first public hearing Tuesday evening Republicans and Democrats pretty much agreed that U.S. acquiescence to China is boosting its economy and global prominence at the cost of our own. 

“We may call this a strategic competition, but it is not a polite tennis match,” Committee Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-WI) said in his opening statement. “This is an existential struggle over what life will look like in the 21st Century.”

At times, Democrats used their cross-exam time to promote Democratic policy, while Republicans used their time on the mic to promote Republican ideals. Even then, the committee’s three hours of testimony was almost unnaturally civil, with a panel consisting mostly of moderates from both sides of the aisle. Unlike an earlier House committee hearing earlier Tuesday on oversight of U.S. funding for Ukraine, there was no Matt Gaetz (R-FL). 

There was Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY), who warned the federal government “should not embrace Chinese-style central planning.

“We should not try to counter China by being more like China.”

Barr followed Rep. Shontel Brown (D-OH), whose questions prompted witness Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, to say that public investment was needed – including infrastructure spending -- for local manufacturing of computer chips and other products currently dominated by Chinese industry. 

Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ) warned that Congress’ potential failure to raise the federal debt ceiling this year would show weakness in our democracy to the Chinese. 

“Democracies that reach high don’t always reach the skies,” responded witness Matt Pottinger, who served as deputy national security advisor under the Trump administration. “People understand that it’s not always going to look pretty.”

Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) .

“I believe fentanyl is committing diplomatic blackmail,” he said, and Pottinger cited FBI Director Christopher Wray’s assessment that a lab in Wuhan, China “most likely” released COVID-19 to result in the pandemic. (An Energy Department assessment leaked to The Wall Street Journal last week says it has “low confidence” in that conclusion.)

Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD) noted that China has increased its holdings in farmland outside its own borders by 1,000% in recent years. While Chinese entities, mostly governmental have purchased relatively little farmland in the U.S., it’s mostly close to military system installations, replied witness H.R. McMaster, Trump administration national security advisor in 2017 and 2018.

Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) suggested then-President Trump’s withdrawal from an Asian trade pact with China was a boon to the Chinese president’s plans for world domination. 

“January 6, 2021 was Xi Jinping’s best day in office,” Auchincloss said. He suggested negotiation of a new trade agreement involving the U.S. and Taiwan.

The hearing’s fourth witness, Chinese dissident Tong Yi (above), said tech experts here should “research how to bring down the great firewall,” China’s blocking of Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Google. “The truth is powerful on its own,” she said, and journalists and rights lawyers are “heavily repressed” inside China. 

The U.S. must watch not only the social media site TikTok, but also WeChat, Tong said, “a must-have inside China, but also a must have” for Chinese-Americans to communicate with their relatives inside China who must self-repress what they convey to those relatives to keep from being blocked by Xi’s government.

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Does Biden’s Infrastructure Plan Have a Chance?

By Todd Lassa

Rebuilding infrastructure -- addressing the dangerous bridges and crumbling interstate highways -- was perhaps the only major issue with which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, and her caucus agreed with former President Trump. After nine Infrastructure Weeks (plus Trump’s August 2016 campaign pledge) the last possibility under a Republican president of fixing the broken itself crumbled under the weight of the more-immediate coronavirus pandemic – even if the former president’s critics said COVID-19 didn’t seem to be of much concern to him. 

It’s easy to forget that President Trump unveiled a $1.5-trillion proposal in February 2018, as The New York Times reminds us, but were overshadowed by a couple of White House scandals. In April 2019, with Pelosi re-installed as speaker after Democratic victories in the mid-terms, the White House and Capitol Hill Democrats announced they had reached agreement on a $2-trillion infrastructure package to upgrade highways, railroads, bridges and broadband. But Trump “stormed out” of a meeting to discuss how to pay for it, saying he would not return to negotiations until House Democrats stopped investigating him.

President Biden’s $2.3-trillion plan unveiled earlier this month isn’t much costlier. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has said “there would be no Senate Republican votes for the infrastructure bill,” columnist Juan Williams wrote in The Hill.“Full stop.” Capitol Hill Republicans say the bill is full of Democratic social engineering dream programs, and they’re opposed to Biden’s proposal to raise the corporate tax rate from the 21% historic low set by President Trump, on up to 28%.

To the Bernie Sanders/Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wing of the Democratic Party, $2.3-trillion isn’t nearly enough. But the Biden administration has signaled it is willing to negotiate with Republicans in order to get at least some support. The White House met with congress members from both parties on Monday, April 12. Biden will need to convince 10 Republican senators to vote for the package to avoid using the arduous reconciliation procedure (the Senate parliamentarian has ruled it is allowed a second time this fiscal year). 

And even without the support of 10 Republicans to vote for cloture on a filibuster, Biden will have to convince fellow Democrat Joe Manchin III, senator from West Virginia, just to get to 51 votes, including Vice President Harris. 

Key infrastructure provisions up for negotiation, according to the AP:

•$115 billion to modernize bridges, highways and roads.

•$85 billion for public transit to shorten the repair backlog and expand services.

•$89 billion to modernize Amtrak’s popular Northeast Corridor line and address its repair.

•$174 billion to build 500,000 electric vehicle charging systems, electrify 20% of school buses and electrify the federal fleet, including U.S. Postal Service vehicles.

•$100 billion to build high-speed broadband in order to provide 100% coverage across the country – a sort of 21st Century Tennessee Valley Authority project.

•$100 billion to upgrade the nation’s power grid resilience, and move toward clean electricity, and related projects.

•$20 billion to redress communities whose neighborhoods were divided by those Eisenhower-spawned highway projects. This affects mostly non-white neighborhoods.

•$111 billion to replace lead water pipes and upgrade sewer systems.

•$50 billion to improve infrastructure resilience to counter natural disasters.

•$180 billion in research & development projects.

•$300 billion for manufacturing, including funds for the computer chip sector (it would be nice during a pandemic not to have to wait for ships full of them to arrive from China), improved access to capital, and clean energy investment. 

That’s $1.324 trillion, leaving nearly $976 billion for such programs as money to build, preserve and retrofit more than 2 million affordable houses and buildings and expansion of long-term services under Medicaid (at $400-billion, the single costliest line item). 

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It’s Time for Infrastructure, Not for Corporate Tax Hikes

By Bryan Williams

So what is a Republican not to like about infrastructure? You know, spending our tax-payer dollars on things that benefit all of us instead of, say, the harder-to-see societal gains that $2 billion a year in aid to Israel or the $6 million each for an anti-radiation guided missile attached to an Air Force bomber brings. As with previous fits and starts to infrastructure bills, this one seems no different. The center column tells of Trump’s own infrastructure plan that would have cost nearly as much as Biden’s. It has been touted for years now – at least the past three to four election cycles – that “infrastructure should be the one thing both parties can agree on.”  And yet … here we are in 2021 still trying to get it done.

I see this latest effort as kind of ho-hum. This country has sustained three rounds of massively expensive COVID-19 stimulus bills, each in the trillions – with a t—of dollars, and the fiscal sky has not fallen. And yeah, I used to be right with (former) Rep. Paul Ryan, R-WI, and other fiscal hawks who said our children will end up paying for our profligacy. I remember hearing that in the ‘90s when I was a kid. Sure the national debt has gone up a lot, but the United States is still considered the most powerful nation in the world. We have the most advanced, most powerful military, and we just landed our fourth rover on another planet, this time with a miniature helicopter on board to fly around Mars. So yeah, the argument that all this debt will hamstring our society rings a little hollow.

The one thing that grinds my gears are the taxes Biden wants to raise on corporations after three short years of the new, low rate that has finally made America competitive with the rest of the world. Businesses like stability, right? Why raise their taxes when they are just starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel after a year of pandemic shutdowns? Seems like a bad idea to raise taxes on the companies that will be hiring all of us back.

And why does it all have to be in one massive omnibus bill? Haven’t we all become tired of these huge tomes that become “law?”  Remember the words, “We have to pass it to find out what’s in it [because it’s too big to read],” when the Affordable Care Act was being negotiated? Reminds me of Michael Scott (Steve Carell) from The Office. When asked if he ever read Lee Iacocca’s book, “Talking Straight,” he answered, “Read it? I own it! But no, I have not read it.”  Let’s break this bill up into its constituent parts so the general public, as well as congressmembers and their staff have time to read all its components, and even understand it. One bill for roads, one bill for broadband, etc. This may slow down the process, but hey, we’ve waited this long, right?

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Relearning American Humanity

By Michelle Naranjo

In a small community on the steps of Pennsylvania coal country, there is a rumor being spread via social media that an empty decommissioned hospital slated for destruction due to the presence of asbestos and black mold is being kitted out with new beds and will soon become housing for immigrants making their way into the U.S. 

The initial report of this came from someone who claims a cousin delivering the beds to said hospital enquired about the activity, and a worker allegedly told him of the plan. The comments on posts about this range from residents ranting about Biden "opening the border," to those who believe that the migrants will bring the "China virus" with them, to a few who find the less-than-kind reactions racist and cruel. 

To be clear, migrants reaching the border tested for Covid-19 have a less than 6% positive rate. Legal residents in the border states, save California, are not faring as well. Texas is at 9%, New Mexico is at 8%, and Arizona is at 11%. 

Sadly, rumors of this kind are in every state of the U.S. and are just a sign of the poor communication around the growing migration from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.

Meanwhile, Biden and senior staff members are gunfire-at-the-feet dancing to avoid referring to the surge of migrants at the border as a crisis, and Republican critics are taking the opportunity to use the rising numbers to slam the nascent administration as a failure. The administration isn't doing itself any favors by rallying around the narrative that the growing crisis is the previous administration's fault. 

Democratic Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, following a visit to the El Paso, Texas U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing center as part of a bipartisan congressional tour, has called on the Biden administration to be more transparent with Americans about what is happening at the border. 

While there is much to be gained by being honest with the media and citizens, it would also be an opportune time for Biden et. al. to reiterate America's humanitarian tradition and take a giant step towards reviving it.

Biden has only been in office long enough for one month of border statistics to come to light, but setting the tone now is imperative. Allowing a humanitarian crisis to dissolve into disinformation and rumors amid the ongoing turmoil of over 500,000 deaths from COVID-19, a year of massive unemployment, and a timbre that is no longer keeping the racist undertones of the U.S. quiet. 

Rescinding the policy of returning migrant children traveling alone encountered to the other side of the border was the right thing for Biden to do. So is sending assistance to the countries losing their citizens to migration because of strained economies, weather-related disasters, political corruption, and drug and gang-related violence. Biden needs to give the press and American citizens an ongoing and clear explanation of why it is in our best interest to protect migrants at risk since so many of us seem to have gone dark on what it means to have the U.S. act a leader in human rights. 

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The Fascination with Free College

By Charles Dervarics

For people of a certain age (read: young), the allure of free college is almost irresistible. At a time when some private universities charge more than $70,000 annually and top public institutions cost $30,000 a year, the entire process may seem daunting to students and their families.

And that’s before even reading about how the “sticker price” may differ from your final cost (like a car negotiation!) or the merits of online and “hybrid” learning during a pandemic.

One thing we do know: Americans already have a lot of college debt. According to the Federal Reserve, 20% of the U.S. population owes a combined $1.5 trillion in education loans. Not surprisingly, low-income students stand the most to lose. As the U.S. Department of Education notes, a low-income student is four times less likely than a wealthier student to earn a bachelor’s degree.

While free college is not in the massive $1.9 trillion stimulus bill, the issue looms as an upcoming flashpoint for Congress and President Biden. The president has proposed tuition-free public college for families earning up to $125,000 a year. In a recent CBS interview, Biden said he could provide that benefit for $1.5 billion, though his staff quickly backtracked and pegged the cost at approximately twice that level.

Part of the challenge is that, similar to K-12 schools, colleges rely not on the federal government but on state and local funds for much of their budgets. College costs also differ greatly by state. As reported by CollegeCalc, the average public college or university in Pennsylvania charged $23,167 last year. In New Mexico, the average was just $6,807. Does higher cost bring higher quality? And knowing the federal government would soon foot the bill for many students, would states cut their own contributions as a result?

Some lawmakers also want to help recent grads who wouldn’t reap benefits from this Biden plan. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, is proposing to forgive up to $50,000 of a student’s loans, while the White House says it’s open to forgiveness of up to $10,000. Help for graduates now navigating the job market is politically popular, with several polls showing strong public support. 

Still another alternative is free community college, so more low-income students might earn a technical credential or associate degree at lower-cost, two-year schools. Biden has talked about this, too, as has First Lady Jill Biden, a community college professor. But here recent data show the devastating impact from a year of COVID-19. Despite low tuitions, community colleges suffered a 10% enrollment decline in Fall 2020, far more than other areas of higher education. Most alarmingly, based on data from the National Student Clearinghouse, freshman enrollment at two-year colleges dropped by a whopping 21%.

When times are bad, community colleges usually do well as the unemployed return to school. But that’s not happening now, perhaps because prospective students lack child care and technology or just don’t like virtual learning.

What’s interesting here is that some states already offer free community college to many students. Tennessee, an early leader, saw an 11% enrollment drop in fall 2020 with African Americans showing notable declines. Leaders cited factors such as economic uncertainty and lack of connectivity and child care. All of which may indicate that, when it comes to education and so many other issues, free isn’t always free.

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Dangerous Make-Believe

By Stephen Macaulay

It is absolutely appropriate that CPAC was held in Orlando, the city that has even surpassed Anaheim in its association with the Magical Kingdom. Walt Disney World is the most popular amusement park on earth, with some 58-million annual visitors. . .a number that collapsed as a result of COVID-19. However, given the reaction of an audible number of attendees who booed the announcement at CPAC that because they were in someone else’s facility they had to follow that host’s rules, and the rules included wearing masks to help mitigate the potential spread of the virus, they probably wouldn’t mind a ride on Splash Mountain, even if they were doused in foul water.

Mask-free or die.

It is all too easy to see the cartoonish golden statue of Donald Trump that was made — where else? — in Mexico, a statue that had CPAC attendees posing with just as they would with Mickey, in relation to a cautionary tale from Exodus 32: 1-6. The worship of an idol. Aaron had told the Israelites that the golden calf had delivered them from Egypt. It didn’t.

And Trump has delivered his people from what?

There are some 10.1-million people unemployed in the U.S. right now.

There are some 512,000 dead Americans — Americans — from COVID-19.

Did that Golden Idol cause the unemployment, cause the deaths?

Look at it this way: Both started under his watch. He claimed the former was going to “just disappear.” He made mask-wearing a political, not a medical, thing. He knew that a bad economy wasn’t going to be good for his brand, so despite advice to the contrary, he claimed COVID wasn’t a big deal, which led to more people getting sick, more people dying, and more businesses going out of business.

Chant though they might, it doesn’t change the facts. But facts are, as we’ll see, troublesome for some people.

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was born in New York City. She was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018, representing the 14th congressional district, which encompasses part of the Bronx, Queens and Rikers Island. She is a Democrat.

It is about 1,755 miles from the Bronx to Austin, Texas.

When the winter storm that set Texans back, way back on their collective boot heels, Ocasio-Cortez went to work and raised some $5-million for affected Texans.

Senator Ted Cruz, R-TX, went to Cancun.

So what did Ted Cruz do when he spoke at CPAC?

Among other things, made fun of Ocasio-Cortez, who had posted a powerful Instagram Live video predicated on her life experiences and what she experienced during the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6.

Ocasio-Cortez raises $5-million for people far away from her district.

Cruz goes on vacation while the people in his state struggle.

Regardless of what you think of the political points of view of either of these people, ask yourself one thing: Which of the two is a serious leader, someone who would have your back?

Ted Cruz, a man who ended up carrying water for the man who described his wife as being unattractive and who accused his father of participating in one of the biggest crimes of the 20th century, is clearly not serious. Nor does he seem to care about anyone other than Rafael Edward Cruz.

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The unacronymic name of CPAC is “Conservative Political Action Conference.” It is organized by the American Conservative Union.

Edmund Burke is the father of modern conservatism. Or maybe that should be real conservatism.

Consider this in light of what happened in Orlando:

“But what is liberty without wisdom and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint. Those who know what virtuous liberty is, cannot bear to see it disgraced by incapable heads, on account of their having high-sounding words in their mouths.” ― Edmund Burke

Conservatism is about things like morality, good conduct, a free-market economy, and limited government. And these people are all juiced up about Donald Trump.

How do you square that circle?

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According to the website for the Missouri secretary of state, Missouri is known as the “Show Me” state for the following reason:

“The most widely known legend attributes the phrase to Missouri's U.S. Congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver, who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1897 to 1903. While a member of the U.S. House Committee on Naval Affairs, Vandiver attended an 1899 naval banquet in Philadelphia. In a speech there, he declared, ‘I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me.’”

One way of looking at this is that the people of Missouri believe in facts. That evidence matters more than what people claim.

“I stood up and I said, I said, we ought to have a debate about election integrity, said, it is the right of the people to be heard. And my constituents in Missouri want to be heard on this issue.”

That is what Sen. Josh Hawley, R-MO, said in his CPAC 2020 comments.

Since Trump lost the 2020 election there has been a whole lot of rhetoric about how the “election was stolen.”

Where’s the evidence?

Show me.

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Kristi Noem, governor of South Dakota, who is rumored to be a potential 2024 presidential candidate attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci at CPAC. 

"As conservatives, we often forget that stories are much more powerful than facts and statistics," Noem said. "Our stories need to be told. It is the only way that we will inspire and motivate the American people to preserve this great country."

It is convenient that she’s not big on facts.

Few would argue that California has been an unfortunate hot spot for COVID-19.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, California has had 8,784 cases per 100,000 people. It has had 131 deaths per 100,000 people.

Of course, that’s a Blue State.

So how is South Dakota doing?

12,693 cases per 100,000 people.

213 deaths per 100,000 people.

Yes, Noem, facts and statistics ought to be avoided in favor of stories because they sure as hell are damning.

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Read the full list of CPAC’s presidential candidate straw poll — click on Forum.

One Step Forward, Two Back

By Stephen Macaulay

Although there are certainly metrics associated with bringing kids back to the classrooms across the country, a country where the COVID-19 numbers are beginning to decline — but decline from a high place to what still should be an inconceivable place, were it not that we’ve become inured to large numbers (it is still a really big number, folks) — it seems that the anecdotal is important in thinking about this issue.

Kids and teachers are human beings, which is something that can be readily overlooked when they are turned into metrics. And let’s not forget about the other people who make schools operate, whether it is the absolutely important janitorial staff or the bus drivers or the school administrators. There are plenty of people who are involved that transcends the teacher-pupil ratio.

So, the anecdote.

I have a niece who is a third-grade teacher in Southwest Michigan. Before the pandemic, her parents, who live in Southeast Michigan, would periodically travel west, not only to see their daughter, but to bring her essential school supplies that they bought because (1) they knew their daughter, who was also buying things like paper and pencils, wasn’t exactly making a whole lot and (2) the school district didn’t have the funds either. As you may have learned of late, Southwest Michigan is an area where there isn’t a whole lot of interest in things like tax increases, even if it is for school children.

Teachers, like my niece, want to teach. They didn’t go into that profession thinking that they’re going to get rich. And as my niece has discovered, part of her income is going to support her students.

My niece has been back in the classroom for several weeks now. Whereas in a pre-pandemic year she would go in on weekends to decorate the classroom with educational materials, now she goes in on weekends to assure that there is proper spacing and to do some additional Lysol wiping.

Clearly, priorities change.

Although the school district she teaches in is literally about 10 miles from the Pfizer plant where the vaccine is made, she has yet to get her first shot: it will happen next week. It will be a Moderna jab. Do you want to know what my niece says is one of her biggest challenges while teaching during a pandemic?

“The kids want to hug one another.”

Yes, we’re talking about people here.

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While the U.S. is deservedly renowned for many of its universities, when it comes to primary and secondary schools, things aren’t so swell.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) runs the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which “measures 15-year-olds’ ability to use their reading, mathematics and science knowledge and skills to meet real-life challenges.” 

How well did U.S. middle schoolers do compared with those in other parts of the world in the most recent survey (2018)? Thirteenth place.

China, separated into four divisions for the survey ((1) Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang; (2) Singapore, (3) Macao and (4) Hong Kong) are in the first four positions.

To get a sense of performance, the students in the B-S-J-Z grouping scored 555 on reading, 591 in math and 590 in science.

In the U.S. those numbers are 504, 502 and 505.

Which ought to be an argument that we need to get students back into classrooms ASAP.

But here’s the thing. While it can most certainly be argued that local districts have local concerns and consequently don’t need some Big Government program to tell them what to do, the dirty little secret that doesn’t seem to want to be acknowledged is that: The pandemic is something that no one—local, state, regional, national—knew how to deal with. There is no handbook with protocol in it.*

Note how the CDC keeps changing its recommendations. It isn’t because it doesn’t know what it is doing. It is because things keep changing.

It is absurd to think that a school superintendent in any district in the country — to say nothing of the teachers, bus drivers, custodial staff, etc. — is a skilled epidemiologist who knows everything that one needs to know to keep people from being sick.

This takes the know-how of people who deal with these life-and-death situations on a daily basis.

Yes, there is huge frustration on behalf of parents who want their kids back in schools.

But to rush things, to think that bad things won’t happen simply because “damn it they won’t” will likely move things one step forward and then two in reverse.

And that surely won’t help the next ranking for the U.S. in the OECD global survey.

*Although it is worth noting an advisory group that was established by George H.W. Bush in 1990, President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) wrote a document in August 2009, “Preparations for 2009-H1N1 Influenza,” to help mitigate the effects of the swine flu epidemics. And prior to Obama leaving office a 69-page report, “Playbook for Early Response to High-Consequence Emerging Infectious Disease Threats and Biological Incidents,” was developed by the National Security Council and presented to the executive branch — and was reportedly — and evidently — ignored by the Trump administration.

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•Read Stephen Macaulay on Trump vs. McConnell, and Bryan Williams on censured Republican moderates ; Click on FORUM.

The School Opening Conundrum

By Charles Dervarics

A few years back, I visited a high-poverty middle school during a lockdown, with students confined to classrooms and the doors closed. It also was a 90-degree day in an old building without air conditioning. Observing a math class, I couldn’t help but notice how the teacher had strategically placed 19 small and medium-size fans around the room, generating air flow to take advantage of the one open window. Clearly, she had faced similar challenges before, probably using her geometry skills for the best fan placement.

While this visit took place before COVID, I sometimes think about that school – still open during any normal academic year – when considering how fast schools should reopen in 2021. 

With medical facilities and some colleges open for months now, conventional wisdom says it shouldn’t take that long for most K-12 schools to offer more than remote learning. With PPE, partitions, masks, and a goal to vaccinate teachers, it makes sense to offer in-person learning especially for low-income youngsters with the least technology access and the most chance of falling behind. But just as achievement among schools can vary greatly, so do the facilities and crowding that teachers and students have to deal with on a daily basis.

National debate on this issue has erupted anew now that President Biden has pledged to reopen the majority of schools during his first 100 days in office. But that plan is putting the president in crosshairs with some teacher unions, who warn of the risks posed by overcrowding, substandard ventilation systems and lagging vaccination rates. 

Similar debates are playing out across the country, as typified by Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s long battle with the Chicago Teachers Union on school reopening. And in San Francisco, the city just sued its own school district, citing a lack of planning and vision to get back to in-person instruction.

Meanwhile, Republicans have remained largely unified in calling for schools to re-open. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, recently called remote learning a “pale shadow of proper schooling” and said the science shows that schools can offer in-person instruction. Earlier this month, the House GOP tried to require schools to provide a reopening plan before getting funds from last December’s COVID relief bill. Democrats rebuffed that idea.

This GOP message plays well with its base. In some communities, it’s not uncommon to see residents who have replaced their Trump 2020 signs with signs pushing for school re-openings. A Republican push on this issue also may help recapture the attention of suburban parents weary of the school-at-home trend.

According to Burbio, a research and data company, about 39% of schools are currently open for traditional, in-person learning. That leaves the administration until late April – the end of Biden’s first 100 days – to reach the 50% mark.

On Feb. 12, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also offered a possible way forward. The agency outlined a series of steps to promote safe school openings, including use of masks by students, teachers and staff, social distancing, handwashing, strong cleaning and maintenance practices and speedy contact tracing in response to COVID cases. With the school year more than half over, those guidelines may arrive just in time.

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Low Risk to School-Age Youth vs. Being Deprived of Learning, Socialization

By Andrew Boyd

I met recently with a friend and colleague whose spouse and he made a decision some years back to pursue public schooling for their two young children, despite having the resources to have put them into private institutions. They are preparing now to graduate their son to the public middle school, which is not as well regarded as was the elementary program; however, they imagined that their son, and a couple dozen of his friends and their parents, could do some good in helping this school to advance and grow.  

Then, the pandemic. Then two weeks to slow the spread. Then national lockdowns. And as our great national nightmare dragged on, many of those same parents have decided that they will be enrolling their kids in private institutions going forward. Add this little story to a growing pile of evidence favoring the argument that the extended national lockdown, in particular as it relates to schools, has been a complete disaster of both economic and social policy. 

The costs of these policies are far-flung and harder to measure in the near-term relative to the daily updates on COVID infections and deaths, and as we all know, if it bleeds it leads, the ever-present failure of journalism to take its responsibility seriously. Add to that the disease of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has run wild through our political, social and media institutions, accompanied as it is by all loss of perspective, which only compounds the problem: That is, our inability, as a people to engage in reasoned, rational and thoughtful discussion of deadly serious issues. In such environs, all suffer, but none so much as the children, deprived of learning, socialization, protections from abuse and despair. One can hardly imagine the scale of this tragedy.

Now, as both COVID and TDS ebb, we see all kinds of interesting after-effects, including the breaking of bonds between staunch Democratic, even leftist, institutions such as the Chicago mayor's office and San Francisco Board of Supervisors and the teachers’ unions. Said unions will not escape unscathed, as the masses take note of their moral depravity, abject cowardice, and total lack of commitment to the children they purport to serve. So, too, with that megalomaniacal, Emmy-award nominated, dare I say Trump-esque simulacrum of a human being, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D-NY, who may yet get his just desserts if Joey from Scranton lives up to his promise of a depoliticized DOJ (not holding my breath, exactly). 

Need I revisit the science as it stands today (understanding evolves, you see)? The almost statistically insignificant danger to our children from COVID, the presence of a 95%-effective vaccine, soon to be broadly administered to “essentials,” or the countervailing dangers presented by this sham that is virtual schooling? Surely, all reasonable and reasoning people are beginning to see the need for change and fast. That, at least, is my hope.

We all have a stake in this, unquestionably, so the fact that I have three school-age children grants me no special ownership of the issue or moral high ground. My children, as best I can tell, are extraordinarily well-adapted, loved and supported, and the damage to their lives is arguably minimized, but I can see in their eyes a pressing sense of loneliness and a creeping despair. It’s not just COVID we’re fighting here. It’s the tragedy of the human condition and the ever-so-thin layer of social organization, friendship, support and shared sense of purpose that keep us all from the edge of the abyss. We must work now to repair and uphold these structures, lest we lose a grip on the whole damned thing.

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•Read Stephen Macaulay on Trump vs. McConnell, and Bryan Williams on censured Republican moderates ; Click on FORUM.

The New Boss

By Stephen Macaulay

When people get new jobs, and they happen to be at upper management or executive positions, they like to change things to make it more in line with how they do things. For example, I once had a new boss who detested paper clips and demanded that everything be stapled. While that seems like not a big deal, it surely was to those who had spent years accumulating paper clips.

So imagine what happens when you become the President of the United States and have the ability to do things somewhat more substantive than determining when breaks can be taken or expense reports filed or whether transoceanic trips can be flown in Economy Comfort rather than steerage. New bosses have lots of power.

Joe Biden is the new guy. He wants to do things his way. After all, he did win the election. (Guess I might have stuck “Spoiler Alert” at the beginning of this paragraph.) One of his biggest priorities is to reverse the Trump administration’s harsh initiatives that put restrictions on immigration. 

Recently departed President Trump tried to prevent counting non-citizens in the 2020 Census. As a result, the Trump administration has delayed the census count past its Constitutionally mandated due date. While it may seem odd, not counting non-citizens violates Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3 of the Constitution. Yeah, that Constitution. The resulting delay of the count past the Census Bureau’s December 31 deadline also means state Electoral College vote numbers and House of Representative districts cannot be apportioned.

Another Biden administration executive order also ends the “Muslim” travel ban. This called for restricted travel and immigration from Syria, Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Libya, Somalia Yemen, Eritrea, Nigeria, Myanmar, Kyrgyzstan, and Tanzania. Not specifically a “Muslim” travel ban, it was one with a wink. Do you think that were there not such a restriction, people from those countries would have been at the Capitol in numbers on January 6?

Biden’s easiest EO puts a hard stop to building The Wall. According to FactCheck.org, as of late December 2020, of the 438 miles of the “border wall system” built under the Trump administration, “365 miles of it. . .is replacement for primary or secondary fencing that was dilapidated or of outdated design. In addition, 40 miles of new primary wall and 33 miles of secondary wall have been built in locations where there were no barriers before.” My math has it at 73 miles. Given the number of times that Trump mentioned The Wall you might imagine there’d be more. There isn’t. There was a lot that was said during the past four years that was Fake News. Much of it from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Spoiler alert: Trump lost Pennsylvania in 2020.

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Other first-day executive orders:

  • 100 Days Masking Challenge. With over 403,952 dead of COVID-19—no, it didn’t “just disappear”—let’s stop making this partisan. Viruses don’t vote. So asking all Americans to wear a mask and for enforcement on federal properties, it is an acknowledgement that it is still a massive problem—a fatal, massive problem.
  • Create the Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense. Remember when Trump was whining about how Obama dealt with the 2014 Ebola epidemic? Well this position was created by Obama, and like many things done by that administration, eliminated by the Trump administration. How did that work out? See above.
  • Rejoin the World Health Organization. Maybe it was snowed by China. And if we’re talking about being snowed: remember the chest thumping after the U.S. China Phase One trade agreement was put into effect? According to the Peterson Institute for International Economics, through November 2020, “China’s year-to-date total imports of cover products from the United States were $86.9 billion, compared with a prorated year-to-date target of $153.8 billion. Over the same period, U.S. exports to China of covered products were $82.3 billion, compared with a year-to-date target of $141.7 billion.” That’s one hell of a dealmaker. As for the WHO specifically: viruses don’t carry passports. They get fought globally. Or they do far more damage than they otherwise would.
  • Extend eviction and foreclosures moratoriums. This is a multiagency lift. Had the pandemic been addressed early on, perhaps this wouldn’t be necessary. It wasn’t. This is.
  • Pause student loan payments until September 30. Again, see previous.
  • Rejoin the Paris Climate Accord. If Ford Motor Company — a major U.S. corporation that sells hundreds of thousands of pickup trucks every year—thinks climate change is real and that the Paris Accord is worthwhile, isn’t it?
  • End the Keystone XL pipeline. Check the price of gas at your local station. The Biden administration also wants to reverse the decisions that turned over what had been national monuments in places like Utah and Maine to development. Seriously: Once they’re developed they’re done.

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Immigration Executive Order are Only a pre-Trump ‘Reset’

By Nic Woods

President Joe Biden, in his first day in office, signed a slew of executive orders, memoranda and proclamations that included some attempts to overturn his predecessors’ immigration policy, which were, essentially, done with executive orders signed mainly to undo the work of his predecessor.

Just like the tit-for-tat, the policy signals in the immigration executive orders aren’t new. Much either resets immigration policy to where it was before Trump was inaugurated, or underscores what was the pre-Trump normal. 

Unlike former President Trump, Biden is signaling that he’d prefer legislation be passed to bolster the executive orders and is currently preparing a legislative package that further codifies the policy, but key Republicans have started to balk, claiming that because he was signing executive orders already, he didn’t actually mean what he said in his inaugural address about unifying, and governing, as one nation.

But Biden’s immigration asks are not that egregious. One EO basically requires the Census Bureau to do what it is already required to do by the U.S. Constitution – count every person, citizen or not. But this differs from Trump’s efforts to carve out non-citizens from the Census count. 

The main ask – a streamlined, eight-year process for an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants to become citizens – would make the Census EO redundant, as people in the pipeline for citizenship would likely have less to fear from Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials and are more likely to be comfortable with answering a Census worker’s questions.

Many of the other immigration EOs, such as lifting the ban of travelers from Muslim nations, either returns us to “normalcy” or it brings back to the table issues Trump tried to avoid or end altogether, e.g. protection from deportation for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) or programs for refugees and asylum seekers, some of whom were in mortal danger for assisting U.S. troops in such trouble spots as Iraq. 

Others overturn Trump executive orders that pushed for the aggressive deportation of unauthorized immigrants and deported Liberians who have been living in the U.S. For these, Biden has directed the State department to restart visa processing and develop ways to address the harm from having that process be in limbo for so long.

In yet another EO, Biden ends construction of Trump’s border wall in favor of bolstering the borders with new technology that does similar work at, perhaps, less cost.

What Biden isn’t doing is throwing open the U.S. borders for everyone to get in unvetted. No one wants that and, as a centrist, such an extreme position isn’t in his wheelhouse. But he seems to be making a bold move to succeed where presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush failed by finally providing a clear, legal, more humane route to U.S. citizenship.

Other Biden first day initiatives:

• A 100-day “masking challenge” that entails mask requirements in federal buildings and on federal land, as well as public transit. Biden called for mask requirements on trains, airplanes and buses, and in public airports. 

• Establishment of a directorate for global health security and biodefense, with the goal of having protocols in place determined by past pandemics in order to be prepared for future pandemics.

•At first a fan of China’s early response to COVID-19, former President Trump quickly came to criticize and then pull representation from the World Health Organization for not being tougher on the country. Other critics agreed the WHO for failing to take a tough stance on China’s slow response to early outbreaks, The Washington Post says. Thanks to Chinese bureaucracy and restrictions, the Post reports, it took nearly a year for WHO to gain access to the country, which finally happened this month. But WHO helps with worldwide distribution of medical supplies and holds regular meetings on the coronavirus, which Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease official in the U.S., attended by webinar Thursday.

• Eviction and foreclosure moratoriums that were part of the March 2020 CARES Act were extended by Trump in December, set to expire at the end of January. Biden’s EO extends the moratoriums through September 30.

• Like the eviction and foreclosure moratoriums, Trump extended to the end of January a freeze on student loan payments otherwise due to expire with the CARES Act in late December. Biden’s EO also extends the freeze, again, to September 30.

• Trump exited the Paris Climate Agreement, which the Obama administration signed on to in 2015, calling climate change a “hoax” and claiming the international treaty was unfair to the U.S. But Biden has nominated John Kerry to a new cabinet-level position, special presidential envoy for climate, with the intention to rejoin and continue work on the treaty.

• Canada’s TC Energy’s Keystone XL pipeline has been in the works for nearly a decade, connecting Alberta’s oil sands with Montana. While some state Democrats, as well as most Republicans support the $8-billion project, Native American tribes and ecology groups have fought it since the beginning, and the U.S. achieved energy independence during the Obama administration. Biden has issued a moratorium and TC Energy has suspended its development. Biden is to meet with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Friday.

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It’s the Economic Stimulus We Need Now

By: Michelle Naranjo

There is an inexorable connection between the physical health of a nation, and the well-being of its economy. In advance of his inauguration, President-elect Biden has announced an ambitious rescue plan with the intentions of healing both.

A $1.9 trillion package would surely have something for everyone: additional stimulus checks to individuals, state, and local governments, extended jobless, benefits, allocations to assist with reopening schools, fortified testing and tracing, and coordinated effort to deliver 100 million vaccines within the first 100 days of a Biden presidency. 

Currently, there has been suspicion and doubt that a federal reserve of vaccinations even exists. The states have been largely left to figure out procedure and distribution for themselves, resulting in a meager number who have been successfully vaccinated in numbers that cannot keep up with the pace of new infections. 

One support employee at the largest healthcare provider in one heavily infected state said that the provider’s call centers are overwhelmed with people trying to get the vaccine. One woman attempted to cancel the scheduled vaccinations of her “friends” because they were neither as “old, not as sick” as she is. 

It smacks a bit too much like a real-life “Hunger Games.” 

If Biden’s plan is able to be passed in its full form, Moody’s Analytics speculates that economic growth nearing 8% is possible, unemployment would fall to 4% by the end of 2022, and the entire population -- including undocumented workers -- would speed towards a herd immunity goal of having 245 million vaccinated by fall. 

But, of course, even with the country in dire straights while the COVID-related deaths leap over the 400,000 count, Republicans have been quick to resist Biden’s plan. 

Senator Rick Scott, R-Fla., was quick to issue a statement saying, “We cannot simply throw massive spending at this with no accountability to the current and future American taxpayer.” His biggest contention is the money that would be allocated to bailing out state and local government which saw significant loss of revenue during the last year. Aid to alleviate this burden was kept out of the December 2020 package by Republicans, much like it was partially sidelined in the earlier Heroes Act.

There will undoubtedly be concessions on the road to this next relief package. Still, the long tail of this immediate problem is that financial equity is not attempted, and containment of the virus is not sought; this winter will certainly not be our darkest. 

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Biden to the Rescue?

By Todd Lassa

President-elect Biden is ready to test the mettle of his party’s wafer-thin majorities in the House and Senate with his $1.9-trillion coronavirus American Rescue Plan. Key feature of the plan is $1,400 in stimulus payments to complement the $600 mailed out late last year, thus matching the $2,000 President Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sought. 

In campaigning for Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossof in their successful January 6 Georgia runoff races for U.S. Senate, Biden suggested that it would take their victories, which give the party a 50-50 count plus Vice President-elect Harris’ tiebreaker, to pass the additional $1,400 stimulus checks. The Trump administration 2017 tax cuts and last March’s $2.2-trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the largest stimulus package in U.S. history, pushed the federal deficit to record levels. Now Republicans on Capitol Hill are starting to move back to their more traditional model fiscal responsibility and opposing such large deficits. 

After details of The American Rescue Plan (or TARP, which recalls the Targeted Asset Relief Program of the Bush 43 and Obama administrations in response to the 2008 credit crisis) were released, The Wall Street Journal suggested in a Friday morning story that Biden’s proposal, along with a 0.7% drop in December retail sales, were to blame for a decrease in stock market averages. But the story quoted one analyst as suggesting that the market was expecting a larger dollar amount that would better stimulate the economy as vaccinations continued across the country and the economy started opening up. 

Conversely, critics of the CARES Act and the short-term extension passed by Congress just before the New Year say the stimulus funds, when distributed to Americans who need it most, were being saved rather than spent (the objective of the payments is to help generate commerce) as they feared for their future employment. 

In addition to direct payments for individuals, Biden’s TARP proposes an additional $400 per week in unemployment insurance supplement through September, expanded paid leave and increases in the child tax credit. About half the package would be claimed by household costs. 

There is $20-billion for national vaccination centers across the U.S., open to anyone living here regardless of immigration status, with the goal of reopening public shools by May 1, within Biden’s first 100 days. Most of the rest of the remaining $950-billion or so would pay for relief to state and local governments, which have suffered severe tax revenue declines due to small business failures and higher unemployment, and to vaccine distribution, including the national centers. 

“If we invest now boldly, smartly and with unwavering focus on American workers and families, we will strengthen our economy, reduce inequity and put our nation’s long-term finances on the most sustainable course,” Biden said Thursday evening (AP). 

Deaths globally from the coronavirus pandemic topped 2 million on Friday, according to Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. death toll accounts for nearly one-fifth of that, now close to 400,000.

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Trump Signs $900-billion COVID Relief Package

By Todd Lassa

President Trump signed the $900-billion COVID-19 emergency relief Sunday night while enjoying an extended Christmas weekend at Mar-a-Lago. He had left Washington last week while erstwhile Senate Republican allies fumed because he wanted $2,000 checks to taxpayers, calling the $600 checks in the bill, and items he considers excessive “a disgrace.”

The president’s signing of the bill also averts a federal government shutdown Monday night, with $1.4-trillion to fund the government through fall of 2021. In addition, the bill provides eviction protection for millions of people, who would have otherwise faced potential homelessness. 

“I will sign the omnibus and COVID package with a strong message that wasteful items need to be removed,” Trump said, according to Politico. He said he planned to send back to Congress a “redlined” version with items to be removed from the bill, which has no effect on its passage.

Last week Trump vetoed a $740.5-billion defense spending bill for the coming fiscal year, because it contained a provision to rename military bases named for Confederate leaders, and online liability protections. Like the COVID relief bill, the defense spending legislation was passed by veto-proof Senate majorities. The Senate is scheduled to return to the Capitol Tuesday. 

For one Coronapocalipse weekend, Trump and Pelosi appeared to be on the same political page, as Pelosi was eager to take up the president’s demand for bigger relief checks, even after months of negotiations between her and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin landed on the $600 figure. The House will vote on a separate bill Monday that would increase the payments to $2,000.

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Getting to a Safe Market Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Cash

By Stephen Macaulay

Although Christmas 2020 is behind us, the current situation vis-à-vis the COVID-relief bill brings Dickens’ classic holiday horror story to mind. While most of us remember that there are the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future, there is also the ghost of Ebenezer Scrooge’s former partner, Jacob Marley. Marley is condemned to wander the earth wearing heavy chains because of his counting house-based greed and ill-will.

Donald Trump claimed that he didn’t want to sign the bill that was many months in the making and passed by both houses of Congress because, he belatedly claimed, the $600 that will go to adults with an adjusted gross annual income, in 2019, of up to $75,000 is too paltry. He wanted, as the Democrats had been working toward before they thought the best was the enemy of the good and negotiated it down, $2,000.

One wonders whether Saturday night during still another vacation at Mar-a-Lago he’d been visited by Jacob Marley. Or whether he wanted his Sharpie signature to be on something more robust. Bigly.

Without going all Scrooge, there is something that isn’t discussed a whole lot in light of the prevailing pandemic situation: the national debt.

If you want to see something that is both inexplicable and scary, go to usdebtclock.org and watch the number roll up at a rate that is probably best viewed on a gaming machine because it has a video card better capable of handling this rate of change.

As I am writing this the U.S. national debt is $27.5-trillion. By the time you read this, it may be higher.

So the question is, what’s a few trillion dollars more?

The first CARES Act was passed March 27, 2020. That was long before, arguably, the pandemic really hit the fan.

Let’s not just put Trump in the corner for his belated action on the demand for the increase in family funding. Congress is more than derelict in its response to the pandemic.

But here’s the thing. If $600 is too little, is $2,000 enough? Would $4,000 be better? How about more?

What is perhaps not recalled is that the CARES Act provided $1,200 per adult whose income was less than $99,000 and $500 per child under 17, or up to $3,400 for a family of four.

As Nic Woods points out, the economy is not going to get back into full swing unless people feel safe in the market. People — well, this is perhaps too broad a brush, because the images of the people filling airports during the holiday indicates that there are plenty who just don’t care or believe the danger — will not feel safe-ish until the pandemic is under control.

Citizens who are following the rules — wearing a mask, social distancing, washing hands frequently — with a Trump-signed check for $2,000 aren’t likely to spend that money at their local small business as they might have, say, last February, because they know what the consequences can be. So they order from Amazon. Which is good for Jeff Bezos, but how about the local economies?

What is really needed is Operation Warp Speed Squared in terms of getting the vaccines into arms so that people can truly be safe and then more likely to go out in the world in a more normal way, as well as testing that doesn’t require idling in a car for a few hours.

Of course, there is nothing normal about current conditions.

Let’s make sure that those who have been blindsided by the pandemic get help, whether they are individuals or owners of a family bakery. Let’s make sure that the first responders as well as those who are on the front lines, from medical personnel to teachers to the people who are working in grocery stores, are given additional support: that woman who is ringing a register at Kroger hour after hour sure as hell didn’t sign up for a job that puts her life at risk. That young guy who is emptying bed pans and pushing people in wheel chairs probably didn’t imagine that his main concern is keeping his parents safe when he gets home from work.

But let’s make sure we are providing money to create the conditions that will make the market safe so the economy can get back on its feet. Vaccinations. Testing. Rinse. Repeat.

That debt clock is still racking up numbers. At some point we’re going to have to pay it down. But unless the virus is controlled, there will be continued strains on people: Do you go to work if your kid is sick? On the health care system: Do we really expect all of those hospital employees to continue to work as hard as they have for the past many months? And there will be continued strains on the economy as a whole.

It isn’t necessarily about spending more. It is about spending better. There is a real cost to all of this. We can’t ignore it.

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