Former Sen. Jim DeMint: Coronavirus can’t destroy America, but our response to the virus can
Former South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint on the balance between Americans' safety and the economic survival of the country.
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Let’s face it: Nearly every piece of legislation which emerges from Capitol Hill over the next year will deal with coronavirus in some form.
Top congressional leaders have been toiling behind the scenes to craft a phase “3.5” measure. Senate Democrats blocked a GOP proposal to bolster small business assistance by a staggering $250 billion late last week. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., then choked a proposal by Sens. Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen, both Maryland Democrats, to send some of the money to hospitals and make sure underserved communities had access to capital amid the crisis.
Democrats argued the impasse naturally helped jump-start the fourth phase of talks. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Transportation Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., spoke with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., got on the horn with Mnuchin, too. Republicans contended that things haven’t advanced at all and the fund in question was bleeding dry.
It’s not really clear when Congress will tackle the “3.5” bill or the fourth bill. But the measures and proposals will soon start to line up like the planes at O’Hare Airport... back when there was such a thing as the planes lining up at O’Hare.
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Pelosi has been pushing “vote-by-mail” provisions. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus said they wanted to look at why coronavirus has seemed to hurt minority communities disproportionately. They’ve questioned whether some lower-income Americans had underlying health conditions which the coronavirus exacerbated because they lacked access to care. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said he wanted to pay many workers 80 percent of their take-home pay while they’re off the job.
The ideas are legion. Congressional leaders won’t fold them all into one bill – or even the next three or four. But, here are some things which lawmakers likely will have to consider in legislation over the coming months as the nation grapples with coronavirus and prepares for recovery.
How Does This End?
Back in the days of VCRs, I had a habit of recording sporting events when I was otherwise working or out at dinner or an event. I’d come home, and always watch the end of the game first, just to see what to expect.
We don’t have the luxury of seeing how this crisis ends. There is no playbook for how to “re-open society” and continue to address lingering health concerns.
Many Americans probably can’t wait to get out to restaurants and plays and sporting events again – provided such options will even exist. Some of that is economic. The other part is driven by health.
The other group of people may refuse to venture out – or do so on a limited basis – until there’s a vaccine. States and local governments will play a large role in deciding what’s safe and what’s not. But, it’s likely Congress and the Trump administration will need to work together to determine a set of guidelines, balancing both economy and health. Otherwise, it’s going to be a free-for-all, and Americans will be at each other’s throats.
The Real “Stimulus”
“Wait,” you say. “I thought the other coronavirus bills were stimulus packages.”
Not really.
To be frank, the phase two and three measures, totaling somewhere in the neighborhood of $2.5 trillion combined, were anything but stimulus packages. Let’s call that legislation what they really were: bills simply to “salvage the American way of life by a shoestring, avert abject poverty, starvation, preserve life, enable people to at least keep roofs over their heads, curb fear, mitigate panic and stave off mass pandemonium.”
No one in the administration or on Capitol Hill would describe the bills that way, but that’s what they were. Never before has Congress had to pass such a set of bills with consequences so dire if they failed.
CORONAVIRUS: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
A “stimulus” is an effort to give the economy a jolt. Congress approved a stimulus under then-President Obama in early 2009 to help the nation recover from the 2008 economic collapse. Coronavirus bills seven, eight or nine could very well qualify as a true “stimulus,” once everyone can take a step back and review the desolation of the carnage.
Addressing the “Travel” Problem
H.G. Wells penned “War of the Worlds” in 1898. After an alien invasion of Earth, the “Martians” mysteriously started to die out. “Germs of disease have taken toll of humanity since the beginning of things – taken toll of our prehuman ancestors since life began here.”
Wells added that over time, people “developed resisting power.” He asserted that “there are no bacteria on Mars.” Hence, as soon as the Martians showed up on Earth, they were doomed. Earth was foreign turf. Martians never had any time to build up a resistance to viruses, germs and bacteria compared to humans. Thus, the trespassers fell ill.
The history books have been replete with tales of the explorers – from Christopher Columbus on down – arriving in North America, only to suffer from malaria, smallpox “fever” or a host of other maladies. And, this was reciprocal. The Europeans exposed Native Americans to any number of maladies, nearly canceling out some tribes and bands. North America was the “New World” to the Europeans. Their bodies never had the opportunity to build up immunities to the microbes and germs on this side of the Atlantic. Disease ran rampant.
Air travel developed in such a way that anyone in the U.S. can hop a plane and be in Toronto or Montreal in a few hours or less, London or Pairs in six or seven, Tokyo in 14 or 15. Still, there has been no formal consideration of thoroughly probing health records – or even just taking temperatures at the gate – to determine if someone is healthy enough to jet overseas, lest he or she be carrying a lethal pathogen.
Granted, many governments have required travelers to get shots and vaccinations when traveling to certain locations. The State Department even has posted travel advisories about specific health concerns in a given region. But, one could envision Congress dictating a new set of protocols “AC” – After Coronavirus.
Who knows how long it will take air travel to rally once coronavirus subsides. But, it’s likely Congress and other legislative bodies around the globe will have to develop systems to “certify” the health of travelers. They won’t limit this to coronavirus, perhaps, but the next super-virus which could wreck economies again.
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Things haven’t changed much since the time of Columbus – or, since H.G. Wells put pen to paper. Moving living beings from one ecosystem to another has posed the same problems. It hasn’t mattered whether they sailed on the Santa Maria, flew on a commercial jet or flew in a spaceship, H.G. Wells-style. Viruses and diseases have traveled first-class.
This is just a thumbnail of some of the issues Congress and the administration must consider, AC. It’s doubtful policymakers will address these considerations in the next coronavirus bill or even the one after that. But; let’s face it. Variations of these policies will likely emerge in the coming months to a year.
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