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Where Is Joe Biden’s Leadership? He calls coronavirus aid a ‘slush fund’ and echoes Nancy Pelosi.

Posted By on March 25th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/where-is-joe-bidens-leadership-11585091731?mod=opinion_lead_pos3

Amid the coronavirus lockdown, Joe Biden is now running a digital front-porch campaign. In a video streamed from his home in Delaware on Monday, Mr. Biden said he would focus on “what we should do to get this response fixed.”

The remarks that followed weren’t encouraging. He characterized the Senate’s coronavirus relief bill as “a plan that let big corporations off the hook,” and “a $500 billion slush fund for corporations, with almost no conditions.” This rhetoric about slush funds is straight from the antibusiness left.

Does Mr. Biden not understand the problem that companies are facing? They have to figure out how to remain solvent until the health crisis ends, otherwise nobody will be left to turn the lights back on. Under Nancy Pelosi’s coronavirus bill, companies that take federal aid would be put under a permanent $15 minimum wage. Adding such strings to emergency funding will make businesses reluctant to accept the relief, even if they really need it.

Mr. Biden went on to insist that “Social Security checks need to be boosted now” and “student debt should be forgiven for now.” He had more details in a Sunday tweet, saying that any coronavirus relief legislation “should forgive a minimum of $10,000/person of federal student loans, as proposed by Senator Warren and colleagues.”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Private Industry Mobilizes Against the Coronavirus The feds don’t need to nationalize the economy to fight Covid-19.

Posted By on March 25th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/private-industry-mobilizes-against-the-coronavirus-11585091775?mod=opinion_lead_pos2

President Trump can’t do right by some critics no matter what he does. For three years he’s been denounced as a reckless authoritarian, and now he’s attacked for not being authoritarian enough by refusing to commandeer American industry. The truth is that private industry is responding to the coronavirus without command and control by the federal government.

Last week Mr. Trump invoked the 1950 Defense Production Act that lets a President during a national emergency order business to manufacture products for national defense, set wage and price controls and allocate materials. On Tuesday the Federal Emergency Management Agency used the Korean War-era law for the first time in this crisis to procure and distribute testing kits and face masks.

But Democrats want the Administration to take over much more of the private economy. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Sunday tweeted that the federal government should “nationalize the medical supply chain” and “order companies to make gowns, masks and gloves.” He has been echoed by Democratic governors and leaders in Congress.

Yet businesses across America are already chipping in where they can. Aerospace manufacturer Honeywell plans to hire 500 workers at its plant in Rhode Island, which currently produces safety goggles, to make millions of N95 face masks for medical professionals. 3M has doubled its global output of N95 masks and this week is sending 500,000 respirators to hot spots in the U.S.

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White House, Congress Reach Deal on $2 Trillion Relief Package for COVID-19 By Mimi Nguyen Ly

Posted By on March 25th, 2020

https://www.theepochtimes.com/congress-reaches-deal-on-2-trillion-relief-package-for-covid-19_3284826.html

The White House and U.S. congressional leaders in the Senate reached an agreement on a $2 trillion relief package amid the COVID-19 pandemic, White House official Eric Ueland said shortly after midnight on Wednesday.

Congress earlier passed an $8.3 billion emergency spending package (pdf) over the CCP virus in early March that Trump signed into law on March 6. The legislation enables funding to develop a vaccine for COVID-19 and other prevention measures.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are done. We have a deal,” he said.

The text of the deal was not expected to be available until later on Wednesday.

The package would give direct payments of up to $3,000 to most U.S. families, and provide some $367 billion to a program for small-business loans to help them keep making payroll as workers are forced to stay home due to “stay at home” orders in several states across the country.

The package also includes a $500 billion fund for guaranteed, subsidized loans to help larger industries, $250 billion for expanded unemployment aid, and $75 billion for hospitals.

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The Pelosi-Schumer Coronavirus Contagion Democratic leaders kill a rescue bill under pressure from the left

Posted By on March 24th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-pelosi-schumer-contagion-11585006077

What a spectacle. Much of America is quarantined at home, the public is so panicked there’s a run on toilet paper, the country desperately wants reassurance, and Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer decide to take a bipartisan rescue bill as a political hostage.

That’s the display of Democratic leadership in a crisis the nation received on Monday as Senate Democrats blocked a $1.8 trillion bill that has urgent money for workers, hospitals, small business and, yes, even larger companies threatened by the forcible shutdown of the U.S. economy. When America most needs bipartisan cooperation, Democrats add to the economic uncertainty by putting their partisan interests above the needs of the country.

***

Democrats are lucky the Federal Reserve chose Monday to deploy its biggest financial guns so far, or the markets might have taken an even bigger fall amid Washington’s dysfunction. Equities still fell by 3% or so, but investors took some comfort in the Fed’s offer to buy as many mortgage securities and Treasurys as needed to calm the panic. The mortgage-securities market has been strained as sellers who need cash struggle to find willing buyers.

MOVIES AND TELEVISION Comments turned off

The Logic of Pottersville By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on March 24th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/03/coronavirus-recalls-logic-pottersville-its-a-wonderful-life/#slide-1

It is a wonderful life.

In director Frank Capra’s 1946 holiday classic movie It’s a Wonderful Life, an initial bank panic sweeps the small town of Bedford Falls. Small passbook account holders rush to George Bailey’s family-owned Bailey Building and Loan to demand the right to cash out all of their deposits — a sudden run that would destroy the lending cooperative and its ability to issue mortgages or preserve the savings accounts of the small town.

The villain of the story, Henry F. Potter, who is a cash-laden, though miserly rival banker, played brilliantly by Lionel Barrymore, offers to buy up the depositors’ shares in the Building and Loan — but at a steep 50 percent discount.

Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) tries to explain to his panicked cooperative depositors the logic of their frenzy, with the exclamation, “Potter isn’t selling. Potter’s buying! And why? Because we’re panicky, and he’s not.”

Capra’s post–Depression era movie, even in its black-and-white morality, reminds us that, in crisis, the majority has limited liquidity and cash. And sooner rather than later they must sell assets — property, stocks, shares, and household goods — to operate their businesses or keep their homes until things pick up. In a real depression, those with the least cash fail first and in great numbers.

And the minority who do have cash are always willing to buy, even in a depression, albeit at their price, which is usually steeply discounted. Panic, not logic, eventually takes over the collective mind, as we now see with the downward spiral of the current stock market and the hoarding of goods otherwise in plentiful supply.

The stock market descends in part because sellers need liquidity and think they will have less of it tomorrow, while cagey buyers believe they will sell for even less in 24 hours — and stock managers who sell more than buy conclude that there is not yet enough data or conjecture to convince the terrified public that the virus is either manageable or will turn out to be more analogous to 2009 rather than 1918.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

What a Doctor and Congressman (Mark Green, M.D. R- Tenn District 7)Has to Say About COVID-19 Rachel del Guidice

Posted By on March 24th, 2020

https://www.dailysignal.com/2020/03/24/we-still-have-to-be-vigilant-er-doctor-and-

““Americans should know that the vast majority … of the people who get COVID-19 are going to be fine,” says Rep. Mark Green.”

Mark Edward Green is an American politician, physician, and retired U.S. Army Major who currently represents Tennessee’s 7th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives.

Besides being a congressman, Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., is an emergency room physician and Amy special operations veteran. He joins me today on The Daily Signal Podcast to discuss his perspective on the coronavirus pandemic, what the Senate’s relief package gets right and wrong, and why the U.S. shouldn’t be dependent on China for pharmaceuticals and medical supplies. Read the lightly edited transcript, pasted below, or listen on the podcast:

Rachel del Guidice: I’m joined today on The Daily Signal Podcast by Congressman Mark Green of Tennessee. Congressman, it’s great to have you back on The Daily Signal Podcast.

Rep. Mark Green: Hey, thanks for having me.

Del Guidice: Given your background in medicine as an emergency room physician, and what’s on the minds and hearts of all Americans right now is the whole coronavirus pandemic, what is your perspective overall on everything that’s going on?

CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Pelosi’s Coronavirus Stimulus Bill Mentions ‘Diversity’ 32 Times Andrew Stiles

Posted By on March 24th, 2020

https://freebeacon.com/democrats/coronavirus-diversity/

The word “diversity” appears 32 times in the coronavirus relief bill House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) unveiled on Monday. Pelosi released her plan as critics questioned the priorities of Democratic lawmakers facing the China-caused pandemic.

Senate Democrats voted Sunday to block a coronavirus stimulus package worth up to $1.8 trillion, and continued voting down procedural motions on the bill Monday. Democrats in the upper chamber were reportedly upset that the legislation does not do enough to increase fuel-emissions standards for the airline industry or to provide additional tax credits to promote wind and solar energy.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said Senate negotiations over the relief package were going well until Pelosi imposed herself on the process. Democratic obstruction gave the House speaker time to introduce her own coronavirus relief package in the House. At more than 1,100 pages, the “Take Responsibility for Workers and Families Act” is in keeping with the controversial comments Majority Whip James Clyburn (D., S.C.) reportedly made on a conference call with Democratic lawmakers last week. “This is a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision,” said Clyburn, in reference to the drafting of the House Democratic response bill.

The Pelosi bill focuses on “diversity,” for example, more than one might expect from an emergency economic relief package. The plan includes a section on “Improving Corporate Governance Through Diversity” that aims to “ensure that corporate boards reflect the diversity and perspectives of the communities and consumers impacted by the hardships due to the coronavirus disease.” The word “inclusion” appears 14 times in the text of the bill.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Benjamin Netanyahu’s fatal flaw This failure of “Leadership 101” and to command loyalty from his most talented lieutenants may be his undoing. David Isaac

Posted By on March 24th, 2020

https://www.jns.org/opinion/benjamin-netanyahus-fatal-flaw/

It’s not often that a world leader’s greatest weakness is so nakedly displayed. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doesn’t know how to bind political talent to him. To say he doesn’t command loyalty is putting it gently. He inspires vindictive rage in his former confidantes. The problem is that Netanyahu seems to know only one way to handle potential rivals—suppress them.

It’s a stark contrast to the other longest-serving Israeli prime minister: David Ben-Gurion. Throughout his decades-long leadership of Israel’s Labor movement, he was rarely challenged. In 1965, when he split from Mapai to form the Rafi Party, all the young Turks went with him, among them Moshe Dayan, Chaim Herzog, Teddy Kollek and Shimon Peres (who was not exactly known for steadfast loyalty).

Such an event couldn’t be imagined with Netanyahu, who sends young Turks scattering at great political cost. Two of them—Naftali Bennett, a former chief of staff to Netanyahu, and Moshe Feiglin, a former Likud Party Knesset member—cost him the first election last April, what would be the first of three consecutive elections in a year’s time. The two parties they founded failed to pass the electoral threshold, sending hundreds of thousands of right-wing votes into the trash. Had they passed the threshold, Netanyahu would have had his majority, sparing the country the following elections in September and earlier this month.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Ruthie Blum The diseased attitude of the ‘coronavirus rebels’

Posted By on March 24th, 2020

https://www.jns.org/opinion/the-diseased-attitude-of-the-coronavirus-rebels/

The least that those backpackers could do after the “enormous effort and expense” that was spent on repatriating them was sign a quarantine declaration.

Dozens of the 1,100 Israeli backpackers airlifted from Peru a few days ago threw a hissy fit upon landing at Ben-Gurion International Airport. Though greeted graciously by ground crew, the exhausted 20-somethings, who had begged the government to rescue them from their treks in South America when they were unable to find flights back home before the coronavirus-necessitated border closures left them stranded, behaved like a bunch of entitled brats.

Peru, like practically every country in the world, was about to go on lockdown for an unspecified period. To get stuck in a foreign land—far away from one’s family and without fluency in the local language—is nothing to sneeze at, especially when every sneeze these days is interpreted as a symptom of COVID-19.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz promptly responded to the tearful pleas for help from the young travelers, who were encountering great difficulty in purchasing airline tickets due to a dearth of available seats and to the exorbitant fees now being charged for them.

In a mission of the sort that does the Jewish state proud, Katz dispatched four El Al 787 Dreamliners to Lima to pick up the distraught Israelis and return them safely to Tel Aviv—at no cost to them or their anxious parents, many of whom, by this point, had been fired from their jobs or put on unpaid leave, thanks to the shuttering of businesses.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

List: 74 actions taken by Trump to fight virus and bolster economy by Paul Bedard ****

Posted By on March 24th, 2020

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/list-74-actions-taken-by-trump-to-fight-virus-bolster-economy

In less than a week, the Trump administration has greatly expanded the actions it’s taken to fight the coronavirus and boost the economy, according to its latest tally of “response efforts.”

Last week, when Secrets first ran the list, it totaled 43. By Monday, it was at 74, with many more planned this week as the White House effort shifts to focus more on the economy and treatment of those infected.

While he continues to receive fire from some governors who want more, President Trump said he hopes for a win in the battle soon.

“For those worried and afraid, please know: As long as I am your president, you can feel confident that you have a leader who will always fight for you, and I will not stop until we win. This will be a great victory,” he said Sunday, adding, “This is going to be a victory. And it’s going to be a victory that, in my opinion, will happen much sooner than originally expected.”

Over the weekend, for example, he listed the supplies being sent to the hardest-hit states, put in place special rules at Veterans Administration hospitals, and dispatched two military hospital ships. He also told FEMA to get mobile hospitals to New York and California.