The Plan To Get The Country Back To Work

I like the administration's plan to get the country back to work.

It has induced the obligatory chorus of anti-Trump rhetoric - he's pushing things too soon, he's putting the stock market before people's lives, etc. But wait a minute. This is not the President's plan. It has been devised and has been put forth by the medical people, Dr Fauci, Dr. Brix and their team. At the daily briefings they are advocating and explaining it. Oh, sure, you say, but Dr. Fauci is being coerced into doing it! I don't think so. I watch these briefings every day and almost always Dr Fauci is there to present the medical aspects. The only time I've seen this guy, with his unfailingly pleasant personality, come close to getting angry was his reaction when one of the news people asked him if he was acting voluntarily. So, yes, the plan is "following the science" as we so often hear demanded.

Mr. Trump is anxious to get through this national nightmare and back to our normal state as soon as it is safely possible, as we all should be. Many of us, such as myself, are reasonably well positioned to get through a few months and wait for things to return, but a for great many others the economic impact of what's going on is disastrous, so let's give them some consideration. I watched a Ken Burns documentary of the '30s tonight with pictures of the massive depression bread lines. Let's not even contemplate going in that direction. Our problem is not a matter of economics versus lives, it's a serious balancing of everyone's life.

Sure, congress is eagerly, and I think also appropriately, providing trillions of dollars in economic aid, but let's all remember that this is funny money. They're putting it on the tab, not a solution that can go on forever and which someone's going to expect to have paid somewhere down the line.

But what I like best about the plan is its devolution of decision-making to the individual states. This is a big country with a large amount of geographic diversity, so it makes perfect sense that, within some basic guidelines, localities should decide for themselves how to proceed.

That's also in line with the most basic founding idea of our country. The tenth amendment in our constitution's Bill of Rights makes it clear that the federal government activity is supposed to be limited to doing only those tasks specifically delegated to it by the constitution and that the fundamental political power in our country is supposed to reside in the people and the state and local governments which they choose. Throughout our country's history there has been a tension between advocates for central as opposed to local control but starting with FDR and the great depression the balance has swung greatly toward the central federal government. This crisis may be a turning point in the other direction. The various governors, with federal backup, will now have to make difficult, innovative decisions on their own, and who knows, they may get to like it. But most of the states themselves have considerable variation between urban, suburban and rural areas and the governors must take heed of local needs. As a consequence, we are now beginning to see public debate in the social websites on what should be done, as well as citizen pleas and protests to state and local government regarding seemingly irrational regulation. Every cloud has a silver lining, and to my mind, if anything good can be said to come out of this situation, it would be this development.

I watched Governor Cuomo's press conference on C-Span today and thought he was taking on the responsibility very well. He commented on this very issue of the states taking charge and gave a good and well-balanced discussion of the problems involved in managing the situation in New York. He emphasized the destructive effect of bringing political division to this issue and I couldn't agree more.

 

 

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