Flickr / The White House
The Trump administration watched an uptick of over 76,000 new coronavirus cases reported this past Friday only to negotiate the following day to block federal aid to states for testing and contact tracing in the next relief bill.
The Washington Post reported that a confidential source said the “talks were fluid and the numbers were in flux.”
Flickr / Gage Skidmore
Many states are seeing a steady rise in deaths, adding pressure for lawmakers to finalize negotiations on the economic bill in the works by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
In a speech on Monday, McConnell said that part of the latest relief package expected to hit the Senate floor this week aims to reopen schools with liability protections.
Teachers are actively voicing their concerns about reopening schools too soon.
Educators and students across the country deserve to feel safe when going back to school. Education is important. It is not worth dying for.
— Dean of Fun (Knoxville, TN) (@Dean_Of_Fun_KCS) July 17, 2020
Cases have been increasing ever since reopening measures have been enacted. A chart published by the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center reveals a snapshot of each state’s trend, with the south at a steady upshot of more confirmed cases than seen since March.
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The Post also mentioned that there was much debate during the talks on Saturday about whether to block more money for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Last Wednesday, hospitals were ordered to report coronavirus patient information to the Department of Health and Human Services, not the CDC, to assist the White House coronavirus task force in distributing necessary supplies. The CDC was previously under fire for having unreliable test outcomes because of combining positive viral and antibody tests.
Looks like @CDCgov national map on hospital capacity is no longer working. A consequence of the data move yesterday to change reporting to @HHSGov? How is less public info a good thing? https://t.co/QQslh3BcSk @ngusletter pic.twitter.com/8ky2K1PnpR
— Charles Ornstein (@charlesornstein) July 15, 2020
In a statement to CNBC, HHS spokesman Michael Caputo said the CDC was directed to put the data up, and that in the future, “HHS will provide more powerful insights.”
Flickr / The White House
Trump has created a partisan divide amidst a racial reckoning by mobilizing the police against peaceful protestors and has worsened the global health crisis by making false claims about children being less affected by coronavirus.
Republican Senators are becoming increasingly infuriated with the administration’s blatant disregard that both the COVID crisis and the police bias towards minorities are a national issue and not a state issue. In a Washington Post op-ed columnist, Dana Milbank suggests that the GOP stays quiet rather than criticize Trump to avoid taking ownership of their party’s newfound haven for white supremacy. Milbank said he reached out for comment from 11 Republican senators about Trump’s race-baiting and sowing of division. He received tepid condemnation of Trump’s remarks from five of the senators and no response from the other seven. He cautions that silence doesn’t mean actively opposing Trump.
“The silence, often attributed to cowardice, is really complicity,” Milbank wrote. “Racial resentment has become the primary driver and predictor of support for the Republican Party, a trend that has accelerated under Trump.”
McConnell insists that wearing a mask isn’t political, however it is when it’s the responsibility of the federal government to set the standard if states are unwilling to do it themselves. Unsurprisingly, Trump is abdicating his responsibility to help states and cities recover from the pandemic and preventing good-willed people in the federal government from doing their job during a national crisis.
Why should the people and taxpayers of America be bailing out poorly run states (like Illinois, as example) and cities, in all cases Democrat run and managed, when most of the other states are not looking for bailout help? I am open to discussing anything, but just asking?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 27, 2020
Negotiations for what is likely the last coronavirus relief bill to be passed during this administration are underway this week. Voting in the November election, despite fears, remains imperative to restoring unity and democracy to our country.
