The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Likely Persuaded Trump to do Nothing About Virus



According to this link, President Trump was preparing to take a leadership role in preventing the rapid spread of the Corona Virus early on. The President was envisioning himself as a war-time President fighting for the health of the nation's citizens. It seems almost inevitable he today would be sitting on popular poll numbers had he made a best effort at stocking the nation with masks, ventilators and such along with mask requirements. 

But, he allowed himself to go off the rails. The organization taking aim at his intentions was the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. It wanted no response from the Federal Government and the President backed down. Elizabeth Warren asked the Chamber why it lobbied for such a harmful Federal response. The answer was U.S. businesses would respond properly and did not need more Federal paperwork.

Of course, there is no way of measuring precisely how the pandemic would have played out had the President made aggressive moves to slow its spread. He could have allowed the agency tasked with planning for such a crisis to be fully staffed including appointments of leaders. He did not. He could have spent money under his direction to prepare for its arrival.  I was in Southern California this past February just before it arrived. There were no cases but city and county officials had already declared a state of emergency and were making what preparations their budgets allowed. The Federal Government could have don the same.

But, on the national level levers were pulled all the way into the White House. The instincts within the White House, including apparently the President's, were pushed aside for what was thought at the time to be the interests of business. In the end, those who pay dues to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce were burned as a reward for their money.

Religious groups who think they found a friend in the corporate lobbying group now are seeing their own political cache drop.

Comments

  1. tsmJuly 25, 2020 at 6:08 PM

    gee whiz. gratifying to know that the USCC had Trump's ear. anyway you might be right for once.

    ReplyDelete

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