General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump Refused to Order Coronavirus Supplies Because Big Business Complained
President Trumps reluctance to use the Defense Production Act has been one of the most enduring mysteries of the coronavirus epidemic. The Defense Production Act is a 1950 law allowing the federal government to redirect vital industry for use in a crisis (primarily a war, but an epidemic would also do). Hospitals are desperately short of ventilators and respirators, and governors, doctors, and public-health officials have begged Trump to invoke the act to direct emergency production before hospital staff gets infected and patients begin dying.
Trumps diffidence is puzzling, given his normal tendency to push presidential authority to, or well past, its constitutional limits. This is a president who claimed national-security powers to slap tariffs on steel from Canada and Mexico, and to build a border fence.
The New York Times resolves the mystery. Trump has refused to invoke the act because big business doesnt want him to. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the heads of major corporations have lobbied the administration against using the act, the Times reports. They say the move could prove counterproductive, imposing red tape on companies precisely when they need flexibility to deal with closed borders and shuttered factories. Trump, Lawrence Kudlow, and Jared Kushner all reportedly found these arguments persuasive.
Of course, persuading that troika does not necessarily require a solid factual basis. Kudlow is a fanatical adherent of supply-side economics whose career of wrongness has been sustained by a willingness to advance the narrow interests of the superrich. Kushner is a dilettante heir to his fathers shady construction empire. Trump is
also that, but less intelligent than Kushner.
Read more: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/03/defense-production-act-coronavirus-trump-respirators-masks-ventilators.html
napi21
(45,806 posts)dalton99a
(81,428 posts)C Moon
(12,212 posts)Bayard
(22,038 posts)Just pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter for last years CA wildfires. Trump's crimes are not involuntary, he's getting people killed on purpose.
He could end up having millions of Americans' blood on his hands. I'd call it premeditated murder.
KY_EnviroGuy
(14,489 posts)With window dressings of patriotism, religion, guns and abortion.
Trump's clan was a perfect fit........
Hekate
(90,627 posts)Orrex
(63,195 posts)How would our government handle any other person who similarly threatened so many US citizens?
Let our government treat fuckhead Trump the same way.
scarletwoman
(31,893 posts)I'm speechless about the degree of venality, but not surprised.
thesquanderer
(11,982 posts)...the Trump administration would have enough competence to result in there being any benefit to having them run this stuff?