By Bob Williams, Stevensville
Donald Trump could have been re-elected, with good numbers. All he had to do was follow through on briefings, avoid delusion, and put the right people in the right places, to deal with the COVID-19 epidemic in the USA.
If so done, about now, he could be emphasizing how he positioned the right people in the right places, to respond as good, or better, than would our global trading partners.
Now look what we’ve got. Maybe 50,000 unnecessary deaths for starting containment measures one week later than recommended by epidemiologists.
We’ve got 4.2% of the global population. But currently, every new day, we’ve got about one third of the global, new, confirmed cases of COVID-19.
Worse yet, current numbers suggest other industrial powers will suppress COVID-19, and safely get back to school, and back to full employment, and full tax revenue receipts, sooner than will the USA.
If the USA was experiencing not 33%, but 4.2%, of the daily, newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the world, the USA would have maintained high employment, and would not need a $2,200,000,000 fund to be doled out, mostly by the dominant party in the Senate.
The Atlanta Fed warns that April to June quarter USA GDP may be reduced 42.8%. FED chair Jerome Powell says the USA recession could go into 2021.
Here’s a basic problem. With unemployment at 14.7% and certain to worsen to 20% or more, consumer expenditures collapse. Consumer expenditures make up some 68% of USA GDP. So far Congress sends more COVID-19 aid money to the wealthy than to the consumers.
After 70 years of lowering State and Federal taxes to effectively a flat tax, Trump’s wealth class base has billions of hoarded dollars to buy stressed and distressed assets in the USA. But first they have to make sure Donald Trump gets re-elected.
Go to this link and note how well Montana is doing compared to other states, in reducing COVID-19 cases.
http://91-divoc.com/pages/covid-visualization/. Scroll down to: New COVID-19 Cases by US States/Territories per day. Go there and notice Montana at the bottom of the chart. Next, go to: New COVID-19 Cases by Country normalized by Country Population. That means confirmed cases per million.
Look at the John Hopkins University determined data points, along the curves of many countries. Notice how the USA curve compares to other countries.
Draw out you own curves about how long COVID-19 will impact USA Public Health, economy, and tax receipts.