Dispatches

KRUGMAN: TRUMP EXEC ORDERS ARE ‘HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE OF ECONOMIC POLICY.’

Paul Krugman is so unimpressed with President Donald Trump’s latest efforts to boost the economy amid the coronavirus crisis that he has declared it to be the hydroxychloroquine of economic policy, Mary Papenfuss noted at HuffPost (8/10).

The four executive actions Trump signed on Aug. 8 included deferring payroll taxes — which fund Social Security and Medicare — from Sept. 1 until the end of the year for workers earning less than $100,000 annually. Trump also warned that he might terminate the tax if he’s reelected, which would kill the longstanding social service programs.

Deferring payroll taxes was such a “known bad idea” that it had already been dismissed by the GOP in the Senate, Krugman explained on CNN (8/9).

“Even Senate Republicans basically said, ‘Let’s forget about that. That’s a really stupid idea.’ And then Trump comes out with it,” said Krugman, a Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist.

Krugman also warned that hobbling the payroll tax would starve Social Security and Medicare of much-needed funds.

He tweeted that “payroll tax cuts are the hydroxychloroquine of economic policy. They won’t do anything to solve the employment crisis, but will have dangerous side effects. Yet Trump remains obsessed with them as a cure.

“We’ve lost millions of jobs, not because employers lack incentives to hire, but because many activities, like bars, indoor dining, inessential travel, elective medical care have been put on hold because of the risk of contagion.

“Letting employers keep money they were supposed to be paying into Social Security and Medicare — no good reason to believe they’ll pass the savings on to workers — does nothing to remedy this problem.

“It will, however, undermine the finances of programs that are absolutely crucial to the lives of older Americans. If you measure the quality of policy ideas on a scale of 1 to 10, this is a minus 5 or worse.”

Trump also reduced the enhanced unemployment insurance from $600 to $400 a week. His order would also require cash-strapped states to cover 25% of the enhanced payments, which will be unworkable, Krugman warned.

“This is just not going to happen,” Krugman said. “This is something that was thrown together by somebody who has paid no attention to how these things actually work, what it actually takes to get out money to people in need.”

TRUMP TELLS STATES TO RESTRICT FOOD ASSISTANCE. While most of the supply chain issues for food that arose at the beginning of the coronavirus crisis have been resolved, food costs for consumers are still higher than they were back in January, in some places significantly so, Joan McCarter noted at DailyKos (8/10). High food costs and high unemployment means that from April through June, one in three families with children reported food insecurity, not enough food for every family member to have adequate nutrition every day.

In May, Feeding America reported “record levels” of food insecurity, projecting 54 million Americans, including 1 in 4 children, would not have enough to eat throughout the duration of the crisis. But it’s going to get worse because the Trump administration is ending the flexibility states were given back in March to provide Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps, to more people. The Department of Agriculture is now telling states they have to return to “normal operations,” and put limits on food assistance. Normal. Operations. In a still-raging pandemic. In which tens of millions of people just lost the lifeline of extra unemployment benefits.

The Families First Act, passed back on March 18, gave states the flexibility to change SNAP eligibility and procedures to maximize assistance. And SNAP responded, adding more than 6 million people, about a 17% increase nationally, by May. The March law did two things: It allowed states to waive the requirement that currently participating households continue to prove their eligibility or risk losing the assistance. Almost every state did waive the requirements or extended the deadline, to give people—and states—more time to provide information and process cases. It also allowed states to simplify the application process to make sure that all the newly unemployed could get help right away.

Now the USDA is telling states they have to return to “normal” by September. That’s despite the fact that the SNAP caseloads have mushroomed since March and returning to “normal” means much more work. The demand that states start rigorously proving that people getting the benefits are eligible means that states could be cutting needy households just because the overloaded states can’t fulfill the paperwork and interview requirements in the mandated timeline. The need is only going to increase now, with the end of the $600/week unemployment insurance bump. Many receiving the enhanced UI weren’t eligible for food stamps, but with the loss of that income will be, just in time to have their access to assistance shut down.

Some states haven’t even been able to get virtual application and eligibility processing established by now. Requiring new applicants to apply in-person for assistance is a burden on both staff and the applicants, one that could be dangerous in a COVID-19 hotspot. It’s a burden that will stretch states. It’s an arbitrary decision that will make more people go hungry.

SHORTENED CENSUS MAY SHORTCHANGE MARGINALIZED COMMUNITIES FOR DECADES. In addition to imposing likely delays in the delivery of mail-in ballots during the November elections through its sabotage of the US Postal Service, the Trump administration appears intent on jeopardizing elections and marginalized communities for decades to come, critics said of the president’s abrupt change to the U.S. census deadline, Julia Conley reported at CommonDreams (8/10).

When the coronavirus pandemic began, the deadline for the 2020 census was extended from mid-August to late October. When the Census Bureau announced in early August that it would require the survey to end Sept. 30, advocates for marginalized communities warned that the new deadline could result in a severe undercount of people in largely Black and Latino neighborhoods, rural areas and other often-overlooked parts of the country.

Federal funding for elections, education, free and reduced lunch programs, and other community programs is determined based on census data, and an inaccurate count of people in under-represented areas could result in years of insufficient funding, experts say.

In a Washington Post report (8/9), advocates pointed to largely Black, Latino, and Indigenous communities which were already facing an undercount even before the deadline was changed.

“If certain areas are not represented with their full accurate count, that means their funding will be diminished as well,” Diana Elliott, principal research associate at the Urban Institute, told the Post. “I think, for example, of the Rio Grande Valley. That area of Texas will get less money than, say, the suburbs of Dallas. And that’s not really a fair and equitable distribution of resources.”

So far, as few as 37% of households in the Rio Grande Valley, where Starr County has the highest percentage of Latino households in the country, have filled out the census. With about seven weeks to go, only 63% of the US population has filled out the survey.

Census data is used to draw boundaries for legislative districts and to determine who represents communities in the US House.

“This will likely undermine Latino and Democratic representation in redistricting for a decade and potentially beyond because lawmakers elected under 2020s districts in many states will be the ones drawing 2030s districts,” tweeted Stephen Wolf of Daily Kos Elections.

Census experts are concerned about the counting of people in rural areas where broadband access is limited, low-income neighborhoods, immigrant communities, and other places where government distrust is prevalent as census-takers begin collecting data door-to-door on Aug. 11, following an online survey.

The changing of the census deadline came days after Trump was sued by the ACLU, Common Cause and a coalition of 21 states over his memo advising that undocumented immigrants should not be counted for the purpose of congressional seat apportionment.

LAWMAKERS DEMAND REMOVAL OF NEW POSTMASTER GENERAL OVER ATTEMPTS TO DISMANTLE POSTAL SERVICE. On the heels of a “Friday Night Massacre” at the US Postal Service (8/7) that alarmed lawmakers, activists and citizens nationwide, two House Democrats are demanding the immediate removal of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy over his sweeping changes to the government service that have slowed the delivery of essential packages and jeopardized mail-in voting, Jake Johnson reported at CommonDreams (8/10)..

DeJoy is a major GOP donor to President Donald Trump with millions invested in USPS competitors and contractors, including UPS and the trucking company J.B. Hunt.

In a statement, Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) accused DeJoy of doing the president’s bidding by sabotaging mail delivery with the November election less than 90 days away.

“DeJoy’s baseless operational changes have already crippled a beloved and essential agency, delaying mail, critical prescription drug shipments for veterans, and seniors and other essential goods,” said DeFazio.

The Oregon Democrat warned that the latest change imposed by DeJoy—the ouster of two top officials who oversee daily operations and reshuffling of 21 others—lay bare his “mission to centralize power, dismantle the agency, and degrade service in order to thwart vote-by-mail across the nation to aid Trump’s reelection efforts.”

“This November, an historic number of citizens will vote by mail in order to protect their health and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said DeFazio. “DeJoy’s nefarious collective efforts will suppress millions of mail-in ballots and threaten the voting rights of millions of Americans, setting the stage for breach of our Constitution. It is imperative that we remove him from his post and immediately replace him with an experienced leader who is committed to sustaining a critical service for all Americans.”

DeJoy, a former North Carolina logistics executive, was appointed to lead USPS by the agency’s Board of Governors in May despite his complete lack of experience at the Postal Service and his potential conflicts of interest, which have drawn scrutiny from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and other lawmakers. After taking charge in mid-June, the new Postmaster General wasted little time rolling out changes to USPS that postal workers said undermine the agency’s core mission and potentially set the stage for privatization.

During an open session in early August with the Board of Governors, DeJoy rebuked lawmakers for “sensationalizing” major mail backlogs reported in states across the nation and downplayed the resulting delays as “isolated, operational incidents.” Postal workers, for their part, have warned that the delays appear to be a direct consequence of DeJoy’s policies barring overtime and prohibiting the sorting of mail ahead of morning deliveries.

The American Prospect’s David Dayen noted, the Postal Service under DeJoy’s leadership has also “informed states that they’ll need to pay first-class 55-cent postage to mail ballots to voters, rather than the normal 20-cent bulk rate.”

“That nearly triples the per-ballot cost at a time when tens of millions more will be delivered,” Dayen noted. “The rate change would have to go through the Postal Regulatory Commission and, undoubtedly, litigation. But the time frame for that is incredibly short, as ballots go out very soon. A side benefit of this money grab is that states and cities may decide they don’t have the money to mail absentee ballots, and will make them harder to get. Which is exactly the worst-case scenario everyone fears.”

Rep. Alma Adams (D-NC) said DeJoy is guilty of “unconstitutional sabotage of our Postal Service with complete disregard for the institution’s promise of the ‘safe and speedy transit of the mail’ and the ‘prompt delivery of its contents.’”

“My friend Maya Angelou used to say, ‘when someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time,’” Adams added. “The Postmaster General has shown us on multiple occasions he is working to dismantle a fundamental institution of our democracy. He needs to resign or be removed, now.”

TRUMP: EXECUTIVE ORDER ON PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS IS ‘A SIGNAL.’ Donald Trump acknowledged (8/10) an executive order he’s considering to require insurers cover patients with pre-existing conditions would emphasize Republican support for the practice even though it is already part of existing law — the Affordable Care Act, which Republicans are trying to overturn.

“It’s a signal to people ... it’s a second platform,” Trump said at a White House briefing (8/10). “Pre-existing conditions will be taken care of 100 percent by Republicans and the Republican party. I actually think it’s a very important statement.”

The Trump administration is trying to get the Supreme Court to overturn the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare), which requires coverage of pre-existing conditions, among other consumer protections, but it asked the court to wait until after the election to do it.

Trump has promised an alternative to Obamacare but has not produced one so far.

Trump had teased the executive order (8/7) at his private golf club in Bedminster, N.J., while unveiling other executive actions to address the coronavirus crisis and economic crash.

Trump’s administration has increased the availability of cheap, skimpier health plans that don’t meet Obamacare’s coverage requirements and wouldn’t protect some patients with chronic conditions.

Joe Biden has condemned Trump for working to gut Obamacare, accusing him of threatening healthcare protections for millions of Americans in the midst of the pandemic, Jeff Mason of Reuters noted (8/10).

MISSOURI BECOMES SIXTH STATE TO EXPAND MEDICAID AT BALLOT BOX. Despite the fear that COVID-19 would render the newly energized ballot initiative strategy moot, progressives secured a big win in red state Missouri (8/4), overriding the legislature’s and the governor’s persistent refusal to expand Medicaid to cover the working poor, Debby Warren reported for NonProfit Quarterly (8/10).

Missouri became the sixth Republican-led state to approve Medicaid expansion at the ballot box, voting 53% to 47%, with urban voters overwhelmingly supporting Medicaid expansion and rural voters decisively rejecting it, despite losing 10 rural hospitals in the past five years. An estimated 217,000 working poor Missourians will get access to health care with the Medicaid expansion.

Opponents included the Republican leadership, the Missouri Farm Bureau, Americans for Prosperity, and Missouri Right to Life [whose members apparently are oblivious to the teachings of Jesus Christ].

Supporters included the Missouri Chamber of Commerce (typically a solid supporter of the Republican governor, but who called the proposal a “pro jobs measure that will help fuel economic growth throughout our state”), as well as the AFL-CIO, NAACP, AARP, the Missouri Hospital Association and Planned Parenthood.

A key player was the Fairness Project, a DC-based national nonprofit with a staff of 13, more than 6,000 online donors, and a budget of roughly $6 million, which added Missouri to its successes in the five other states with recent and successful Medicaid expansion ballot initiatives. Launched in 2015 with $5 million from the union that represents California’s health care workers (SEIU-UHW), the Fairness Project works with local advocates to build professional campaign websites, aggressively use social media, and ensure that polling is done rigorously, as well as riding shotgun with state partners during the campaign, Warren noted. Its money helps, too. In the 2018 Utah ballot initiative, this national organization contributed $3.5 million out of the $3.8 million raised; in Nebraska, $1.69 out of $2.86 million garnered; and in Maine, $1 million out of the $2.67 million secured, dwarfing the opponents’ fundraising efforts.

There are 12 remaining states that have not expanded Medicaid, but only four permit referenda: Wyoming, South Dakota, Mississippi and Florida, the largest, with 1.25 million potential Medicaid enrollees.

But the fate of the ballot initiative in these states during the COVID-19 pandemic is not clear. Fourteen states have suspended 2020 initiative campaigns. Nationally, there were just 111 certified statewide ballot initiatives, down from 167 in 2018 and 162 in 2016. And Massachusetts is the only state allowing campaigns to collect electronic signatures for the 2020 ballot.

BUSINESS OWNERS CALL FOR INCREASE IN MINIMUM WAGE. Business owners across the country are calling for the $7.25 federal minimum wage to be increased, as July 24 marked 11 years since the federal minimum wage was last raised in 2009. This is the longest period without a raise since the federal minimum wage was enacted in 1938.

“We’re in the longest period in history without a minimum wage increase, which hurts businesses as well as workers,” said Holly Sklar, CEO of Business for a Fair Minimum Wage. “The federal minimum wage wasn’t enacted during good economic times. It was enacted to help our country recover from the Great Depression by lifting insufficient wages and boosting the consumer buying power that businesses depend on to survive and grow. As we face another generation-defining crisis, we should look again to raising the minimum wage to promote the shared recovery of businesses and communities.”

Because of inadequate increases, today’s $7.25 federal minimum wage has less purchasing power than the minimum wage of 1950, which was worth $8.23 in 2020 dollars, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Inflation Calculator. The minimum wage was worth more than $12 in today’s dollars at its peak in 1968. Millions of low-wage workers were having a hard time keeping a roof overhead and food on the table even before the COVID-19 crisis.

In July 2019, the US House of Representatives passed the Raise the Wage Act, which would gradually increase the federal minimum wage to $15 by 2025, but the Senate has not acted.

RUSSIA WORKING TO DEFEAT BIDEN; CHiNA AND IRAN PREFER TRUMP DEFEAT. Also in the Friday (8/7) news dump was a report from US intelligence that Russia is actively working to “denigrate” presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, while China views President Donald Trump as “unpredictable” and prefers that he not win re-election, according to a new US intelligence assessment. The analysis, published Friday by the chief of the National Counter-Intelligence and Security Center, also concluded that Iran is working to foment division and undermine Trump in advance of the 2020 election, USA Today reported (8/7).

In accounting for Russia’s efforts, the report not only identified its goal but put a name to the campaign. “Pro-Russia Ukrainian parliamentarian Andriy Derkach is spreading claims about corruption – including through publicizing leaked phone calls – to undermine former Vice President Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party,” the report said. “Some Kremlin-linked actors are also seeking to boost President Trump’s candidacy on social media and Russian television.”

Charles D. Pierce noted at Esquire.dotcom, “You’d have to be awfully cynical to connect this news to the story earlier on Friday in which Mike Pompeo was cast as getting tough with the Russians for paying bounties for hits on US servicemen. Very, very cynical. Horribly so. I hate myself for feeling this way.

“No, actually, I don’t.”

REPUBLICAN SENATORS MAY BE USING RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION TO SMEAR BIDEN. US intel officials’ disclosure that Russia is interfering in our election with the express goal of harming Joe Biden might make it harder for Trump’s allies in the Senate to push narratives they’ve been using to smear Biden.

Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-CA), chair of the House Intelligence Committee, said the new statement from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) confirmed the need for members of Congress to be extra-cautious about Russian efforts to manipulate them with disinformation, Greg Sargent and Paul Waldman reported in the Washington Post (8/7).

“Members of Congress are on notice and need to be very careful not to advance narratives that may be coming from the Kremlin,” Schiff told us.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), chair of the homeland security committee, recently had to publicly deny participating in a Russian disinformation campaign in connection with his committee’s “investigation” into Ukraine, oil and gas company Burisma, and Joe and his son Hunter Biden.

The ODNI statement explicitly confirms that the pro-Russian Ukrainian Andriy Derkach’s efforts to spread “claims about corruption” to “undermine” Biden’s candidacy are part of the Russian interference effort.

Johnson’s probe dredges up some stuff that we heard during Trump’s impeachment. In particular, Rudy Giuliani is acting as a conduit for a group of Ukrainians with ties to Russia who appear to be trying to feed questionable information to Johnson.

One of those people is Derkach, who attended the Dzerzhinsky Higher School of the KGB in Moscow and whose father was a KGB officer.

Derkach has sent packets of anti-Biden information to American lawmakers, including Johnson. Derkach has also met with Giuliani and released pieces of recorded conversations Biden had with Ukrainian leaders as vice president, but Sargent and Waldman note the taxpes actually confirm that Joe Biden was working to oust a corrupt prosecutor, in an effort that was backed by international institutions.

From The Progressive Populist, September 1, 2020

Populist.com