Voices

What would a functioning federal government be doing?

Maybe this pandemic will eliminate this idea that we don’t need to use our tax dollars to make a better country and meet human needs

PUTNEY — Ever since the Reagan administration, and probably before that, we have been subjected to the Republican/right-wing Democratic dismantling of the role of government in the lives of ordinary people.

Progressive activists have spent decades struggling for the sort of country where ordinary people could have some agency at a time when the U.S. was becoming more of a playground for the wealthiest every year.

It was abundantly clear that we would never be able to rely on Washington to use our tax dollars in a way that we could support and that the holes in the weak social and economic safety net for people who were insecure in their housing, food, and health-care needs were becoming huge gaps.

Interestingly, Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and other prescient politicians have presented the message of “a government that works for all,” creating a humanist vision of governing for the first time in two generations.

But at the same time, the freak election of Donald Trump, by a minority of mainly white, older Americans, has empowered those who think that every non-military function of the government is wasteful and that the government exists to protect and enrich the elite.

Anyone who thinks this is a break with the past 40 years has not been paying attention. To understand what has happened, look at the trajectory of the tax code, where the tax rate for the wealthiest Americans is lower than the rate for your average working stiffs.

At the same time as taxes have gifted massive bank accounts to Jeff Bezos, the Walton family, and the other financial elites, what has happened to the infrastructure, the benefits for people with serious needs, the health-care system, and our environment?

In an economic boom, when our federal government should have been flush with cash, huge tax cuts for the wealthy have created an enormous deficit. So no housing for victims of the fires in California, no rebuilding for Puerto Rico, and no money to repair bridges, rail lines, roads with massive potholes, schools for poor children, and so many other needs.

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Now in 2020, we find out the effects of this long-term strategy in the wealthiest country in the history of the world.

Donald Trump can deny it, but there is a great chance that we might be in a different place right now - if Trump and his minions had not disbanded the pandemic task force of the National Security Council, had they not instituted a hiring freeze at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, had they not created an environment where most Americans know that they lie about everything and where Trump supporters think that science is a joke, had Trump appointed someone who actually understands health care and medicine instead of a shill like Mike Pence to organize a response to this new coronavirus.

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It is actually difficult to imagine what a strong, science-based, and organized response would look like. What would a functioning federal government be doing right now?

We would have already had universal health care and paid family medical leave. Medical professionals would give us clear guidelines, not the murky anti-science mutterings of a president who refuses to actually learn anything. Money would be pouring into the public sector for free health care for all who need it, not only for testing but also for treatment.

And we would be holding a smart, fact-filled discussion about how to care for our children, our elderly, our disabled, and our ill at this critical, very dangerous time.

If the deaths and severe illnesses of thousands of vulnerable Americans are caused in part by the chaos, lack of preparedness, and hatred of science of the Trump crew, maybe this outcome will eliminate this idea that we don't need an effective, well-funded government that uses our tax dollars to make this a better country and meets human needs.

In the meantime, like most Americans, I have been completely confused as this pandemic has unfolded. I think most of us are in the same boat, although I feel much more fortunate than someone who might be stuck in a small apartment, as I can continue to walk in the woods even if we are quarantined.

Trees will not be catching coronavirus.

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