The president’s response to the virus to date has been quintessentially Trumpian: ignoring experts; sending mixed messages; boasting about his own performance; engaging in a salesman’s happy talk; and blaming Obama and the press for all of the problems. As an NYT columnist said, however, you can’t gaslight a virus. The stock market, Trump’s favorite gauge of public approval, has tumbled. What now?
With a few more days like yesterday, he will be screaming for stimulus. The GOP Senate, which believes in austerity for Democrats and stimulus for Republicans, will undoubtedly go along. So what would an appropriate stimulus package look like, and how should the Democrats respond?
It isn’t easy to devise a package when conditions are still evolving. What is clear is that the usual GOP toolkit of regressive tax cuts and low interest rates won’t solve a public health problem. A temporary payroll tax cut would make some sense, but it probably wouldn’t be enough to avoid layoffs in highly affected industries. Targeted bailouts would also help, but there would be no guarantee that they would reach enough businesses, or that the public funds would end up in the hands of workers, as opposed to investors.
So what should the Democrats do? I would suggest laying down principles and leaving the formulation of policy to the administration. The principles should emphasize the need for speed, narrow targeting, and support for workers, not investors. Would the GOP be willing to live with a plan that favors workers over capital? Probably not, which would be the point during an election campaign.