- Jun 6, 2007
- 852
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Washington's response to the Coronavirus has been good but the American people need better they need them to bring their "A" game to the problem. America needs its governors to step-up and bring this "A" game out of Washington. America needs an overall strategy to this Covid 19 problem that its Washington leadership is not grasping and the country's only hope may be for the nation's Governors to step up and take the forefront! The strategy that America needs to embark on is that we are going to "stop", "yes that's right - stop", treating America as one single community where we have to essentially completely shut down from coast to coast or America will see something like seven hundred thousand deaths like she saw in 1918 from the Spanish Flu Pandemic at that time. The nation needs to embark on a strategy where she sections America apart and those sections that have not experienced a communal spread rate of the Covid 19 virus she reopens those communities once testing has been done on the responsible scale and the scope of the spread is known for that section; of course continue to ban huge gatherings like sports events and concerts in those reopened sections. By communal spread it is meant where there is so many people exposed to the virus its impractical or unfeasible to try to stop the spread by contacting the entirety of this class of people and have them self-quarantine for the two week incubation period to stop the spread.
Why do we need to get as many sections of America up and running as possible? Because right now America is cooking in a stew of fear, whether it be evidenced by the obvious such as mass buying at grocery stores whether it be cleaning supplies, "tp" or bread products, etc. but other fears like mass concerns of how long will this shut down of our communities last, how many businesses will end of being permanently shuttered over this, how many people will lose their job over this crisis, what will happen in the financial markets before all is said and done. Maybe it is better to say America is now cooking in a stew of fear of the unknown! The only way to really get America off this bad path is to get as much as possible of America up and running as close as possible to normal. If we do this wide swaths of the American people will begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel the light being normalcy and where we don't have to worry about these existential threats to our lives! This will put and keep America on a road to a good recovery as opposed to now where we are all on a road of uncertainty!
To this end, let us keep in mind that if the entirety of the American people all 350 million of us got the Covid 19 virus at least ninety percent of us would end up being fine we would experience a bad flu illness but in three weeks we would be back to normal. It's the ten percent many of whom will die from the illness that we need to be concerned about and I am not suggesting a strategy where we throw this ten percent under the bus where we should just accept this fatality rate as an acceptable loss ratio. Not at all, we are actually lucky in a way because we can essentially identify this class of people in this ten percent block they are people with a compromised immune system and the elderly. So let us implement a plan to protect them. Congress needs to go back and enact an expanded version of the legislation they were talking about last week to protect this class of people. They need to temporarily expand the Federal law which allows for emergency medical leave which allows for twelve weeks of leave for an employee from his or her employer at two-thirds rate of pay. They need to expand this coverage to employees in these subclasses (employees with a compromised immune system and the elderly) and people that live with these two subclasses of people so they don't pass on this fatal disease to their family members. The past criticism of expanding the emergency medical leave act is that small business can't afford to pay this and for some small businesses the employees taking this emergency leave is a critical employee and the loss of that employees service will impair the operation of the business. For the first criticism I would limit the emergency leave pay expansion to a maximum of two hundred dollars a day and which I will explain later I agree with those Americans that believe the Federal government should largely float small and medium size businesses payroll for three months to get the economy's economic engine running again; for large cap companies who will make less than one billion dollars this year the Federal gov't should pick up the tab here these businesses only need inform the Treasury of their expense they incur and the Treasury should cut them a check (on this earnings threshold companies cannot use any paper losses against their earnings to qualify these businesses should not be permitted to take depreciation deductions and amortization deductions and any writedowns against earnings). In regards to the loss of critical worker argument, there is no guarantee that any worker won't die tomorrow businesses have to be resilient and overcome such a loss realistically a very small percentage of businesses will face this stark consequences this issue is not large enough that it should stop the protection of this vulnerable group of Americans.
The key to this strategy of reopening sections of America once we know they don't have a communal spread level of the virus is that the country "from coast to coast needs the testing supplies to test for the Covid 19 virus and the protective gear for healthcare workers to conduct these test for the next three months". The media has an abundance of reports of certain locations of America that are short in these areas. Mayor DeBlasio of New York City just Thursday said New York Hospital will run out of supplies to deal with pandemic in weeks. The Federal Government needs to accomplish this goal at an outstanding rate as many people have said America needs to go to a war footing on this issue to get the needed medical supplies so the country can respond optimally to this epidemic.
Further to implement this strategy of getting sections of America back up and running quickly, I agree with those Americans that think the Federal government should send working adult Americans that are not wealthy a thousand dollar check and then in another month send a second thousand dollar check. Many people since they cannot work have no income coming in they need money to live this will help with this vital issue. I further agree with those Americans that think something should be done for small and medium sized businesses. From this writer's long term following of the illegal/undocumented immigrant issue he has learned that America's employers have an outstanding record of paying their employees social security taxes. So the government should for all employers whose gross sales are under five hundred million dollars for tax year 2019 if such taxes haven't been filed then look at the tax year of 2018 take a look at their payroll expense for that year vis-a-vis their social security taxes they paid for that year and capping a workers pay at $200.00 a day send that employer a check for one twelfth of that number enough to cover the payroll for a month and because so many businesses businesses are devastated they won't need their historic numbers of workers require the employer for each of the next two months to report to the treasury what their payroll will be with the $200/day cap for that month and when the employer ultimately sends in that employers social security payment the treasury can determine if there was an over-payment and the employer would be required to return the funds and if they didn't the IRS can deduct any amount owed from tax refunds given to the employer in the future and after December 31 2021 the federal government can collect it like any debt anyone could collect from a business. This injection of revenue to businesses should help them get back on their feet!
Everyone needs to consider that the financial cost concerns here aren't only the cost of these "coronavirus crisis" pieces of legislation but also the monetary losses due to the various types of harm throughout the country such as permanently shuttered businesses that are no longer producing tax revenue to send to the local, state and Federal government. The loss of employment and the loss of income for those employed which again results in loss tax revenue and also will increase the Federal and state government health care expense whether its through the ACA expense or medicaid expense. The bottom line the sooner we can get parts of America up and running the lesser this devastating harm! America's Governors need to step up here and get the country back to normal quickly you all are America's only hope, the big shots in Washington are too tethered by the politics of the crisis, you all gotta take the reins and drive us to safety!
Why do we need to get as many sections of America up and running as possible? Because right now America is cooking in a stew of fear, whether it be evidenced by the obvious such as mass buying at grocery stores whether it be cleaning supplies, "tp" or bread products, etc. but other fears like mass concerns of how long will this shut down of our communities last, how many businesses will end of being permanently shuttered over this, how many people will lose their job over this crisis, what will happen in the financial markets before all is said and done. Maybe it is better to say America is now cooking in a stew of fear of the unknown! The only way to really get America off this bad path is to get as much as possible of America up and running as close as possible to normal. If we do this wide swaths of the American people will begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel the light being normalcy and where we don't have to worry about these existential threats to our lives! This will put and keep America on a road to a good recovery as opposed to now where we are all on a road of uncertainty!
To this end, let us keep in mind that if the entirety of the American people all 350 million of us got the Covid 19 virus at least ninety percent of us would end up being fine we would experience a bad flu illness but in three weeks we would be back to normal. It's the ten percent many of whom will die from the illness that we need to be concerned about and I am not suggesting a strategy where we throw this ten percent under the bus where we should just accept this fatality rate as an acceptable loss ratio. Not at all, we are actually lucky in a way because we can essentially identify this class of people in this ten percent block they are people with a compromised immune system and the elderly. So let us implement a plan to protect them. Congress needs to go back and enact an expanded version of the legislation they were talking about last week to protect this class of people. They need to temporarily expand the Federal law which allows for emergency medical leave which allows for twelve weeks of leave for an employee from his or her employer at two-thirds rate of pay. They need to expand this coverage to employees in these subclasses (employees with a compromised immune system and the elderly) and people that live with these two subclasses of people so they don't pass on this fatal disease to their family members. The past criticism of expanding the emergency medical leave act is that small business can't afford to pay this and for some small businesses the employees taking this emergency leave is a critical employee and the loss of that employees service will impair the operation of the business. For the first criticism I would limit the emergency leave pay expansion to a maximum of two hundred dollars a day and which I will explain later I agree with those Americans that believe the Federal government should largely float small and medium size businesses payroll for three months to get the economy's economic engine running again; for large cap companies who will make less than one billion dollars this year the Federal gov't should pick up the tab here these businesses only need inform the Treasury of their expense they incur and the Treasury should cut them a check (on this earnings threshold companies cannot use any paper losses against their earnings to qualify these businesses should not be permitted to take depreciation deductions and amortization deductions and any writedowns against earnings). In regards to the loss of critical worker argument, there is no guarantee that any worker won't die tomorrow businesses have to be resilient and overcome such a loss realistically a very small percentage of businesses will face this stark consequences this issue is not large enough that it should stop the protection of this vulnerable group of Americans.
The key to this strategy of reopening sections of America once we know they don't have a communal spread level of the virus is that the country "from coast to coast needs the testing supplies to test for the Covid 19 virus and the protective gear for healthcare workers to conduct these test for the next three months". The media has an abundance of reports of certain locations of America that are short in these areas. Mayor DeBlasio of New York City just Thursday said New York Hospital will run out of supplies to deal with pandemic in weeks. The Federal Government needs to accomplish this goal at an outstanding rate as many people have said America needs to go to a war footing on this issue to get the needed medical supplies so the country can respond optimally to this epidemic.
Further to implement this strategy of getting sections of America back up and running quickly, I agree with those Americans that think the Federal government should send working adult Americans that are not wealthy a thousand dollar check and then in another month send a second thousand dollar check. Many people since they cannot work have no income coming in they need money to live this will help with this vital issue. I further agree with those Americans that think something should be done for small and medium sized businesses. From this writer's long term following of the illegal/undocumented immigrant issue he has learned that America's employers have an outstanding record of paying their employees social security taxes. So the government should for all employers whose gross sales are under five hundred million dollars for tax year 2019 if such taxes haven't been filed then look at the tax year of 2018 take a look at their payroll expense for that year vis-a-vis their social security taxes they paid for that year and capping a workers pay at $200.00 a day send that employer a check for one twelfth of that number enough to cover the payroll for a month and because so many businesses businesses are devastated they won't need their historic numbers of workers require the employer for each of the next two months to report to the treasury what their payroll will be with the $200/day cap for that month and when the employer ultimately sends in that employers social security payment the treasury can determine if there was an over-payment and the employer would be required to return the funds and if they didn't the IRS can deduct any amount owed from tax refunds given to the employer in the future and after December 31 2021 the federal government can collect it like any debt anyone could collect from a business. This injection of revenue to businesses should help them get back on their feet!
Everyone needs to consider that the financial cost concerns here aren't only the cost of these "coronavirus crisis" pieces of legislation but also the monetary losses due to the various types of harm throughout the country such as permanently shuttered businesses that are no longer producing tax revenue to send to the local, state and Federal government. The loss of employment and the loss of income for those employed which again results in loss tax revenue and also will increase the Federal and state government health care expense whether its through the ACA expense or medicaid expense. The bottom line the sooner we can get parts of America up and running the lesser this devastating harm! America's Governors need to step up here and get the country back to normal quickly you all are America's only hope, the big shots in Washington are too tethered by the politics of the crisis, you all gotta take the reins and drive us to safety!
