Trump administration pushing to block new money for testing, tracing and CDC in upcoming relief bill

[TitanTiger 20,510]

...because the Trump administration has no plan.  Their plan is to have no plan.  And all they care about are optics, not the American people they were elected (or appointed) to serve.  Hence you get idiotic comments from Trump complaining that if we'd stop testing so much our numbers wouldn't look so bad.

 

Quote

 

Trump administration pushing to block new money for testing, tracing and CDC in upcoming coronavirus relief bill

White House posture angers some GOP senators who are trying to include billions of dollars in the bill

Jeff Stein

The administration’s posture has angered some GOP senators, the officials said, and some lawmakers are trying to push back and ensure that the money stays in the bill. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to reveal confidential deliberations, cautioned that the talks were fluid and the numbers were in flux.

The negotiations center around a bill Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is preparing to unveil this coming week as part of negotiations with Democrats on what will likely be the last major coronavirus relief bill before the November election.

Negotiations are expected to kick off with increased urgency because of the rapid growth of cases — and steady uptick in deaths — in the United States. The number of cases began falling in April but accelerated sharply after Memorial Day, shattering records in the past two weeks.

In late May, there were fewer than 20,000 new cases of coronavirus reported each day. On Friday, there were more than 76,000 new cases reported.

The two political parties are far apart on a number of contentious issues, such as unemployment insurance, but the conflict between Trump administration officials and Senate Republicans on money for testing and other priorities is creating a major complication even before bipartisan negotiations get under way. Some lawmakers are trying to reach a deal quickly, as enhanced unemployment benefits for millions of Americans are set to expire in less than two weeks.

One person involved in the talks said Senate Republicans were seeking to allocate $25 billion for states to conduct testing and contact tracing, but that certain administration officials want to zero out the testing and tracing money entirely. Some White House officials believe they have already approved billions of dollars in assistance for testing and that some of that money remains unspent.

Roughly 3.7 million Americans have already tested positive for the coronavirus in the United States, according to a Washington Post analysis. Wait times for test results can vary by state, but in some places people have to wait more than a week to find out if they tested positive.

Trump and other White House officials have been pushing for states to own more of the responsibility for testing and have objected to creating national standards, at times seeking to minimize the federal government’s role.

The last major coronavirus spending bill Congress approved, in April, included $25 billion to increase testing and also required the Health and Human Services Department to release a strategic testing plan. The agency did so in May, but the plan mainly reasserted the administration’s insistence that states — not the federal government — should take the lead on testing.

Several Senate Republicans including Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) are exploring pushing a testing and tracing provision in the next stimulus package but are expected to meet resistance from the White House.

“Cases and deaths are now both rising again, including in many red states,” said Sam Hammond, a policy expert at the right-leaning think tank the Niskanen Center, which has been working with Senate Republicans on testing legislation. “Senate Republicans have asked for funding to help states purchase test kits in bulk. As it currently stands, the main bottleneck to a big ramp-up in testing is less technical than the White House’s own intransigence.”

President Trump has repeatedly questioned the value of conducting widespread coronavirus testing, arguing that if there were fewer tests conducted, the number of infections would be lower. Coronavirus infections and deaths are on the rise in many states.

The administration is also seeking to zero out $10 billion in new funding for the CDC in the upcoming bill, while slashing spending for the Pentagon and State Department related to foreign aid, the person said. Trump has been skeptical of State Department spending and foreign aid generally, but it was unclear why the Trump administration would seek to block money for the Pentagon for a variety of coronavirus-related expenses such as reimbursing contractors for providing paid leave to employees.

A White House spokesman declined to comment.

Congress has already approved roughly $3 trillion in new spending and tax cuts as part of its response to the coronavirus pandemic. Some White House officials had hoped to keep the next bill at less than $1 trillion, but they also want to include numerous elements that could prove costly. For example, Trump has demanded a payroll tax cut as part of the legislation. And he also wants to include another round of stimulus checks, though lawmakers are split on how to design new payments.

White House officials have been sharply critical of the CDC’s performance during the pandemic, complaining that its initial testing efforts were faulty and that it didn’t know more about the virus earlier this year.

At the same time they push cuts in testing and CDC funds, administration officials are trying to use the spending package to fund priorities that appear not directly related to the coronavirus — including a new FBI building, which has been a longtime priority for Trump, according to people involved.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/07/18/white-house-testing-budget-cdc-coronavirus/

 

 

[homersapien 11,446]

Un ******* believable. 

Refuse to invest in testing/tracing?  That and mask wearing are the only things that will keep this from getting progressively worse..

At this point, I am not sure we can even make it to the election, much less inauguration. 

 

[homersapien 11,446]

Trump defends bungled handling of coronavirus with falsehoods and dubious claims

President Trump said in an interview aired Sunday that the rising number of U.S. deaths from the coronavirus “is what it is,” defended his fumbled management of the pandemic with a barrage of dubious and false claims, and revealed his lack of understanding about the fundamental science of how the virus spreads and infects people.

Making one of his biggest media appearances in months — an hour-long, sit-down interview with “Fox News Sunday” anchor Chris Wallace — Trump was visibly rattled and at times hostile as he struggled to answer for his administration’s failure to contain the coronavirus, which has claimed more than 137,000 lives in the United States.

On a range of other topics, including the racial justice movement and the Confederate flag, the president positioned himself firmly outside the political mainstream. And Trump suggested he might not accept the results of November’s general election should he lose because he predicted without evidence that “mail-in voting is going to rig the election.”

In a season of remarkable public appearances by a politically wounded president, the Wallace interview was still extraordinary, in part because of the volley of false claims by Trump and aggressive, real-time fact-checking by his questioner.

As the coronavirus crisis spins out of control, Trump issues directives — but still no clear plan

Trump — who aides say no longer attends coronavirus task force meetings because he does not have time — showed himself to be particularly misinformed about the basics of the virus that has been ravaging the nation for more than four months.

Confronted by Wallace with a chart showing that the number of coronavirus cases last week more than doubled from the spring peak in April, Trump replied: “If we didn’t test, you wouldn’t be able to show that chart. If we tested half as much, those numbers would be down.”

By the president’s logic, that assumes people contract the virus only if they test positive, ignoring the fact that many people are asymptomatic carriers and unknowingly spread the contagion without taking a test or being reported.

President Trump, center, plays golf Sunday at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Va., as seen from the other side of the Potomac River in Darnestown, Md. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)

Wallace later explained to Trump that the number of tests has increased by 37 percent but the number of cases has shot up by 194 percent. Trump replied, “Many of those cases are young people that would heal in a day. They have the sniffles and we put it down as a test. Many of them — don’t forget, I guess it’s like 99.7 percent, people are going to get better and [in] many cases, they’re going to get better very quickly.”

Though people in their 20s and 30s, who make up a growing proportion of cases, have been hospitalized at a lower rate than older people, many still have suffered severe illness and some have died.

Former vice president Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, reacted to Trump’s interview in a statement Sunday: “The past six months have proven again and again that it’s Donald Trump who doesn’t know what he’s talking about when it comes to COVID-19 . . . When it comes to the coronavirus, you can’t believe a word he says.”

A growing number of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of the pandemic. A new Washington Post-ABC News poll found 38 percent approve of his performance and 60 percent disapprove. The same survey found Biden leading Trump by double digits nationally, 55 percent to 40 percent.

In an attempt to regain their political footing, Trump and his aides recently have sought to divert attention from the soaring number of coronavirus cases by focusing on the rate of deaths. In the Fox interview, Trump falsely asserted, “I think we have one of the lowest mortality rates in the world.”

“It’s not true, sir,” Wallace replied. “We had 900 deaths on a single day just this week.”

Trump shouted to aides hovering nearby: “Can you please get the mortality rates?” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany quickly presented Trump with data she said was from Deborah Birx, a physician and the White House coronavirus response coordinator, backing up his claim.

“Number one low mortality fatality rates,” Trump claimed.

At that point, Fox interrupted the taped interview for Wallace to explain to his viewers that according to data from Johns Hopkins University, the United States ranked seventh among 20 countries in mortality rate, worse than Brazil and Russia. The White House relied on European data showing Italy and Spain doing worse than the United States but Brazil and South Korea doing better. The White House chart did not include Russia and other countries doing better, according to Wallace.

When Wallace pointed out that coronavirus deaths in the United States were still about 1,000 a day, Trump said: “It came from China. They should’ve never let it escape, they should’ve never let it out, but it is what it is.”

Trump then hypothesized that the case count in Europe was so much lower than in the United States because “they don’t test,” as opposed to a sign that the virus was not as rampant there because their countries had largely contained it.

By conducting mass testing, Trump said, “We are creating trouble for the fake news to come along and say, ‘Oh, we have more cases.’ ”

Trump reiterated his long-held theory that the virus would somehow “disappear,” a claim not grounded in scientific fact.

“I will be right eventually,” Trump told Wallace. “You know I said, ‘It’s going to disappear.’ I’ll say it again. It’s going to disappear, and I’ll be right . . . You know why? Because I’ve been right probably more than anybody else.”

Rancor between scientists and Trump allies threatens pandemic response as cases surge

Trump used his Fox interview to continue the White House’s remarkable assault on some of the scientists and public health professionals spearheading the government’s response. The president called Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, “a little bit of an alarmist.” He noted that Fauci had argued internally against restricting travel from China, which Trump ordered in late January, and had initially said all Americans did not need to wear masks, before there was scientific evidence that doing so would help slow the spread.

Trump also challenged the assessment of Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who again warned last week that the pandemic could worsen this fall when flu season begins, reflecting widespread scientific consensus. “I don’t think he knows,” Trump said of Redfield.

Trump sought to draw a hard line on the coronavirus relief bill, saying it must include a payroll tax cut and liability protections for businesses, as lawmakers prepare to plunge into negotiations over unemployment benefits and other key provisions in coming days. Republican leaders are largely dismissive of the idea of cutting payroll taxes, which fund Social Security, while siding with Trump on the liability issue.

The Fox interview was conducted outdoors on a White House patio on an oppressively hot day — the president’s choice, as Wallace twice noted. Trump joked that he wanted to see Wallace sweat, but it was the president’s face that glistened with sweat as the Fox anchor engaged him on a wide range of other topics, including the race and justice issues that convulsed the country. Trump declined to say whether he found the Confederate flag offensive and defended what many Americans view as a symbol of slavery, racial oppression and treason.

“When people proudly have their Confederate flags, they’re not talking about racism,” Trump said. “They love their flag. It represents the South. They like the South. People right now like the South.”

Wallace followed up: “So you’re not offended by it?”

“Well, I’m not offended either by Black Lives Matter,” Trump replied. “That’s freedom of speech. You know, the whole thing with cancel culture, we can’t cancel our whole history. We can’t forget that the North and the South fought. We have to remember that, otherwise we’ll end up fighting again.”

Trump also teased the possibility that he might not accept the election results if he were to lose, jeopardizing America’s tradition of a peaceful transfer of power between presidents.

When Wallace asked Trump whether he considers himself a “good” or “gracious” loser, the president replied that he doesn’t like to lose. Then he added, “You don’t know until you see. It depends. I think mail-in voting is going to rig the election. I really do.”

For weeks now, Trump has claimed without evidence that the rise in voting by mail in many states makes voting susceptible to widespread fraud.

“Are you suggesting that you might not accept the results of the election?” Wallace asked.

“No,” Trump responded. “I have to see.”

Later in the interview, pressed on whether he will accept the results, Trump again declined to say. “I have to see,” he said.

Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates responded to Trump’s remarks in a statement: “The American people will decide this election. And the United States government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House.”

Trump sought to portray Biden as mentally vacant, telling Wallace that he did not want to characterize his opponent as “senile” but positing that “Joe doesn’t know he’s alive” and is “mentally shot.”

Trump then challenged Biden to a cognitive test, which the president characterized as exceedingly difficult. During a physical exam in 2018, Trump took the Montreal Cognitive Assessment — which includes animal pictures and other simple queries aimed at detecting mild cognitive impairment such as dementia — and has regularly boasted about it since.

Wallace told Trump that he tried the test himself after hearing the president brag about passing it. Wallace said “it’s not the hardest test,” adding that one of the questions on the version he took was to properly identify a picture of an elephant.

“I’ll bet you couldn’t even answer the last five questions,” Trump said. “I’ll bet you couldn’t. They get very hard, the last five questions.

“Well, one of them was count back from 100 by seven,” Wallace said, adding: “Ninety-three.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-defends-bungled-handling-of-coronavirus-with-falsehoods-and-dubious-claims/2020/07/19/1b57cb3e-c9e6-11ea-91f1-28aca4d833a0_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-banner-main_virustrump-615p%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans

[TitanTiger 20,510]

The incompetence is staggering.  The collective ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ from Republicans and Trumpkins is baffling.

[alexava 6,973]

1 hour ago, homersapien said:

Un ******* believable. 

Refuse to invest in testing/tracing?  That and mask wearing are the only things that will keep this from getting progressively worse..

At this point, I am not sure we can even make it to the election, much less inauguration. 

 

What do you mean by make it to inauguration?

[homersapien 11,446]

16 minutes ago, alexava said:

What do you mean by make it to inauguration?

The inauguration of Biden.  Trump will be POTUS until Jan. 20, 2021 even if he loses. 

Considering our current trajectory on the pandemic, it's hard to imagine just how bad things may become by then, including the economy.

 

[Brad_ATX 13,654]

25 minutes ago, homersapien said:

The inauguration of Biden.  Trump will be POTUS until Jan. 20, 2021 even if he loses. 

Considering our current trajectory on the pandemic, it's hard to imagine just how bad things may become by then, including the economy.

 

Honestly, if Biden wins, those 60 or say days between the election and inauguration scare the living hell out of me.

[McLoofus 35,182]

5 minutes ago, Brad_ATX said:

Honestly, if Biden wins, those 60 or say days between the election and inauguration scare the living hell out of me.

This is my fear, also. I'm not sure the specifics of yours but I do not expect trump to accept defeat... well, I don't expect him to accept defeat at all. And I'm scared of what mechanisms he has at his disposal to make things very bad or even invalidate the election itself. 

[Brad_ATX 13,654]

4 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

This is my fear, also. I'm not sure the specifics of yours but I do not expect trump to accept defeat... well, I don't expect him to accept defeat at all. And I'm scared of what mechanisms he has at his disposal to make things very bad or even invalidate the election itself. 

That's not my fear.  I'm much more concerned about the mountain of crap he could start over those 60 days.  Either diplomatically around the world or economically here in the states.  I think he'd be care free enough to not give any concern at all to his decisions, which could be hugely detrimental.

[McLoofus 35,182]

3 minutes ago, Brad_ATX said:

That's not my fear.  I'm much more concerned about the mountain of crap he could start over those 60 days.  Either diplomatically around the world or economically here in the states.  I think he'd be care free enough to not give any concern at all to his decisions, which could be hugely detrimental.

So why are you waiting until November to be scared? Kidding, I guess...

[auburn41 492]

2 hours ago, McLoofus said:

This is my fear, also. I'm not sure the specifics of yours but I do not expect trump to accept defeat... well, I don't expect him to accept defeat at all. And I'm scared of what mechanisms he has at his disposal to make things very bad or even invalidate the election itself. 

Wow, what would happen if he changed the rules of how intelligence was handled, and "unmasked" high Biden officials and leaked all kinds of information to a sycophantic press, and then in addition to spying on the Biden campaign, implemented an "insurance policy" involving the FBI to try and bring the Biden administration to its knees?  Oh wait........

[homersapien 11,446]

3 hours ago, Brad_ATX said:

That's not my fear.  I'm much more concerned about the mountain of crap he could start over those 60 days.  Either diplomatically around the world or economically here in the states.  I think he'd be care free enough to not give any concern at all to his decisions, which could be hugely detrimental.

That raises an interesting question: 

We know what happens when Trump gives "concern" to his decisions, so might it not be better for the country if he gave no concern at all?

Seriously, I wouldn't be surprised if those 60 days are spent fighting his efforts to void the election.  I just don't see him accepting defeat and departing gracefully.

 

[McLoofus 35,182]

30 minutes ago, homersapien said:

That raises an interesting question: 

We know what happens when Trump gives "concern" to his decisions, so might it not be better for the country if he gave no concern at all?

Seriously, I wouldn't be surprised if those 60 days are spent fighting his efforts to void the election.  I just don't see him accepting defeat and departing gracefully.

The guy lives to circumvent rules. Not only is he unscrupulous, but he is aggressively antiscrupulous. It's a concern.