The Coronavirus as Policy Opportunity?
Ben Gelman, Co-Head of Research, Policy Punchline Podcast
Ben Gelman
Even before the coronavirus pandemic, there was an ongoing debate in American society about whether our issues stem from adjustable quirks and flaws in our economic and societal systems, or whether America needs massive and formative changes in order to remedy crippling economic inequality and re-orient our policy priorities to focus more on the needs of the poorest Americans. This debate over whether or not we need “revolution” was the source of much of the disagreement during the Democratic Primary, and this controversy has now spilled into the debate over how the U.S. ought to respond to the outbreak.
Instead of an intra-party debate within the Democrats however, this iteration of the conversation has surrounded the diverging Democrat and Republican responses to the pandemic. Messaging from Democrats on this topic has typically included supporting social distancing measures as a means of slowing the spread of the disease and mitigating the economic damage through supporting businesses and employees with progressive government spending programs, such as reducing student loan payments and increasing unemployment insurance payments. Progressive stalwart Senator Elizabeth Warren even laid out 8 demands for companies seeking a government bailout, including a guaranteed $15 minimum wage, banning stock buybacks, and ensuring that companies get shareholder approval for political spending.
On the Republican side, relief measures have been proposed, yet have been criticized by Democrats for prioritizing corporate bailouts over the individuals hardest hit by the pandemic. Progressives have criticized the historic 2.2 trillion dollar relief package as not containing enough protections for workers, prioritizing corporate bailouts with little oversight, and not going far enough in limiting stock buybacks and preventing layoffs. Republicans have countered that Democrats are using the emergency as a political opportunity to pass policy measures such as economic reform and expanded voting rights, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell saying “This is not a juicy political opportunity. This is a national emergency.” McConnell also assailed House Majority Whip James Clyburn for noting that “‘this is a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision.’”
The criticism seems to be that Democrats are focusing too much on using the pandemic to advance a grandiose progressive policy agenda. This prompts interesting political and philosophical questions about the line between a legitimate response to the situation that has the best interests of the American people in mind and cynical attempts to use the crisis to advance unrelated policy proposals. The Republican perception, or at least their accusation, is that Democrats are looking to solidify long term changes to the U.S. economic and healthcare system through their coronavirus response.
However, this tactic is not without precedent in American history. Many entitlement reforms that we now take for granted, such as the New Deal, were originally born out of economic crises such as the Great Depression. That crisis both necessitated massive spending programs in order to resuscitate the economy and taught the U.S. valuable lessons about how government action can reduce economic damage. Now essential programs such as Social Security as well as the establishment of worker protections helped end the Depression and prevent future economic downturns. In contrast, the incrementalist, business-as-usual attitude that Republicans seem to expect from Democrats today would not have alleviated the Great Depression. In fact, President Hoover’s preference for small government and unwillingness to provide relief exacerbated and elongated the Depression. This attitude was not helpful then, nor will it help us now. Desperate times call for the re-thinking of American economic and healthcare priorities, in order to both soften the blow of our current downturn and prevent the next one.
What’s more, the Republican attitude toward the outbreak has given the American people plenty of reason to doubt their ability to take the crisis seriously and respond accordingly. President Trump has completely dropped the ball on this crisis, as he has repeatedly dismissed the severity of the threat, which slowed the U.S. response time and enabled the early proliferation of the coronavirus. Additionally. Trump and some other Republicans’ insistence that the U.S. economy should be unfrozen within a few weeks, and that older Americans might be willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the U.S. economy, has clearly demonstrated either their ignorance of to the gravity of the situation or their shocking dismissiveness of the potentially catastrophic death toll that might emerge if Americans followed their suggestions. If Democratic proposals cross the line into political opportunism, at least this strategy recognizes the severity of the pandemic and may lead to some actual relief.
This is not to say that one should not be critical of these Democratic ideas. But the fact that they aim to address large-scale, structural problems is not a flaw, it’s the entire point, and stands in sharp contrast to the conservative suggestion that Americans act as if this public health crisis will disappear on its own. Coronavirus is exposing the cracks in American society: our lack of universal health coverage will prevent many from seeking treatment; our weak social safety net will shift the brunt of this economic slowdown to the poorest working Americans; and our lack of a functional federal bureaucracy and presidential leadership has slowed our response time and encouraged the viruses’ spread. There has perhaps been no better time for radical action.
References:
https://www.vox.com/2020/3/23/21191244/nancy-pelosi-house-democrats-coronavirus-stimulus-bill
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/15/world/europe/coronavirus-inequality.html
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/03/why-coronavirus-testing-us-so-delayed/607954/
https://newrepublic.com/article/157044/republican-plot-save-rich
https://www.history.com/news/new-deal-effects-great-depression