WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st May, 2020) Handing out money to the needy, managing industries through government decrees, commandeering supplies. It's not communism, just the United States fighting coronavirus.
A young couple from the state of Virginia both had their jobs wiped out by nationwide lockdowns. They were amazed to discover that their household income, totally dependent on unemployment benefits now, has actually increased and are having second thoughts about early reemployment.
"We indeed have a higher income now than when we worked, so..." the couple tells Sputnik.
He receives $1,150 weekly, she gets $800, and as icing on the cake came two $1,200 checks signed by President Donald Trump, a one-time federal assistance to most US taxpayers.
'TO EACH ACCORDING TO HIS NEEDS'
Anecdotal evidence is well supported by labor statistics. The data quoted by The Wall Street Journal suggest that about half of all American workers are better off when laid off - earning on average $978 a week compared to $957 of their full time salary in the first quarter of 2020. Unemployment benefits through July 31 include a $600 weekly boost under coronavirus stimulus laws.
The package, meant to finance disease fighting efforts, support the world's largest economy throughout its halt and ensure it's up for a swift rebound. It is worth over $2 trillion with about twice as much available from the Federal Reserve System.
Small businesses alone were provided with two rounds of paycheck protection loans, close to $700 billion of a combined worth, forgivable if owners retain their workforce during a lockdown.
Around 175 million Americans are eligible for direct payments - around $1,200 per person or $3,400 per an average family of four, an extra cushion for some and a lifeline for many. The US government, routinely criticized for neglecting most common social security practices, has unfolded an extensive emergency safety net which includes measures like a temporary ban on evictions or greater affordability of healthcare with flexible insurance options and conditional offers to reimburse coronavirus treatment costs.
The White House, eager to see the country open, declared that the pandemic passed its peak and devised federal guidance to jumpstart the nation's economy which has lost over 30 million jobs and shrank by 4.8 percent in the first quarter. Over 30 states have already embarked on the path back to normalcy with Trump turning a blind eye to their non-compliance with the federal "gating criteria" - at least 14 days of decline in disease cases.
US President Donald Trump has promised a "phenomenal" 2021 after a "very good" forth quarter and a transitional third one.
Inspired apparently by the New Deal, Franklin Roosevelt's bid to pull the economy out of the Great Depression, Trump advocates another $2 trillion package, which would include massive investment into rebuilding national infrastructure, stimulating growth and creating jobs.
When coronavirus broke out and it became increasingly clear that a free market economy driven by a supply and demand equilibrium is helpless to cope with a calamity of such a magnitude, Trump didn't hesitate long before invoking his war time powers having very little to do with laissez faire.
He used the Defense Production Act to force private companies across the country to manufacture ventilators, essential for treating coronavirus patients, face masks and testing kits. He signed regulations to counter hoarding and price gouging, directed federal agencies to detain exports of vital protective medical equipment.
In late March, a New York-based Russian journalist ordered face masks online to mitigate risks of working in the world's major coronavirus hotspot. He received instead a letter informing that the goods were "intercepted and expropriated after delivery."
There is a debate in the US expert community - whether big government is a new American normal or it will be rolled back as soon as the outbreak is over.
In a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC news poll, voters of both Republican and Democratic parties said by a 2-to-1 margin that they approve of the expansion of government's role in the economy to meet the crisis.
Initial fears proved exaggerated. The disease never overwhelmed the US healthcare system, leaving it with tens of thousands of excess ventilators and hundreds of empty beds in makeshift hospitals hastily erected by military engineers in New York, Seattle, Los Angeles, Detroit. However, the world's richest country has the worst coronavirus record with over 60,000 fatalities and more than a million overall cases.
Repelling questions if a president with more citizens killed by the disease than people perished during the Vietnam War deserves the second term, the White House pursues two major strategies of defense. Trump puts statistics into perspective and blames China.
Actual number of deaths pales against initial projections ranging from 100,000 to 2 million and sounds like a big success of mitigation measures.
On a daily basis Trump, his administration officials and conservative media accuse China of covering up and mismanaging the outbreak at its initial stages when the pandemic was still preventable.
"This plague should never have happened. It could have been stopped, but people chose not to stop it," this is how Trump now starts his public appearances.
The US investigates the source and circumstances of the disease and, according to the Washington Post, already discusses a strategy to seek retaliatory measures against China. On a lower level, the state of Missouri filed a lawsuit against the Chinese government and Communist Party demanding compensation for damages.
Trump also ordered to halt the World Health Organization funding. He alleges that its reliance on false data from China and erroneous early instructions may have caused a 20-fold increase in coronavirus cases worldwide.
Trump makes sure to address the nation in person at least once a day, projecting optimism, crushing opponents and together with his team of experts going into finer details of medical and economic response.
His briefings are notorious for bickering with skeptical media and occasional gaffes, like an unorthodox suggestion to bring sunlight inside human body or inject disinfectants to kill coronavirus.
Scores of medics scrambled to warn the public of the lethal danger of such attempts and Trump had to downplay it as a "sarcastic" remark.
