Americans hit by economic shocks as confusion, stumbles undermine Trump's stimulus effort

[Zorro]

The Trump administration has stumbled in its initial push to implement the $2 trillion coronavirus aid package, with confusion and fear mounting among small businesses, workers and the newly unemployed since the bill was signed into law late last month.

Small-business owners have reported delays in getting approved for loans without which they will close their doors, while others say they have been denied altogether by their lenders and do not understand why. The law’s provision to boost unemployment benefits has become tangled in dated and overwhelmed state bureaucracies, as an unprecedented avalanche of jobless Americans seeks aid.

Officials at the Internal Revenue Service have warned that $1,200 relief checks may not reach many Americans until August or September if they haven’t already given their direct-deposit information to the government. Taxpayers in need of answers from the IRS amid a rapidly changing job market are encountering dysfunctional government websites and unresponsive call centers that have become understaffed as federal workers stay home.

Adding to the confusion were several last-minute changes enacted by federal officials to cornerstones of the relief effort, including a revision to the rules of the small-business loan program hours before it went live and the late cancellation of a requirement that Social Security recipients file a tax form before receiving their relief checks.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/05/americans-hit-by-economic-shocks-confusion-stumbles-undermine-trumps-stimulus-effort/

[procon]

1. Trump's incompetence is on full display.

He's screwed up every thing related to how we are handling this pandemic. He's more concerned about his TV ratings that the numbers of Americans who are dying. He's so afraid of being seen as weak and impotent that it's affected his ability to govern.

He's still refusing to take any responsibility for his own orders, let alone what his administration has done, and not done. Maybe his cultists will continue to look the other way and disbelieve their own lying eye, but a reckoning is coming. When Trump's incompetence trickles down on this fans and hit their interests, maybe they'll see Trump as the foolish braggart he's always been.

[SWBTATTReg]

2. Ditto. Everything he touches, dies. Simple as that. NT

[sop]

3. Even under the best of circumstances, this stimulus would be difficult to implement.

But, given the culture of instability and incompetence Trump has purposely created, always selecting the least capable person to head agencies and emphasizing personal loyalty over performance, this is going to be an absolute train wreck.

Obama was bitterly attacked for glitches in the ACA rollout, but he at least admitted the mistakes and corrected them. Knowing Trump, he'll pretend everything's perfect from the start, avoid all responsibility, blame the media and personally attack anyone who questions him.