Trump Resists Pressure to Force Companies to Make Coronavirus Supplies

[SunSeeker]

Source: NY Times

President Trump and his advisers are resisting calls from congressional Democrats and a growing number of governors to use a federal law to mobilize industry to provide badly needed resources to help halt the spread of the coronavirus, days after the president said he would consider using that authority.

The Defense Protection Act grants presidents extraordinary powers to force American industries to produce medical supplies, materials and equipment that health care workers say are in dire shortage in hospitals across the country.

“We’re talking about a president who is basically doing what Herbert Hoover did at the beginning of the Depression and minimizing the danger and refusing to use available federal action, and people are going to die, and they shouldn’t, they don’t have to, if we could get the support that we’re asking for,” he said in an interview with WNYC on Friday.

The president’s advisers say they see the role of the federal government as facilitator, as opposed to chief producer and a national governor. They have tried to encourage states to get by with what they can, suggesting there will be support from the federal government but that this shouldn’t be the first option. And they have hoped that private companies will be spurred to increase production by the president’s statements.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/20/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-supplies.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage

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Without masks, our medical providers will get sick, and we'll have nobody to run the ventilators, which we don't have enough of. The body count will be horrific. And it's all because of "conservative principles."

[secondwind]

1. K&R for visibility

[procon]

2. He's scared that such an order will threaten his chance

of re-election. It's pure socialism, after all, the state nationalizing businesses to help people sure isn't the definition of capitalism.

His state endorsed propaganda media and their celebrity hosts will rip him apart and his fans will eat him alive.

[SunSeeker]

3. His fans sure like the idea of getting those government checks. nt

[kimbutgar]

4. He is no leader and he's stalling because he's trying to find a way to monetize this pandemic

Last edited Fri Mar 20, 2020, 10:25 PM - Edit history (1)

For his profit. You watch every firm that gets a contract will have a kickback to him and his children.

[BigmanPigman]

14. Bingo!

[Haggis for Breakfast]

20. Canadian PM Trudeau's government has just done this.

Canadians are all over this. It is embarrassing that we are all sitting here while our fucking moron in charge is more worried about his properties and golf courses around the globe than the people of this country.

[jmowreader]

23. Which is one reason Trump imposed the DPA on General Motors

GM wouldn't give Trump the vigorish he demanded, so he's going to make them lose a lot of money on these ventilators.

[Fiendish Thingy]

5. Seems this should be an impeachable offence

Impeach the bastard again, send it to the Senate for a quick up or down vote - I bet Trump would do a 180 and use the War Powers ACT to get more ventilators in the pipeline before the senate could vote.

[lagomorph777]

6. I hardly think they'll have to be forced. If the gov't wants to buy something, they'll make it.

All Turd has to do is authorize funds to states so they can buy the stuff.

[Lonestarblue]

7. At the same time as states are trying to buy supplies, the federal government is outbidding them.

Here’s an article from Business Insider about states trying to buy supplies only to learn that the federal government was paying suppliers more money, thus depriving states of desperately protective gear.

https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-trump-outbid-states-on-medical-supplies-2020-3?op=1

“The federal government is outbidding states on orders of critical medical equipment necessary to aid patients and protect medical professionals from coronavirus, even though President Donald Trump has repeatedly insisted states get their own supplies.

During a conference call with governors on Thursday, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker told Trump his state was denied three major orders of equipment because the federal government had outbid him.”

How are states supposed to buy supplies when the federal government is outbidding them? Trump says the government isn't in the business of supplying states, yet he’s denying them access. What is going on here?

There’s another article at Business Insider with the headline “The Trump administration is working with the healthcare startup founded by Jared Kushner’s brother to power a coronavirus tool.” The article is behind a pay wall, so I haven’t read it. Given the corruption in this family, I suspect the worse.

[Rebl2]

19. This is

so disgusting! He demands states get their own supplies and then the fucked up federal government outbids them!

[marble falls]

8. Of course he won't do it. That would demonstrate another of bankruptcies - Leadership.

[flamingdem]

9. Let's hope this disproves any "conservative principles"

Sad it had to come to this

[GeorgeGist]

10. He's holding the country hostage ...

What are his demands?

[Dem2theMax]

11. Let me take a shot at this.

All of his rich friends have access to everything they need. Tests? Check. The greatest healthcare? Check. Cozy place to live while this is going on? Check. Abundance of food? Check.

He has to wait till those of us who don't have these things, die. You know, all the people he doesn't like. The elderly, the poor, the people who are not white, the immigrants, the list goes on and on.

Once he can kill off enough of us from that second paragraph, then he'll order all the supplies needed.

There is no punishment severe enough for what Trump and the GOP are doing to us.

[maddogesq]

12. Let George Carlin tell it...

[Dem2theMax]

15. Three utterly brilliant minutes of truth.

Too bad we can't put that on TV. Every channel, every night, until everyone gets it.

[Cha]

13. Why is trumpHoover so Damn Stupid?!

[SunSeeker]

16. Because, as this PSA explains, he's a malignant shitfunnel.

[Cha]

17. KICK for PSA!

Mahalo, SunSeeker~StaySafe!

[MFGsunny]

22. + 1000 n/t

[not fooled]

18. He's got heriturd fuckdation bots whispering in his ear

to reinforce their crackpot ideal of a weak Federal government. I don't think red don came in to this with any ideology but the White House is crammed with 666koch666 bots using him to enact their radical ideology of destroying the Federal government. This is how it plays out. Better to kill off a few million peasants than destroy their chance of seeing their dream of a weak Federal government come to fruition.

[captain jack]

21. Worried about votes. Yeah, cause we won't notice all the dead and unemployed come November. nt