Email of the Week (v17), With a Twist

THE LITTLE GARDEN IN THE VALLEY

SYRACUSE

NOTICE DATE: April 30, 2020

NOTICE NUMBER: URA0,45 (EN)

Donald J Trump

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington DC 20500

Your Self-serving Letter Has Arrived

My Fellow American:

As you noted in your email, “our great country is experiencing an unprecedented public health and economic challenge as a result of the global coronavirus pandemic.” I must say, I’m surprised you didn’t call it the ‘Chinese’ coronavirus pandemic, or the ‘Wuhan’ coronavirus pandemic; maybe someone convinced you, finally, that your rhetoric was dangerous, and perhaps ‘inspiring’ attacks on Asian Americans across our country?

What a chuckle I had reading you say “our top priority” is my health and safety. I mean, my top priority is my health and safety, but we all know your top priority is you. After all, 

• Isn’t that why your name is being put on the Economic Impact Payment checks?  
• And isn’t that why this letter is coming from you, not from the IRS, as was done in the past? 
• And isn’t that why your recent press conference/campaign rallies have been so egocentric, filled with your nearly 600 self-congratulatory comments (and over 100 comments blaming others), not to mention the multiple obligatory “Mr. President” callouts from every speaker?

In the midst of this unprecedented public health challenge, it was hard to miss you, the vice president, your daughter and her family, and other members of your administration repeatedly ignoring the guidance issued by your own experts. Good thing you didn’t have to spend a lot of time greeting “presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens,” over the past several weeks. And it was a good thing that most people ignored the example you set, and instead followed the guidelines to help slow the spread and flatten the curve.

We received our stimulus payment two weeks ago, making the letter telling us what we’d be getting, and how, even less meaningful than it would have been had it come from the IRS (as it should have) in advance. 

Given how much attention you pay to the news, particularly news about you and your administration, you should have known that it was widely reported in the “lamestream media” and of course on the Trump News Network how the payments would go out, how to find out the status of the payment, and who to contact in case of questions. In addition to the traditional media coverage, there have been ample notifications about this payment across multiple social media platforms, financial institution notifications, on the IRS website, and other outlets as well.

In keeping with your efforts “to protect hard-working Americans…from the consequences of the economic shutdown,” I believe it would be appropriate for your campaign committee to absorb the costs of this self-serving and wasteful letter.

In these challenging economic times, it’s disrespectful for you to spend our money tooting your horn.

Sunday School Extra Credit 4/26/20

As I noted in yesterday's Sunday School, the classrooms were full of folks ready, willing and able to talk. Today, for extra credit, I want to hear from some folks not on the 'usual suspects' list. 

We've got Kevin Hassett, a senior economic advisor in the Trump administration talking with George Stephanopoulos This Week, and Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan and San Francisco Mayor London Breed talking with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation,  We'll take them in that order. 

They started out talking about a 'v-shaped' recovery, which happens when there's a strong, fast, consumer-driven recovery after a sharp decline. Some folks, including Apple CEO Tim Cook, have predicted this is what we might see, while others disagree. Hassett says that folks will be aiming for that kind of recovery, and will need to work out how to get there, given that Dems and Reps have their own thoughts on that. And I guess whether the recovery is v-shaped or not, 

But make no mistake: it's a really grave situation, George. This is the biggest negative shock that our economy, I think, has ever seen. We're going to be looking at an unemployment rate that approaches rates that we saw during the Great Depression.

We're losing as many jobs every ten days or so as were lost during the Great Recession, so there's a lot of work to be done. But, it's not impossible; Hassett pointed to sharp differences between what happened in the past vs. what's happening now.

...When President Obama was elected, it was middle of December when they started to have the stimulus bill discussions with Congress and it was the middle of February when they passed it. We just did a major, major bill in a week, and that's because basically people care more about their country than the sort of nastiness in Washington that's covered on the news every day.

Given that it's basically the same people in Congress, including the leaders, are we to believe they only learned to care for their country when Trump got in office? They only care when it's an election year? They only care that it's small businesses, actual people, instead of big banks and large corporations? The possible explanations are endless, I think - including that without the Ds, the Rs can't get it done, but only the Rs get invited to the signing ceremonies. Sorry - riding a huge cynical wave today.

When George pointed out that things might be starting to fray, particularly noting Mitch McConnell's comments about letting states file bankruptcy, Hassett said that a lot of money has gone to the states already, but that since "it feels like the Constitution doesn't allow" for state bankruptcies, everyone's going to have to work things out, and the feds are going to have to help out.

George moved to talking about the debt, noting that while Trump has said he's "open to more aid" for the states and local governments, and he wants infrastructure spending, the Rs are starting to worry about the debt, and he asked Hassett if he was also concerned about that.

Oh, for sure...I think the debt level in the U.S. has climbed up to the point where in the economics literature, we see that it can be a sort of long run negative for growth. And so, for me, I think that as we go into the next phase of legislation, we need to think about long run things that we can do to try to get ahead of the curve on debt. So, for sure we need to do still some short run things but I think looking at long run changes that we can make to things to improve the debt situation, you know, that should be something that should be on the table.

There are lots of problems out there  still,  so the bipartisan action we've seen so far is good but it's going to get ugly. And he says we've managed to dodge a bullet or two so far, given the general stability of the markets and other indicators. And, finally, on whether we're "anywhere close to a new normal anytime soon?" In a nutshell, if people reopen while following the guidelines from Drs. Birx and Fauci, "we can maybe start to get back to normal."

Sticking with the economy, here are highlights of Brennan's conversation with BoA's Moynihan, which started with a question on the sustainability of deferring payments for customers, now that we're only days away from a new month and new payments due. Moynihan said

We have a million and a quarter customers, 1.25 million customers are asked-- asked for a deferral of payments and that will continue to go on for the-- for the near future and into the fall.

He also pointed to other things they're doing, including participating in the PPP, fee-free cashing of stimulus checks for non-customers, $100M in charitable giving, and $350M in community development financial assistance.

Brennan wondered about the next round of PPP, specifically whether mom-and-pops would have a better chance at getting help. Moynihan said that the first round they spend "largely went to small businesses" and that the next round, as long as there's funding for the program, everyone will get assistance. He also said 25% of the small businesses they help are in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods,and that they don't have more applications already than they can support with the new funding, around $50B worth. He also said

...I think it's clear that between Congress and the administration and the American people, we need to get all these funded and not make this a footrace. Just get the work done and get it through. And the work has to be done in a way that is-- supports American taxpayers who will ultimately pay for this and also gets the small business the money and gets the-- and has them pay their employees, which is a goal of the program.

On what things look like going forward, he sees "a deep recession environment in the second quarter, a less deep in the third quarter and then growth in the fourth quarter." And, he said, "our experts think it's late next year when the economy gets back to the same size it was prior to this." He does see some growth in consumer spending in certain areas, which is helpful - and he points to the stimulus payments, the PPP, unemployment insurance (which was bumped up by an extra $600 for four months) and the $1200 checks helping in that regard.

I was very interested in Brennan's next conversation; after all, the real battle against COVID-19 takes place at the local level, and everything is more personal there. San Francisco's Mayor Breed was the first to issue a shelter in place order, and he's added a mask order on top of that. Brennan wondered what he's seeing that others might not be.

It seems there are still many challenges, the biggest of which is making sure they look at the data and the facts from the public health experts, so they can make good decisions. But, he added

The challenges that we face still around PPE, around testing kits is just absolutely insane. We have known that this crisis was coming to our country for a long time now, and the fact that as of April, we're still having the same conversations about the challenges. I know that most cities are seeing the same data I'm seeing that if we do absolutely nothing, it gets worse. And so that's really why we have been really a lot more aggressive maybe than-- than other areas because we wanted to make sure that it doesn't.

His city could be overwhelmed - not enough beds, ICU rooms, or ventilators - if they do nothing or if they had done nothing, and that's the kind of thing "which should alarm any mayor in any city."

Brennan asked about the difficulty getting PPE, about some of it being diverted, and why he has such a hard time getting it. He said he had a shipment, things they had purchased from China, that were diverted to France, and that FEMA has confiscated some things as well. Customs is an issue - some stuff needs to come in via ship not plane, for example - and they've had to be really resourceful to get what they need.

But the fact is, this should be a federal coordinated effort. We should not still be having these conversations, which is a big reason why we have to put these shelter-in-place orders because we don't have the resources that we need to keep people safe, especially around testing.

They also talked about the news that the first COVID-19 death was someone from the Bay area, back on February 6th. Breed said it gives an indication that they really didn't have good facts when they first started announcing numbers. He mentioned his state's desire to do more testing of people who passed away earlier to determine if they were positive for the virus, citing a case originally not classified as a COVID-19 death until they found out that another person in the household was positive, and then testing confirmed that what they thought was a death due to heart attack was a positive case.

Brennan asked about the China travel ban, and how that might have impacted his city. Interestingly, he said they had been monitoring things since December, trying to prepare for what might happen there. Off the top of my head, I'm not sure I've seen that other cities had done so - and we know from reporting that there was less than optimal attention being paid nationally that early.

We set in place a declaration of emergency back in February. We operated our emergency operations center because of those relationships between people who live in San Francisco and their relatives and their friends in various parts of China. And we had experienced, sadly, a lot of xenophobia against our Chinese community early on. I mean, basically, Chinatown was a ghost town in the month of January. And so, we had been keeping an eye on this--and making adjustments in order to prepare our city for what we knew was actually coming here.

Breed said it's likely that the shelter-in-place order, set to expire on Sunday, will be continued. The most recent data from the San Francisco Chronicle shows that the Bay Area has had 7,499 cases and 260 deaths. For the city of San Francisco, the counts are 1,424 cases and 23 deaths.

So - three perspectives: an administration guy, a big banker, and a city mayor. The one thing that's clear in this Extra Credit? No one thinks we're done yet.

We're not done fighting the virus, we're not done fighting the bureaucracy, we're not done with efforts to keep small businesses alive, and we're not really anywhere near done with the economic impact.

And, of course, we're not done washing our hands, wearing our masks, and keeping our distance.

See you around the virtual campus.

Sunday School 4/26/20

Holy moly, the classrooms were packed today! I'll fit in what I can, and the rest will flow over into an Extra Credit post, sound good?

Stacey Abrams, the woman who has made it clear she wants to be Joe Biden's veep. was on with Chuck Todd on Meet the Press, as was Dr. Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.  Here are highlights of those discussions, starting with Abrams.

If she were governor of Georgia, it seems clear she would not have reopened until there was more testing and a reduced infection rate; she said reopening before those were in place "wrongheaded," noting the state's "14th highest infection rate and 7th slowest testing rate."  In response to Todd's question on how she'd "launch a national testing strategy" if she were in charge of the federal government. She likes what Congress is doing with the investment in testing, and funding for folks in the trenches,

But I would also be encouraging states like Georgia and the other southern states and Midwestern states that have refused to expand Medicaid to do so immediately. Part of testing is making sure people trust that they can go and be tested. And right now, there is an inadequate equipment, an inadequate strategy. We should increase production. We should make certain it's not simply the testing that's available but the mechanics, the swabs, the vials. And that we are funding people on the front-lines to do this work, to put themselves in harm's way, to make sure we can test, trace and track.

After some discussion on what skills a Biden VP should have, or what that person should bring to the table, she was asked if she thought it'd be a mistake if Papa Joe didn't pick a woman of color.

I think President, a President Biden will do what he has always done, which is respect and value communities of color. I think he understands that black communities and people of color are vital to the success of the Democratic Party. And I think he's going to pick the right person. I, of course, think that a woman of color can bring certain attributes. We have to lift up marginalized communities, communities that do not trust that they will be served because they’ve been the hardest hit by this pandemic.. And so, yes, having a woman of color on the ticket will help promote not only diversity, but trust. But I trust Joe Biden to pick the person he thinks is the right running mate for him.

And yes, of course, she's still interested in the position. 

Moving on to Osterholm, there was a lot of talk about testing. He said that "our government is not working with private sector companies," that "we have the wild wild west for testing right now. The FDA has all but given up its oversight responsibility," and that, "if you were to test for antibody in most places in the US, over half the tests would be false positives."

So what we need is a major, new initiative on testing that gets away from every day just saying how many people get tested. We're missing the mark in a big way right now.

Using the Defense Production Act to force companies to make what we need to be able to use the available testing capacity is part of the answer, but "we're competing against the world for the reagents" and we've not been clear what we want or need. We have "too much happy talk" and we need a "strategic plan that lays out why we are going to use the test, how we are going to use the test, when will it be available?" And finally, on which will come first, herd immunity or a vaccine, he said we'll have the former if we don't get the latter, but that he thinks "we have a better chance of a vaccine than some." 

Next up? Senator Amy Klobuchar, talking with George Stephanopoulos on This Week. She supports what Minnesota's governor is doing as far as stating to reopen things, as he's "been very careful and listened to the doctors and scientists" and they still have stay-at-home orders in place. And, like others who made the rounds today, she lamented the lack of a national strategy and "that there is an absence of national leadership." 

She said Dems are going to keep pushing for funds for state and local governments which are being hit so hard with all of this.  Short term, the goal is to get the state/local money; long term, it's "how we're going to make a steady economy so we can once again lead in the world. And we're not going to do it with this president."

And, does she think Minnesota is in play for November? 

No, I don't think Minnesota is in play because we want a real leader in the White House, and I am -- you know, the whole Midwest, when you look at what's happening with our biofuel plants, with our commodities, with what's happening with our poultry, this is not a good situation, and the president, in my mind, has never done enough when it comes to rural America, and now as they would say, the chickens coming home to roost and you have seen some real problems with people having to kill their chickens literally, because of what is going on right now with our rural economy. 

And finally, Dr. Deborah Birx and Jake Tapper on CNN's State of the Union. Their conversation started on testing, and why it's "taking so long" to fix things such as the shortage of nasal swabs, not enough people or equipment at labs, and so on.

Birx said in the beginning, there was only one platform for the labs, but now there are "six or seven platforms that they have to integrate" in order to use the capacity we have. Tapper asked about how our capitalist system - he's "glad we have it" - there isn't any financial incentive for companies to "do things out of the goodness of their hearts" and can't we use the DPA here to make sure the testing supplies get made?

Like others in the administration, Birx said that Trump has used the DPA, but didn't specify how it was being used here. Instead, she focused on what the FDA is doing behind the scenes to "unlock capacity day after day after day." (Trump himself has often tweeted about 'invoking the D but it in fact it's been used more as leverage than as a directive, which is what folks have asked for.)

She also noted that so much of what we need, from PPE to ventilators to testing supplies are not made in the USA,

And I think this is really a wakeup call for all of America to really ensure that we have internal capacity, because everybody's supply chains are very stressed right now... And so there's amazing positives, but there's also a real analysis of, after we move through this into the summer months, to really ensure that we have more vibrant internal, at least Northern Hemisphere and North America, supply chains that we can count on.

On concerns about seeing a surge in cases and deaths in states that are relaxing their stay-at-home orders but aren't following the Administration's guidelines. she said she's "always concerned" and said that's why they put out "key, key gating criteria" which included a focus on protecting health care workers and hospital capacity, and other things too. Basically, she gave a very detailed response which illustrated the point of Tapper's question - and he was not shy about pointing that out, either.

He said it seems like the states are on their own, and mentioned a CDC web site that's still not up and running with critical information on contact tracing, and asked if she thought states are ready to do what they're doing. given there's little evidence that they're meeting the gating criteria.

Her answer? Well, in a nutshell, CDC is doing more, but more importantly she spoke to all the ways that state and local officials are doing more, too. And they're sharing information with each other, and with CDC, and everyone is learning together.

We have never had to do this before as a country. And so we're learning, as a federal government, how to better support the states, and the states are learning how to share critical information about how we work through this together.

Not sure anyone should feel more confident about the states jumping early, without even meeting the case, death, and hospitalization metrics, much less the rest of it. But maybe it's just me.

They also talked about antibodies, and what we don't know about immunity; Birx said that the WHO is being cautious when they talk about that stuff. She thinks that all the data that's being collected by CDC, which is studying antibodies, and by the hospitals that are using plasma from recovered patients, the data is what's going to tell us what we need to know about antibodies.

I think what WHO was saying, we don't know how long that effective antibody lasts. And I think that is a question that we have to explore over the next few months and over the next few years. But I think everything that the WHO said should be happening, we're doing here in the United States to help the American people.

And finally, Tapper asked her "what should Americans know about disinfectants and the human body?" She defended the president, point to a "dialogue" he was having with the DHS guy, but that she made it clear to Trump - and he understood - that "it was not a treatment." She pointed to the DHS study as being important, and helpful in our understanding "how we can effectively create decontamination in different environments."

What bothered her about all of this - the scurrying to issue statements to protect Americans who might have acted on what the president was musing about - was not what he said, or that he said it. Rather, she's concerned that people are still taking about that, and not talking about all of the things that we're seeing that other countries didn't see - she mentioned a few of them - and that we need to have information so we can protect ourselves and each other. She wants us to move on,

to be able to get information to the American people that can help them protect each other and also help them understand how devastating this virus is to different age groups and different symptoms and different comorbidities.

If he would only let the task force do that, and if he wouldn't argue with his experts on camera, and if he wouldn't provide support to people who are ignoring his own guidelines, we might be at exactly the place Dr. Birx wants us to be in.

Lots to digest here, and I can assure you it's better digested from a safe social distance with nice clean hands.

See you around the virtual campus. 

In Case You Missed it (v33)

How was last week for you? Did it go by in a minute, or did it take a month or two?

Mine flew by, trying to figure out what the heck the pols are doing and why, researching and drafting posts, and actually publishing a few.

I spent Sunday morning listening to Mike Pence not answering questions in two Sunday School classrooms - Meet the Press and Fox News Sunday. I actually thought he might participate fully with Chris Wallace, but I was sorely mistaken.

The first question was related to the protests around the country where some of the protesters are ignoring social distancing, and what Pence thinks, specifically, of their protests and how they're being carried out. It took the VP 321 words to not answer this one. 

And that wasn't even his best effort - one impressive nonresponse on MTP was over 500 words...

I promised that I'd have House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in our Extra Credit post, and I threw in a dose of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, too. The Speaker was not as kind as Pence when referring to the president - no surprise there.

George started by asking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi what she thought of Trump's negative tweets about her, including that she's holding up the next round of relief funding.

Frankly I don't pay that much attention to the president's tweets against me. As I have said, he's a poor leader. He's always trying to avoid responsibility and assign blame.

Schumer talked with Jake Tapper on CNN's State of the Union, and while most of the conversation related to the pandemic, there was a curveball, too.

The last question? AOC, the pesky representative from Queens, "did not rule out" primarying Schumer in 2022, and Tapper wondered if the senator was confident he could beat her.

You'll have to check the post to see how the senator feels about that.

Next up was a Sidebar on small business funding and the Payroll Protection Plan; this post was in response to a comment Tapper made when talking with Schumer

...about the Payroll Protection Program, or PPP, having "run out of funding, as you know, because of provisions Democrats wanted to add" (emphasis mine) 

After doing some research and sharing some information on what happened with the PPP money, as well as some info on the CARES Act more generally, I said

In the back of my mind, I can hear someone saying "If you like your small business, you can keep your small business" and in the front of my mind, I remember this comment from the president at one of his rallies press conferences, responding to a question about restaurants.

I’ve heard 3 percent could be lost, and you could go as high as 10 or 11 percent, but they’ll all come back in one form of another. Might be a different restaurant. But it’s gonna be a great business for a lot of people. We’re making it easy for people — look, what we’re doing in terms of loans, what we’re doing in terms of salaries, they’ll all come back. It may not be the same restaurant, it may not be the same ownership, but they’ll all be back.

That very presidential comment will stick in my head for a long time. I hope it sticks in everyone else's too.

I did some wondering, but no typing, on Wednesday - to much to get my arms around.

Thursday brought us another entry in the Email of the Week series, which started when there were 20-some-odd Dems in the presidential race. Now that it's down to one, it's harder to maintain interest, but I dove in to Joe Biden emails anyway. Interestingly, that was the least-appreciated post of the week...

I'm thinking I'm not the only one who didn't know what Papa Joe's up to these days. I mean, did you know he's doing Facebook live things, and that he's got a podcast?

It’s called “Here’s the Deal” and the podcast gives listeners a voice of clarity during these uncertain times. You know that Vice President Biden is a leader with a calm and steady demeanor. And his podcast shines a light on those qualities, reminding us why he would make a great Commander-in-Chief.

Friday was a two-fer day. First up? I had a Quick Take on what passes for "full transparency" in the age of Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who was asked some question on that subject at one of pressers last week. Mnuchin assured us that "we have independent oversight. We supported it in the last legislation," not mentioning that Trump chose to ignore some of those requirements, reassigned the Inspector General who was to oversee the stimulus effort, and wants to install one of his impeachment lawyers in the role, but hey? No concerns there, right?

It's good that Mnuchin understands the importance of being open with us, though, and he even provided an example of his understanding for us to, you know, understand.

And let me just say, we put up last week, for full transparency — we had no obligation to do this.  We put up — you can go to Treasury.gov — full transparency on the money that had been sent out on the PPP across states, showing all the big lenders, how it was distributed.  No one lender did more than 4 percent.  Showed the businesses.

I went to the website, so you don't have to, and shared some of the "fully transparent" data in the post.

Later, it was time for our TGIF post, and it was a doozy, you see, because Trump's friend Piers Morgan unloaded on the president - and there's a transcript, so we know it's not fake news. Here's a sampling.

Donald Trump, if he's listening to this or watching, you will win the election in November if you get this right. If you stop making it about yourself and make it about the American people and show that you care about them over yourself, you will win. And, conversely, you will lose the election in November if you continue to make it about yourself, you continue playing silly politics, continue targeting Democrat governors because that suits you for your electoral purposes. None of that matters.

And of course, I covered disinfectants and lights - and I can assure you, while it was clear the president was serious, it's equally clear that I was not, in this little bit of Trump-speak I wrote, which started out

See, you go into the spray tan booth, but instead of spraying you gently with that orange dye, they'll turn up the pressure and blast you at the SAME time with both the UV light AND the disinfectant - at the same time, can you believe it?

You'll have to see how things end up - and be sure to read it in your best Trump voice - that really helps!

So - it was quite a veritable pastiche this week. Hope you enjoyed the week in review, and that you'll stop back later for Sunday School.

TGIF 4/24/20

Hey - look - another Friday. How about that?

We're going to take a slightly different path this week, because I happened to hear someone mention comments made by Piers Morgan about Donald Trump. I was fascinated by the paraphrasing of Morgan's remarks, and I was fortunate that there's a transcript.

Morgan, the person who was telling the story, is one of 47 accounts the president follows on Twitter -- so he's definitely part of the 'in crowd'.  Or, more accurately, he was of the in crowd, and he was one of the 47 lucky accounts Trump follows -- but not any more, at least not as I write this. Because now there are 46, and Morgan isn't one of them.

What did the Brit say that got appear to have gotten him in hot water? Among other things, that he has "been watching these daily briefings with mounting horror, frankly, because this is not what presidents should be doing."

Presidents, Morgan said, have to "be calm, they've got to show authority, they have to be honest, they have to be accurate, entirely factual with what they're telling the people and they have to have an ability to show empathy." And, "on almost every level of that, Donald Trump at the moment is failing the American people." 

It's important to note that Morgan's comments came before yesterday's allegedly joking, sarcastic comments from the president, which we'll get to in a sec.  But first, more Morgan.

Donald Trump's approval ratings are falling and the reason for that is -- he needs to understand this -- they're falling because people don't trust him. They think he's turning these rallies -- these daily briefings into self-serving rallies, and they don't understand why he can't just do the basics of crisis leadership, which is to make the public come with you, and to believe you, and to feel that you're on their side and you're showing them the empathy that they need when so many people are dying.

Attacking Trump's ratings? That's like the third rail of being a Trump friend, I think. But that wasn't all.

Donald Trump, if he's listening to this or watching, you will win the election in November if you get this right. If you stop making it about yourself and make it about the American people and show that you care about them over yourself, you will win. And, conversely, you will lose the election in November if you continue to make it about yourself, you continue playing silly politics, continue targeting Democrat governors because that suits you for your electoral purposes. None of that matters.

Now, it would appear that Morgan did not make these comments in jest, and it wasn't a really bad attempt at sarcasm. We know this, because he hasn't retracted the comments. And he won't. Because, well, because he has courage, and convictions.

Whereas the president has zero courage, zero convictions, and absolutely no sense of humor. Because apparently, when the backlash struck today, the comments below were said to have been sarcasm.

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you very much.  So I asked Bill a question that probably some of you are thinking of, if you’re totally into that world, which I find to be very interesting.  So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous — whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light — and I think you said that that hasn’t been checked, but you’re going to test it.  And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way, and I think you said you’re going to test that too.  It sounds interesting.

ACTING UNDER SECRETARY BRYAN:  We’ll get to the right folks who could.

THE PRESIDENT:  Right.  And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute.  One minute.  And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning.  Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs.  So it would be interesting to check that.  So, that, you’re going to have to use medical doctors with.  But it sounds — it sounds interesting to me. So we’ll see.  But the whole concept of the light, the way it kills it in one minute, that’s — that’s pretty powerful.

So, the official White House transcript shows that the president was addressing his remarks to Acting Undersecretary Bill Bryan, who "leads the Science and Technology Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security..." - and yet, here's what the president said today about those remarks.

I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen,

He's a liar, the president is, as we know. And he's proved that again, as he does regularly. There should be no doubt about that, although I can't imagine how there has been any doubt about that for the past nearly five years - or more.

So, how does all of this tie to our usual TGIF theme? Well, I 'm saying Piers Morgan had a good week, and the president had his typical week, which is usually a bad one. He's among the usual suspects for that dubious honor.

Now, in the interest of something that was actually intended as a joke, and is not true and is completely ridiculous, I offer these remarks, which are funnier if you read them with Trump's voice in your head.

See, you go into the spray tan booth, but instead of spraying you gently with that orange dye, they'll turn up the pressure and blast you at the SAME time with both the UV light AND the disinfectant - at the same time, can you believe it?

The spray will be SO POWERFUL that it will penetrate your skin, and the light will get in there, and the disinfectant will get in there, and it will be like a BEAUTIFUL cleanse - so important, doing the cleanse. Doing the cleanse. And think of it - your pores will be opened up just like our beautiful ECONOMY, the greatest economy EVER, they tell me. Best ever. Even bigger pores, even bigger economy than ever before, even bigger. So important.

And JOBS! Think of all the JOBS, good old American jobs, that's right! We'll buy American UV lightbulbs, made right here in the US, they're going to reopen the plants and make the bulbs, not the orange ones that make me look bad, the good ones, the great US made UV bulbs, only the best and we'll make the disinfectant too.

I can use the D, I'll invoke the D, like never before, nothing like this before, we'll get those factories, GM will get those old factories open again, the people working again, good American people, good American jobs for the bulbs and the spray and the disinfectant, the best in the world. So important, the best in the world. No one can make the bulbs and the disinfectant like we can. 

Like I always say, #BuyAmerican and #HireAmerican, so important, so beautiful. It's going to be beautiful, and clean, so clean. 

TGIF everyone - whether you're kidding, not kidding, being sarcastic, or just plain being honest. Which, as we know, is the best policy. As is washing your hands and keeping your distance. Even from nice people like me.

Quick Takes (v51): So Bright I've Gotta Wear Shades

"Let... the sun shine in, let... the sun shine in, the sun shine in!"

You know, transparency and stuff like that. Like, the government  after messing with the IGs appointed to give us transparency on the trillions of our dollars being spent on coronavirus stimulus packages.

The move follows several steps Trump has taken to combat oversight of the bailout fund. After signing the relief package into law last month, the president issued a signing statement saying he would not allow the special inspector general for the relief program to report to Congress without his supervision.

So, with that as background, let's look at an exchange from the White House coronavirus update (you may know them by their other name, Trump campaign rallies) the other day, on the subject of transparency. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin was asked

Mr. Secretary, given the size of the taxpayer dollars that are going out the door, have you fellas come to a different way of thinking about the need for oversight — independent oversight on behalf of the taxpayer?

Mnuchin's response? Here's the first part.

We have independent oversight. We supported it in the last legislation. Let me be very clear: We have a new inspector general. The President has already picked someone for that position. We look forward to the person being confirmed. We have an oversight committee of Congress that many of them have already been appointed.

 Yes, we look forward to the confirmation of someone who worked on the president's impeachment defense - much of which was based on not being transparent and not letting others be transparent, either - to be the IG of something about which the White House doesn't want transparency.

Now, the White House pointed out that Brian Miller, the White House lawyer tapped for the role, has previously been confirmed for an IG role in the General Services Administration. Dems, however, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, are not impressed.

This oversight position, which will be responsible for overseeing hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars, requires complete independence from the president and any other interested party to assure the American people that all decisions are made without fear or favor, To nominate a member of the president’s own staff is exactly the wrong type of person to choose for this position.

It's good that Mnuchin understand the importance of being open with us, though, and he even provided an example of his understanding for us to, you know, understand.

And let me just say, we put up last week, for full transparency — we had no obligation to do this.  We put up — you can go to Treasury.gov — full transparency on the money that had been sent out on the PPP across states, showing all the big lenders, how it was distributed.  No one lender did more than 4 percent.  Showed the businesses.

Well, if you tell me I can go to Treasury.gov and get a dose of full transparency, you can be sure I'm going to do that. Here's a link to the slide deck that Mnuchin referred to as an example of unobligated full transparency. Note that I had previously shared the slide on the distribution of loans by dollar amount in my Sidebar on Small Business Funding.

First, the slide that "showed the businesses." This slide showed the breakdown in number of loans, dollars, and percentage of total PPP dollars by NAIC subcategory. The top five?

1. Construction: 177,905 loans, over $44.9B, 13.12%
2. Prof/Scientific/Technical Svcs: 208,360 loans, over $43.2B, 12.65%
3. Manufacturing: 108,863 loans, over $40.9B, 11.96%
4. Health Care and Social Assistance: 183,542 loans, over $39.8B, 11.65%
5. Accommodation/Food Services: 183,542 loans, over $39.8B, 8.91%

I get that it would have been extremely difficult, in a slide deck, to provide more of a breakdown on the businesses, so the categories was reasonable as a first step - but there should be a sortable database made available providing much more data than that.

But the slide "showing all the big lenders" was anything but reasonable and anything but transparent. 

I'd guess that JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo are up there on the list, probably in the first two or three, but who are the rest of them? And who did they primarily lend to, by NAIC subcategory, or by size of the company, and who lended to the publicly traded companies? And what's the reason for withholding the names in the first place? Is that to prevent us from seeing which banks are collecting all the fees, and in effect, getting their own little bailout?

I know, I'm asking too much, aren't I? I mean, shouldn't I be satisfied by Mnuchin's final comments on this?

So, again, the President and I very much believe in full transparency.  We’re spending a lot of money, and we want to make sure that it’s done effectively and fairly.

No. I shouldn't be, and you shouldn't be either.

Email of the Week (v16)

It's been a busy week for the Biden camp, it has indeed.

I've received 18 emails from various senders acting on behalf of Papa Joe's campaign. There's Joe.Biden.com (4); Team Joe (2); Biden for President (4); Biden HQ(1); Biden 2020 (3); and just plain Joe Biden (4). Of course, all of the emails come from the same place - joebiden.com - but the tone is slightly different, ranging from the personal to the blatantly generic. And yes, there are a lot of requests for money included - no surprise there.

I had been wondering what the team was doing to keep Papa Joe out there, since he can't be on the campaign trail, and because he can't go on TV for an hour or more every day, babbling for the press on a whole host of subjects, some meaningful, some considerably less so.

There's a weekly newsletter, which covers current events, things on Joe's reading list, news on some of his plans, questions from voters, a place to catch his live streams, and more. And, there's a podcast - who knew? 

Have you listened to Joe Biden’s new podcast yet?

It’s called “Here’s the Deal” and the podcast gives listeners a voice of clarity during these uncertain times. You know that Vice President Biden is a leader with a calm and steady demeanor. And his podcast shines a light on those qualities, reminding us why he would make a great Commander-in-Chief.

We’ve also had some exciting special guests on our first six episodes, including Obama-Biden Administration Ebola Response Coordinator Ron Klain, Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, Writer Jon Meacham, Senator Amy Klobuchar, and most recently, Governor Jay Inslee!

Sue, we’re coming to you with the chance to submit your idea for who you would want to hear on a future episode of “Here’s the Deal.” So do you have an exciting special guest in mind? Submit their name right here »

SUBMIT NOW >>

Sue, whether you donate to our campaign, volunteer in your community, or are a vocal supporter for Joe Biden and plan to vote for him this fall, you give so much to our campaign.

So we want to make sure that we are giving back to you however we can during this unusual time. And that’s why we’re coming directly to our top supporters with this special opportunity today.

Now don’t miss this chance! Enter your idea for a special guest on a future episode of “Here’s the Deal” »

SUBMIT NOW >>

Thank you,

Biden HQ

I guess I've got something to add to my playlist. If you're interested, here's the link to Here's the Deal. You can skip past the donation request and go straight to the podcast page.

To find out where else you can find Joe, you can check out JoeBiden.com/Live.

Sidebar: Small Business Funding

As I noted in this week's Sunday School Extra Credit, I was a bit befuddled by a statement Jake Tapper made to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer about the Payroll Protection Program, or PPP, having "run out of funding, as you know, because of provisions Democrats wanted to add" (emphasis mine) and I had to look around a bit - big surprise, right?

Congress crammed through the CARES Act, which included the PPP and nearly $350B for small businesses; the president signed the Act on March 27th, with the Treasury Department declaring that it "provides fast and direct economic assistance for American workers, families, and small businesses, and preserve jobs for our American industries." (Emphasis theirs.)

The reality was somewhat different. The PPP ran out of money in less than two weeks; the process was fraught with difficulties and unclear guidance; no one knew what they qualified or didn't qualify for; applications were filed and people didn't hear anything back; and there were website issues, too.

That sounds a lot like how Republicans described the Affordable Care Act rollout, doesn't it?

Among the issues with the CARES Act and the PPP that have been identified over the past few days, as negotiations continue on another few hundred billion in funding for the program?

• Financial institutions had less than a week's notice to get up and running to start making loans. Banks and credit unions, acting with only limited guidance from the government, loaned money only to their existing customer, some of which probably could have obtained emergency financial assistance, without the PPP, you know, their banks? And, according to an NPR story  as I write this, banks primarily facilitated new loans to companies to which they had already loaned money, leaving their deposit-account only customers with no help. 

• Only approved institutions - those already licensed as SBA lenders - could participate in the program, meaning small businesses had to shop around to find a lender to help, and banks and credit unions needed to apply to be 'approved' before they could participate. 

• Some 1.6 million companies got loans - about 6% of the qualifying businesses. That means 94% of small businesses were not able to obtain assistance. There were over 67,000 loans of $1,000,000 or more approved, according to the SBA, which accounted for more than 44.5% of the available pool of money.

• Chain restaurants and hotels - some with thousands of employees under the brand umbrella - were able to qualify for the program if they had fewer than 500 employees at each location. One, Shake Shack, with 189 locations and around 8,000 employees, is giving back their $10M loan. Others, like Ruth's Hospitality Group, which owns Ruth's Chris Steak House and received $20M from the PPP by using two separate companies to file and receive the maximum amount, have not offered to return the money. 

• In all, more than 70 publicly-traded companies received PPP loans, totaling around $300M. Included in that mix? Foreign-owned companies; companies that were likely not viable even absent the coronavirus pandemic; and companies that had been fined by the government for bad acts of one sort or another. 

• Colleges and universities qualified for assistance under the CARES Act to help cover expenses, and while they're supposed to agree to certain conditions on how the money is to be used, they can allocate the funds as they choose. Among the recipients are a quartet of Ivy League schools: Harvard, Yale, Columbia and Cornell, which collectively have over $89B in their endowment funds.

• The inspector general and transparency requirements under the CARES Act are going to be ignored by the administration, in a continuation of his assault on oversight in general.

• And, because it's the US, there were tax breaks for millionaires, too: some 43,000 of them could get $70B in savings - around $1.6M each - because of provisions allowing them to take unlimited deductions against non-business income, including capital gains. The biggest beneficiaries? Hedge fund guys, and real estate developers - perhaps even the president.

In the back of my mind, I can hear someone saying "If you like your small business, you can keep your small business" and in the front of my mind, I remember this comment from the president at one of his rallies press conferences, responding to a question about restaurants.

I’ve heard 3 percent could be lost, and you could go as high as 10 or 11 percent, but they’ll all come back in one form of another. Might be a different restaurant. But it’s gonna be a great business for a lot of people. We’re making it easy for people — look, what we’re doing in terms of loans, what we’re doing in terms of salaries, they’ll all come back. It may not be the same restaurant, it may not be the same ownership, but they’ll all be back.

Restaurants and other small businesses won't "all come back" if the financial assistance we're trying to give them is not accessible, if the businesses aren't big enough to get attention, if the owners don't bank at the right place, or if they aren't already companies worth tens of millions of dollars.

And yet, some of the 'wow' stuff  in those bullet points, things that shock even cynics like me, really aren't all that surprising.  Rather, they are exactly the kind of things that happen when legislators, acting with great urgency and (generally) good intentions, try to fix a major mess that is anything but one size fits all.

I don't envy them, I really don't. But some of these excesses or goofs or not-well-thought-out provisions - combined with the president's distaste for oversight - seem ripe for abuse and mismanagement.

Tapper cited comments from the Obama administration's SBA head Karen Mills, who suggested that the Dems need to get with the program and get the new round of funding - the response to - not, as Tapper said, the reason for the program running out of money - in place quickly. And, according to multiple news reports (here's one), agreement has been reached on the next round, nearly $500B worth - and "bipartisan approval" is expected as early as today in the Senate and Thursday in the House.

One thing they didn't agree on? Extra funding for state and local governments, which are bearing the brunt of the costs of fighting the pandemic. Dems wanted to address assistance for them in this round. But, because of who we are, there's this from the same article on the agreement (emphasis added), which made me chuckle.

And while Republicans succeeded in staving off another federal infusion of funds for cash-strapped states and local governments, fearing a mismanagement of funds...

I guess they've become irony-blind.

Sunday School Extra Credit 4/20/20

Lately, governors (and Republicans) have been in the classrooms,  but yesterday we had the top two Democrats sitting down for virtual chats, on This Week with George Stephanopoulos and CNN's State of the Union with Jake Tapper. We'll take them in that order.

George started by asking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi what she thought of Trump's negative tweets about her, including that she's holding up the next round of relief funding.

Frankly I don't pay that much attention to the president's tweets against me. As I have said, he's a poor leader. He's always trying to avoid responsibility and assign blame.

She noted the bipartisan support for the Payroll Protection Program, but that whatever comes next has to reach "all of America's small businesses" and compensate first responders, healthcare workers, teachers and so on. And, we need additional funds for hospitals "so that we can do testing, testing, testing."

George said "some" Democrats are suggesting the focus should be on passing the next round of small business relief by unanimous consent; the other stuff should go separately. She said she doesn't know who's saying that, but said House and Senate Dems "know we have an opportunity and an urgency" to get something done for hospitals, teachers, first responders, and the rest.

And then we are preparing for our next bill... but, overwhelmingly, the caucus is: Let's get as much as we can for those who are helping to fight this fight, so that we can soon open our economy.

George wondered how they were going to vote; Pelosi said the proxy voting proposal that Rules Committee chair Jim McGovern and Administration Committee chair Zoe Lofgren came up with will likely be the way to go. There would have to be a vote on changing the rules, and she'd like that to be bipartisan. And, she reminded George,

We have an example of how we went forward in a bipartisan way, even though there was a person on the other side of the aisle who was insisting on not -- on avoiding unanimous consent.

Switching gears to the protests and the massive increase in unemployment filings, George wondered if she thought the guidelines on reopening "are appropriate" and if states "are ready to begin the process" of opening up. Pelosi said she thinks of the protests largely as a distraction, 

and the president’s embrace of it as a distraction from the fact that he has not appropriately done testing, treatment, contact tracing, and quarantine. 

And she reiterated that testing is the only way we can get things opened back up. We haven't done that right, she said, and "as Dr. Fauci says, if we proceed the right way, then we can do that. But we haven’t." George thought her comments indicated disagreement with Fauci that there's enough testing for Phase 1.

No, he’s saying if we proceed. I’m saying we haven’t proceeded. That’s why we’re saying, let’s proceed in that way, with testing. You can’t just test. You have to test, treat if people are diagnosed to have it and so -- and contact tracing, so that it doesn’t spread, and quarantine so that people are sheltered in place for as long as it takes.

She said the American people "understand that we have to have a scientific, evidence-based approach to how we go forward" and can't just do something quickly that's politically based, only to find out that we jumped the gun.

George wondered when she thought we'd get back to some semblance of normal; she said it was really a community-level decision, but it needed to be based on evidence and data showing what will work. Ultimately, she said she doesn't know if anyone can give a timeline, but that

it is, again, the sooner we commit to shelter-in-place across the board, testing, shelter-in-place, treatment, contact tracing -- that’s the path to opening the economy and putting people back to work.

She also took a shot at the president and his multiple confusing statements, his support of the people protesting his own guidelines, etc.

George asked about a statement she reportedly made - which she didn't deny - about being "afraid what the president might do." She referenced Easter giving her "a time for reflection and prayerfulness" about not harping on his past failures - which she proceeded to outline - and continued

And so, I’ve said if he -- if he continues to predicate the action that we take on a false premise, then we’re in further danger, and his earlier delay and denial caused deaths. And so, it’s very important that we walk the line that is close to evidence, data, science, as we go forward and not whimsy, magic hoax allegations and placing blame instead of taking responsibility.

We can over all of that as an "after-action review," she said, noting that

 he was drawing strength in his own view of what his falsehoods were gaining him and we cannot -- we cannot fight a pandemic, we cannot open up to our economy based on falsehoods.

No, we can't. Even if you're not a fan (I'm generally not), you can agree with her on that, I think.

Moving to the CNN classroom, Tapper's first question for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was about the PPP running out of money, "as you know, because of provisions Democrats want to add" and the "complexity is not our friend" comment from former Obama SBA head Karen Mills. We'll look at the funding issue separately, but Schumer said the stuff the Dems have been fighting for are going into the bill, and were important.

If you had a connection with a bank, it was pretty easy to get a loan. If you didn't, from one end to the country to the other, we have been hearing that people can't get the loans, the local restaurant, the local barbershop, the local drugstore, or even startup businesses, manufacturing or -- or contract -- or services that aren't happening. 

He pointed to $60B for disaster loans which looks like it's going in, and setting aside money for minority businesses, rural areas, and the 'unbanked' make sense and will also probably go in.

So, to just put $250 billion in, and leave out a large, large segment, I'd say half, of the small business community, wouldn't have made sense. And now it's going to happen because we Democrats said, let's get this done this way.

He said he was "very hopeful" there'd be an agreement quickly,  and that other things "on the banking side, on the testing side, on the hospital side" the Rs seem to be going along with.

Tapper moved on to frustration from senators about the administration's testing response - and wondered if there was a sense that "the federal government has a coordinated plan" for testing and making sure the govs know where the tests are.  Governors say they need federal help, they can't do it on their own, Schumer said - and both Rs and Ds agreed recently that we need both more testing and more federal involvement. We need to be more like South Korea: massive increases in testing volume, the contact tracing - they're way ahead of us, Schumer said, and "we must do the same thing, for the good of the health of America and the good of the economy."

We also have to help hospitals, which are losing scads of money not being able to do elective surgeries, and also of the burden on state and local governments. Schumer said they are "pushing hard" for that money to be included, along with the other funding that Pelosi mentioned.

Tapper then probed the 'who could have done more' question, offering comments by former CDC head Dr. Thomas Frieden, who said even a week or two earlier start of social distancing in NY and NYC would have meant a 50-80% reduction in deaths here. So, Tapper asked, didn't NY pols drop the ball?

Schumer said the gov and the mayor have done great, and "I think most of America agrees" and then went on to blame the feds for a lack of cooperation and Trump for his whacky comments. But Tapper fought back, noting Ohio closed schools with only 5 confirmed cases - before De Blasio did, with 329 cases. Other states were taking action, he said - couldn't NY have done something sooner? Schumer's response was, well, Schumerian.

Look, again, we were the epicenter. There were so many things to do. Getting ventilators, so people wouldn't die, was important. Getting the PPE for the health care workers was important. There were many things that were very, very important. And, as I said, I think both Cuomo and de Blasio get very high marks for how they have handled this.

The last question? AOC, the pesky representative from Queens, "did not rule out" primarying Schumer in 2022, and Tapper wondered if the senator was confident he could beat her.

Look, throughout my career, I have done my job. I'm totally focused on this COVID. We are the epicenter. And I have found, throughout my career, you do your job well, everything else works out OK.

So - there you have this week's Extra Credit: the Democratic leadership on funding, testing, Trumping, protesting, and more. Compared to the veep's two classroom appearances, Pelosi and Schumer answered many more questions, and used way fewer words in the process.

Stay safe, folks. 

Sunday School 4/19/20

Today's Sunday School is devoted to conversations with the vice president of the United States, Mike Pence, who made two classroom appearances - with Chuck Todd on Meet the Press, and with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday.

Pence, you probably have heard, made a non-essential trip to deliver the commencement address to the graduating class at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. The veep - as is the case with pretty much everyone on the White House task force and the administration as a whole - did not follow the CDC guidelines to wear a mask when social distancing was not possible, even though Colorado's governor did. 

So, there's that. Anyway, let's start with Chris Wallace. The first question was related to the protests around the country where some of the protestors are ignoring social distancing, and what Pence thinks, specifically, of their protests and how they're being carried out. It took the VP 321 words to not answer this one. 

Well, first let me say from the moment President Trump asked me to lead the White House Coronavirus Task Force two months ago he made it clear that we had one objective and that was to save lives. And in the intervening two months the American people have stepped forward, have embraced the social distancing, have done the mitigation efforts. And as we sit here this morning, we continue to see encouraging results, declining cases, declining hospitalizations, because of what the American people have done, because of the president's leadership and what governors have done around the country. We are slowing the spread, we're hastening the day, when we can put the coronavirus in the past and re-open the American economy.  Beyond the focus on lives, the president also made it clear that we wanted to ensure that our hospital workers, incredible men and women, had the resources and equipment that they needed. We've sent hundreds of millions of medical supplies to the critical areas around the country. And I must tell you the fact that no American who has needed a ventilator has been denied a ventilator. It's a great testament to our national response at every level.  And on the subject of testing, we're continuing to scale and expand testing and will do that because as the president laid out those guidelines this week -- no one wants to re-open America more than President Donald Trump. And what you see, I think, among millions of Americans who have been embracing those social distancing measures and making the sacrifices is they want their governors to find a way to responsibly and safely re-open their state economies. And what the president laid out last week is a framework -- a phased framework to re-open America, to do that, and we're going to work very closely with governors to implement that as soon as we can responsibly do it around the country.

The second question was to get Pence's take on what the president meant when he tweeted 'Liberate Minnesota!" "Liberate Michigan" and "Liberate Virginia, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege." This time, it took only 219 words to not answer the question.

The American people know that no one in America wants to re-open this country more than President Donald Trump. And on Thursday the president directed us to lay out guidelines for when and how states could responsibly do that. And in the president's tweets and public statements, I can assure you, he's going to continue to encourage governors to find ways to safely and responsibly let America go back to work.  And the guidelines for opening up America again give a roadmap for doing just that, Chris. For states that have 14 days of consecutive declining cases, that have proper hospitalization capacity, we recommend that they can begin under phase one to ease the social distancing measures that have been put into effect, allow some people to begin to come back to work, allow some activities in the community to begin to happen. And when the president speaks about re-opening America it's all about encouraging governors, as soon as they determine as most proper and most appropriate to be able to do that and do that quickly.  America works when America is working and the president wants to see us put the coronavirus in the past by these strong measures the American people have embraced. But we want to get America working again, just as soon as we can.  

The third question was pretty straightforward: when will we be doing 500,000 tests a day, which is what the health experts are calling for? This time, 279 words were uttered; unless you think "in the coming weeks and months ahead" is an acceptable answer, the VP is now zero for three.

Well under the guidelines for opening up America again, we create, in phase one, a specific criteria for testing that we believe is appropriate to be able to test people that have symptoms with coronavirus and be able to monitor people that are particularly vulnerable to serious outcomes, nursing homes and particular populations in our cities that have shown some vulnerability.  That's -- we believe the testing that we have today, Chris, across the country, once we activate all of the labs that can do coronavirus testing, is sufficient for any state in America to move into phase one. We're doing about 150,000 tests a day. And you remember a month ago we had done 80,000 tests total. Now we've cleared 4 million overall. But at 150,000 tests a day -- we think we can double that number by working with governors to activate all of the laboratories in their states around the country that can do coronavirus testing, that would put us at roughly 300,000.  But what we're going to make clear to governors, again tomorrow in our weekly conference call -- and I want to make clear to the American people, is that President Trump's direction -- we're going to continue to fully partner with governors around the country and health officials in increasing and scaling the amount of testing. And we have every confidence that we can have a sufficient amount of testing to be able to re-open America, not just in phase one, but continue in the weeks and months ahead to expand testing in ways that will give the American people the confidence and the tools to be able to go back to work.  

The next question Wallace asked was about when there might be an agreement on more funding for the Congressional Payroll Protection Program. Since no one knows when that will happen, I give the veep a pass on this one. The final question? What specifically will the administration be doing to hold China accountable for covering things up? He showed a clip of House Speaker Pelosi talking about this. Again, Pence summoned lots of words - 282 of them, to not answer the question.

Well I appreciate you referencing the fact that by the end of January of this year, President Trump took the unprecedented step of suspending all travel from China. No American president had ever done that. And there's no question all of our health experts agree that that bought us an invaluable amount of time to -- it's enabled us to save lives and make sure healthcare workers have the resources that they need to meet this moment.  But it is clear to us that not only was there a failure by the World Health Organization to communicate to America and the world what was happening in China, but also that China was not as forthcoming as they should have been with America or the world about what was happening. Well the president's made it clear he's not happy. He -- we're going to make proper inquiries into this at the proper time. But, I have to tell you, the one mission that this president has given the White House Coronavirus Task Force is to save lives, to put this coronavirus in the past. We're going to stay focused on that mission. It's one mission and one team. We're going to work with governors across the country in both political parties.  And I just want the American people to be encouraged by the fact that we are making progress. We really do see downward trends in cases and in hospitalizations and we really believe that because of what the American people have done, because of our incredible healthcare workers, that we are together as a nation hastening the day when we will put the coronavirus in the past and get America working again.  

I can't help thinking back to Trump's comments about Pence and his uncanny ability to not answer questions he's asked. 

Moving on to MTP and Chuck Todd's interview, I can assure you it was more of the same. In reference to the governors, Rs and Ds alike, saying that they cannot manage the testing themselves and that they need federal assistance, the question was why doesn't the president want the federal government to be the lead on testing. Here's the 527-word response.

Well, Chuck, thanks for having me on. And it really is remarkable to think about the progress the American people have made over the last several months. When the president tapped me to lead the White House Coronavirus Task Force, he gave us the first objective is to save lives. And to focus on slowing the spread, bending the curve. And because of the extraordinary efforts of the American people, we continue to see every day evidence that cases are declining, hospitalizations are declining. That's a tribute to the American people. Frankly, it's a tribute to all of those governors, governors in both parties across the country who put these mitigation efforts into effect. Secondly, the president made it clear to us that we were to make sure the hospitals in impacted areas had the resources and the equipment that they needed to be able to save as many lives as possible. And I have to tell you that tens of millions of personal protective equipment that we've coordinated for delivery around the country, especially in areas most impacted and the fact that ventilators have been delivered in areas across the country so that no American who needed a ventilator has ever been denied a ventilator. We're actually increasing the stockpile today. But testing has been a focus of ours as well, from very beginning. And it's the reason why the president, early on, brought in this vast array of commercial labs that took us from 80,000 tests one month ago to now four million tests as of yesterday. And as we'll make clear again to governors tomorrow in our weekly conference call, we look forward to continuing to partner with governors all across the country as we continue to scale testing. Because we really believe that, while we're doing 150,000 tests a day now, that if states around the country will activate all of the laboratories that are available in their states, we could more than double that overnight and literally be doing hundreds of thousands of more tests per day in a very short period of time. But, Chuck, just so we're very clear, when the president outlined his guidelines for opening up America, we laid out a plan for both -- for when and how we thought it was best according to our best scientists and advisors for states to be able to responsibly and safely reopen. And we believe today as Dr. Birx has said, as Dr. Fauci and others have said, is that there is a sufficient capacity of testing across the country today for any state in America to go to a phase one level which contemplates testing people that have symptoms of the coronavirus. And also doing the kind of monitoring of vulnerable populations in our cities, in our nursing homes that we ought to be watching very carefully for outbreaks of the coronavirus. But we believe working with the governors, as we'll continue to partner with them, that we can activate labs around the country and that states today, if the governor so chooses, have sufficient testing to be able to move into the testing contemplated in phase one.

Todd tried again, asking, since the governors are saying they can't get the supplies they need to do the testing that the feds aren't helping with, why the administration hasn't used the Defense Production Act to get the testing supplies prioritized. It only took 168 words this time.

What we've done through FEMA and through U.S. public health service is literally marshal the full resources of the American economy. We've been bringing medical supplies including, testing supplies, in from all over the world and will continue to do that. But, look, as you said, Chuck, I've been working almost daily over the last two months with Republican and Democrat governors across the country. And this vast and complex system of testing, using the commercial labs around the country and using hospital and public labs, is a new concept. And so we've been working with governors around the country to make sure that they and their health officials know about all the resources in their states. And we also have deployed a team from Walter Reed that over the last two weeks has been calling every single laboratory in the country that can do coronavirus testing. And tomorrow we'll be presenting all of those details to governors so that they can activate those tests in their state.

Todd pointed out that this seemed to make the case FOR national coordination, not against national coordination, and asked if there was a single person solely focused on the testing strategy and how it's going to be expanded. The question could have been answered in four words: Yes. Admiral Brett Giroir. But, why use four when you can use 300. 

Chuck, we actually have coordinated it at the federal level. Admiral Brett Giroir of the U.S. Public Health Service spends all of his time coordinating testing deployment and resources deployment from FEMA. And what we're making clear to governors, and I want the American people to know, is that we will continue to do that. While the president has made it clear that we want the governors to implement testing and deploy testing where they deem it's most appropriate in their state, we're going to continue to fully partner with states around the country to increase the supply, to make sure that they have the reagents and the test kits necessary to perform those tests. But I want to say again, it is truly -- it's a tribute to the president's leadership that early on in this process he brought in the top commercial labs in the country. They formed an alliance. And we went from one month ago to 80,000 tests being done to four million tests being completed as of yesterday. We'll continue to increase that. We'll continue to make governors aware of that. But our approach from the beginning, Chuck, has been we want -- in any health care crisis, we want to make sure the health care workers at the local level have the resources they need because it's locally executed. It is state managed. But it's federally supported. And the federal government at the president's direction will continue to support governors as they deploy the testing resources in the time and manner of their choosing. But we believe today, as Dr. Deborah Birx has confirmed, is we have a sufficient capacity of testing today for any state in America to move into phase one and begin the process of reopening their state and their economy.

I'm pretty sure Pence is going to be in hot water for actually spewing an alleged answer to a question without a single mention of the president. We'll have to see how that shakes out. Also noteworthy? The distinct lack of pushback from Chris Wallace. Todd wasn't a whole lot better, at all.

For tomorrow's Extra Credit, we'll have Speaker Pelosi, for sure, and I'll see who else I can find. In the meantime, stay safe - be well - wash your hands - keep your distance - shelter in place - stay off the beaches unless you're wearing a mask... you know the drill.

See you around the virtual campus.