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.

In Case You Missed it (v32)

Miss any of last week's posts? Not to worry - here's your week in review.

In our Sunday School classroom visits, I had the opportunity to listen in on Chris Wallace's conversation with Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and a bit of a maverick himself, on Fox News Sunday. They talked about the administration's desire to be back and open for business come May. Cuban doesn't seem convinced.

Will it be open 24 hours a day? No. Will we open some doors and take some baby steps? Yes. How will I decide? When the scientists say it's safe for my employees to come back to work, that's when I'll feel confident enough...

Others making the rounds? The FDA's Dr. Steven Hahn and the WHO's Dr. David Nabarro on Meet the Press.

Our Sunday School Extra Credit this week included interviews with three governors on CNN's State of the Union, and Margaret Brennan's interview with the former Trump FDA head, Scott Gottlieb, talking a lot about reopening, which include him saying

he doesn't think "anyone's optimized really right now" to handle a rolling reopening, and he acknowledged the pressure not just on the administration, but on governors as well. Gottlieb expects a "slow reopening" through May, which could include older people staying home longer, under-staffing shifts, limited face to face meetings, and so on - decisions that will likely fall to local politicians and governors.

I don't know about you, but that gave me pause.

When it was time for Wondering on Wednesday, in addition to the good news stuff that's so much fun, I was wondering about the Economic Impact Payment, commonly referred to as the stimulus checks. Among other things, there was this.

Staying on the stimulus, there are multiple memes floating around wondering if #NeverTrumpers like me are going to refuse the stimulus checks because "they're from Trump" - which of course, they're not - as noted above, it's our money. Because that's where the government gets money -- from us. But now I have to wonder, will the Trumpeters keep the check, you know, frame it or something, like businesses do with their first dollar? 

This week's TGIF was focused completely on the thank goodness part, and included my thanks to everyone involved in helping fight the pandemic, including all the regular folks.

 doing their level best to do what we're being

asked to do, to help protect others, and maybe even ourselves, and to anyone I missed.  

And things wrapped up with an emptying of the laundry pile on the Irony Board. There's so much irony out there, related to the pandemic, and how people are reacting to it, and what things are coming to light and lighting fires under people in a way that would never light a fire under them under anything close to normal circumstances. Which led me to think about the lessons in the irony, and what we can take away from it all.  Among the takeaways?

• Irony is everywhere.
• What we don't want today we might need tomorrow, so when we get what we want, we may come to regret it. 
• Our elected officials are human - and imperfect - as are we.
• Many times, the ideas of one party are the ideas of the other party.
• We'd probably be better served if we focused more on the ideas and less on the people.
• 'We' includes me. 

There you have it - last week's veritable pastiche, ready whenever you are. Don't forget, you can subscribe safely, without a mask, by entering your email in the Instant Gratification box on the right sidebar. 

I'll be back later with today's Sunday School. 

The Irony Board: Time to Fold the Laundry

Looks like I've got quite a pile building up on the Irony Board. I guess it's time I took care of at least the stuff that's related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

First up? Science!
Isn't it at least a little bit ironic that so many science deniers, whether it's climate science or vaccine science or teaching science in schools, are so eager to see people move forward with experimental uses of drugs to fight the coronavirus?

And also isn't it at least a little bit ironic that the folks who say the virus is "a deep state hoax" and "the numbers are a lie" are also gung ho (on social media, anyway, where everything is true...) about drugs like remdisivir? Why would we need to work so hard to solve for something that isn't even a problem?

And isn't it also ironic that, when people are so demanding of other scientists, across a wide spectrum of applications, even down to their political affiliation, none of the same people seem remotely concerned that the tests we're seeing for these drugs frequently don't include control groups, so we don't really understand how they're working compared to people getting a different drug or a placebo?

I totally understand the desire to have some kind of therapeutic meds available to help treat people who end up getting infected with the coronavirus, but I also think that we should practice good science, including informed consent, and trials done under commonly accepted scientific practices - not just fast science, no matter how good the intentions.

Next up? Geography!
I find it at least somewhat ironic that the people who have long complained about how upstate New York - the real upstate, which includes Central NY, Northern NY, the Southern Tier, Western New York, the Fingerlakes region, the Adirondacks, and the Capitol District -  is constantly being screwed and all our money is being stolen to pay for New York City and so on, to the point where we should split the state to get away from downstate  are now all up in arms about two things that happened long ago, but only suddenly are hot topics.

The first issue? Gov. Cuomo not purchasing 16,000 ventilators back in 2015. These folks would have been apoplectic at the thought of the Sonofa Gov spending more than half a billion dollars on ventilators that would be sitting in a warehouse somewhere, doing nothing for who knows how many years, absent a pandemic like the 1918 flu, which at the time was nearly a century back in our rear-view mirror. But because Donald Trump said it on a Fox Town Hall from the Rose Garden, this is now a fact - Cuomo failed to by ventilators.  Never mind the "empty cupboards" of the Strategic National Stockpile, which the current administration failed to refill - because that's different, or something.

The second issue? The realization that many hospital beds have been closed in New York, most of them in New York City where the impact of the coronavirus is being felt most intensely. The anti-Cuomo, anti-downstate folks have been complaining about that as well, because the virus is only an issue there, it's hardly having any impact here and now we are going to have to take their sick people because there aren't any hospital beds for them.

And why aren't there any beds? Here's an op-ed in the NY Post from 2013 on hospital closures, written by the chair of the Pataki administration's Berger Commission, who said that (at that time) 18 hospitals across the state had been closed, including 12 in New York City. That's something that people up here would have been happy about, no longer throwing good tax dollars - good upstate tax dollars - out the window.

But now, also from the NY Post from March of this year, we learn that NY has thrown away thousands of hospital beds and that's going to make it harder for the state to deal with the pandemic.

New York has lost a staggering 20,000 hospital beds over the last two decades to budget cuts and insurance overhauls, complicating local and state efforts to battle the coronavirus, according to records and experts.

Both articles are good reads, presenting the arguments for and against doing something in each of these cases. And in each case, our elected officials, representatives of both major parties, made decisions they thought best for the citizens and taxpayers of New York.

What can we learn from these at least a little ironic lessons?  A few things, I think.

• Irony is everywhere.
• What we don't want today we might need tomorrow, so when we get what we want, we may come to regret it. 
• Our elected officials are human - and imperfect - as are we.
• Many times, the ideas of one party are the ideas of the other party.
• We'd probably be better served if we focused more on the ideas and less on the people.
• 'We' includes me. 

TGIF 4/17/20

To all the nurses and doctors and respiratory therapists, and lab techs and 

pharmacists and housekeeping staff and IT staff and office staff and

cafeteria staff and supply clerks and delivery drivers and every single 

other person who works in the healthcare field, whether at a hospital or 

a clinic or a lab or a doctor's office, who are fighting each and every 

day for us, and caring for our loved ones and holding their hands

when they pass, and who are bringing new life into this crazy world we 

live in, often far from home because they go where we need them to go 

and to the scientists that are working on tests and vaccines and therapeutics; 

and to all the 911 operators and dispatchers and EMTs and police officers 

and firefighters who put their lives on the line to help us when we 

need it most, and keep the peace when nerves are frayed, and to

the public, and to the folks who operate our public

transportation systems, the subways and buses and

trains and help people get where they need to be;

and to all the school bus drivers and teachers and administrators and 

secretaries and aides and janitors, who are feeding children, seniors and 

shut-ins and seniors, and who are doing their best to teach and 

help students find new ways to learn and to continue to thrive, and who

are finding creative ways to let their students know that they

are loved and missed, and that things will be OK; 

and to all of the restaurant workers, the cooks and owners and wait staff

and delivery drivers and cashiers and the folks running food out to us in

curbside pickup spots, the bakers and donut makers and ice cream makers

who are keeping people smiling while they keep a social distance, and to the 

gig workers, the Grubhubbers and Doordashers, who do for some what 

they don't want to do themselves;

and to all of the people working in grocery stores, liquor stores, home stores,

warehouses, gas stations and other essential businesses, and the, UPS and 

FedEx and Amazon drivers, and the men and women of the United States

Postal Service, and all the other people that are keeping us moving and

keeping things moving and keeping checks and bills and catalogs

and cards arriving, and sending them where they need to go;

and to all of the charities, the non-profits, the NGOs that are playing a 

part in keeping people safe, helping cover rent and utilities 

and whatever else is needed, and to the food banks and food pantries 

and their workers who are putting in long, long hours making sure that 

mile-long lines of people can get food, and to the farmers who are donating 

their crops so that others can eat, and to the tens of thousands, maybe millions of people who are donating their time, money, effort, ingenuity, and creativity to help others in ways large and small; 

and, yes, to the politicians, the public servants, the good ones, who sit

and stand in front of microphones every day and tell the truth, who

talk straight, and straight from the heart, who show sympathy and

empathy and humanity as they tell us about more deaths, and more

infections, and more recoveries, and even when they give us more guidance, 

when it restricts us, and who get yelled at by us, and by those who

should be helping, instead of using gratitude as a bargaining chip;

and to everyone who is doing their level best to do what we're being

asked to do, to help protect others, and maybe even ourselves, and to anyone I missed.  

Thank you. 

TGIF, everyone.

Stay safe.

Wondering on Wednesday (v204)

Ready... Set... Wonder!

Let's get right to the wondering, shall we, first off, on those stimulus checks.

• What, I wonder, other than megalomania, narcissism, delusions of grandeur, would compel a president to put his name on checks that are returning our own money to us as part of one of the coronavirus pandemic stimulus packages? Whether he suggested it himself, or if someone else suggested it, a reasonable president would say that it was a bunch of hooey and turn down the offer.  Now, we know that the same guy who's doing this is the one who demanded - or allowed - his name to be the same size as the name of our country on the sign on the new embassy in Jerusalem, so I'm guessing that he is likely the driver behind this effort. Either way, no need to wonder - it's ridiculous.

• Staying on the stimulus, there are multiple memes floating around wondering if #NeverTrumpers like me are going to refuse the stimulus checks because "they're from Trump" - which of course, they're not - as noted above, it's our money. Because that's where the government gets money -- from us. But now I have to wonder, will the Trumpeters keep the check, you know, frame it or something, like businesses do with their first dollar? 

• And lastly, on this topic, I wondered out loud on social media whether anyone had gotten their check yet.  After a few hours, it's almost dead even: 50.8% of respondents had gotten their checks, 49.2% had not (including my husband and me). Two people tried unsuccessfully to check the status of theirs on the new IRS website; one person got less than expected, for as yet unknown reasons; one changed banks last year and so will have to wait for the paper check - and one person said the check would be returned to the government. 

Let's see, what else...  Anyone wondering who will be the next person to endorse Papa Joe Biden, now that That Guy from Vermont and Barack and Elizabeth have come around? Are there any other endorsements still out there that will be meaningful, or any that might be unexpected? I'm not thinking of anyone off the top of my head, but let me know if you've got any ideas.

If you're wondering, I'm not going to go there on the whole question of 'authority' and 'permission' and whatever on earth we've been hearing about who can do what to whom when it comes to reopening America. I'll save that for later. 

I will wonder, though, whether you think it's true that Mitch McConnell (R-White House) has been suggesting older conservative judges consider retiring, so that more slots can be filled by, you know, all those Gen Y kids selected by the good folks at the Heritage Foundation, on the chance that either he or the president doesn't win reelection. I know that's month-old news, but I didn't catch it earlier. Thoughts?

And now, for the good news. I don't really wonder all that much about this stuff, other than to think what will happen when we're back to (ab)normal? Will the good stuff continue? Will people keep talking about it? Or will it fall by the wayside?

This story is about a wonderful kid, a friend of my nephew's, who passed away a few days ago. We know that it's not possible to have 'normal' funerals, if that's the right word, where people gather and share stories and hug and cry on each other's shoulders and what not. But all is not lost, as his school and his friends showed - all is not lost.

And this one's from a sibling's adopted hometown, where the teachers did the parade thing, driving by every student's house.  Said sibling was, for a time, stuck in the parade, which made it more entertaining. 

And finally, if you're a movie fan or a Tom Hanks fan, you'll remember the piano dance scene from the movie 'Big'. Well, here's a much more complicated example, with four players, from a couple of years ago. So no, it's not specifically from this age of social distancing, but it sure did put a smile on our faces!

Got a good news story to share? Drop a note in the comments! And if you're willing to share your go-to hand lotion, let me know!

Sunday School Extra Credit 4/12/20

I wanted to drop in on a couple of the other virtual classrooms, starting with Margaret Brennan' and Scott Gottlieb on Face the Nation.  Gottlieb is the former FDA commish, and I had his interview with Chuck Todd in yesterday's Sunday School if you want to compare the two.

Brennan wondered who should be responsible for testing in advance of any 'reopening' effort. Gottlieb said it would likely have to be the states, particularly the contract tracing to identify people who may have been infected. He said Wuhan had 1800 five-person teams - 9000 people - handling the process, but that CDC only has about 600 deployed across the country.

The states are supplementing that, but the states need to increase their resources now. The feds are gonna have a hard time pulsing their resources in the throes of this crisis... and a lot of it's going to be on the governors. 

Gottlieb reminded us that contact tracing is "sort of the bread and butter of public health work." He thinks that businesses will have to think about compensation, paid leave and whatnot for people who are forced to by the government to self-quarantine. And,

the government might actually want to pay those people to give them an incentive to step forward, because if it's seen as punitive, if it's seen that when you get COVID-19, you're going to be forced to self-isolate for two weeks, you're going to miss work and you're going to be out of money, then people aren't going to want to step forward and get diagnosed. 

He also said he doesn't think "anyone's optimized really right now" to handle a rolling reopening, and he acknowledged the pressure not just on the administration, but on governors as well. Gottlieb expects a "slow reopening" through May, which could include older people staying home longer, under-staffing shifts, limited face to face meetings, and so on - decisions that will likely fall to local politicians and governors.

He sees only "marginal utility and impact" from serology tests, and thinks there'll be around 2% immunity in the general population, versus the 30% or more some people are anticipating. And, he doesn't think this is a good time to defund the WHO, but he also believes that WHO accepting and sharing what China was saying, which was not truthful, slowed the global response.

I think going forward, the WHO needs to commit to an after action report that specifically examines what China did or didn't tell the world and how that stymied the global response to this.

And he called on the organization to welcome Taiwan into the fold. 

Moving over to CNN's State of the Union virtual classroom, Jake Tapper had three governors visiting: Phil Murphy (D-NJ), Asa Hutchinson (R-AR), and Michelle Lujan Griffin (D-NM). I'll take them in that order. 

Here's Murphy on the anticipated May 1st reopening: There's "a sequence here" he said, that includes "a health care recovery, a health recovery first, and then the economic recovery."

And I fear, if we open up too early, and we have not sufficiently made that health recovery and cracked the back of this virus, that we could be pouring gasoline on the fire, even inadvertently...

He also said it has to be a regional thing, agreeing with my Sonofa Gov on that.

...  in this respect, whether it's testing, contact tracing, the rules of the road such that you don't have -- you don't have unintended consequences or you get a different set of policies on one side of the Hudson vs. the other, or one side of the Delaware River in our case or the other, is, we need to do this regionally.

On whether he could have acted sooner, or if any of them could have acted sooner? There's always an urge to second guess, and it's a fair thing to do on something like this. He'd like to see a national, bipartisan commission, similar to the 9/11 Commission, as well as state-level reviews.  

The woulda, shoulda, coulda deserves a -- an important focus. Right now, again, the house is on fire. We got to put the fire in the house out, and then we got to begin to get back on our feet. And then, at that point, we have to look back and say, what could we have done differently?

Moving across the country, here's Hutchinson on whether other governors were wrong to have done statewide stay-at-home orders (Arkansas is one of the few states that didn't). 

No, not at all. It just reflects the flexibility a state needs. I applaud that New Jersey and New York, they've had to really lock down. They have a high density population. But we have less density in our population here in Arkansas. And I think we can take this targeted approach, which has proven to be effective.

He thinks they're "beating that trend line" and said there's "a lot of hope and optimism this Easter that our tough time is behind and we're going to be getting better." He also said "no such thing as a true lockdown."

You're going to have, if we put a shelter-in-place order today, tomorrow we would have 700,000 Arkansans that will be going out on the streets going to work. The most important message is that you wear your mask, you do your social distancing and the people of Arkansas have embraced that.... 

He said he assured Tony Fauci that he'd do more, if they needed to, but feels his targeted, long-term approach, is working, even when Tapper cited the data showing one case and zero deaths a month ago to over 1200 cases and at least 25 deaths now. Hutchinson said that's still more than 1000 cases short of projections, and only 80 people are in the hospital, in a state with 8000 hospital beds available. He also said some counties in neighboring states that have more cases than the entire state of Arkansas.

They talked about religious gatherings, which are OK as long as attendees practice social/physical distancing at church, even thought Hutchinson has been "discouraging" large religious gatherings. Hutchinson said there wouldn't be any action taken against people who don't follow the guidelines, but there would be a "very specific directive" and a discussion with any church where there was an outbreak.

So just virtually all of the churches in Arkansas are following the guidelines very carefully. They're just as concerned about their parishioners as I am as governor... and I expect everybody to make sure they follow those social distancing guidelines and not gather whenever you have a risk.

Finally, let's head to New Mexico, where Tapper asked the governor what she's do if the president makes the call for a May 1st reopening. Lujan Grisham said they'll make whatever decision safeguards New Mexicans, including first responders and healthcare workers. And the said there's a problem without having a national strategy.

This virus is blind to state borders. And if we had better national strategies... and universal testing and software-based contract tracing then we can really figure out when opening makes sense and we could actually start to do that in the country.

She said they're already looking at recovery options, but nothing going to happen "until that peak occurs and we're clear about not having hospitalizations and reducing the number of people that are positive every day in our surveillance and testing efforts."

Tapper asked about the tracking, using cellphone data, and about privacy concerns people might have and what kind of oversight there is. She said it's not state data or a state effort, it's whole-country aggregate data, which they're using to see where people are travelling and for how long and the data's being used to see if they need any additional social distancing guidelines. 

Next, they moved to the issue of communities of color being more impacted by the virus. Tapper noted that almost half of New Mexico's population is Hispanic; the governor added that another 6% of the population is Native American, with 23 distinct sovereign nations. She acknowledged

that the social determinants of health, poverty, lack of access to adequate shelter, food, health care, is an aspect that makes this virus and our efforts to combat it and provide productive treatment incredibly challenging.

And, in some cases, with the Native Americans populations, there are places where people don't have access to water and electricity, creating "unique challenges." And while she said the administration needs to do more, she echoed NJ's Gov Murphy on states working together

We're looking at a regional strategy to support the leadership of the Navajo nation between Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. We're putting out field hospitals, triage centers. And I will tell you that the pueblo nations in New Mexico have really looked at containment strategies for their community, and we're supporting that... we hope this not only slows the spread but gives us better support to the individuals living in these remote areas in New Mexico. 

They closed the conversation with Lujan Grisham denying that she wanted to be veep in a Biden administration.

I want to be the governor of New Mexico. I will do whatever it takes to support a Biden administration, and I'm looking forward to a federal administration that can do a national strategy in good times and in bad times both.

Aren't we all... 

See you around the virtual campus, with smiling faces and nice clean hands. Those'll get you real extra credit.

Sunday School 4/12/20

So, what's shaking in the distance learning classrooms today?

Well, we've got Chuck Todd's interviews with FDA's Dr. Stephen Hahn and WHO's special coronavirus envoy Dr. David Nabarro kicking things off.

Chuck asked Dr. Hahn whether it's realistic to think about a May 1st target date for lifting social distancing guidelines. Hahn reassured us that the task force is taking a "balanced approach," with our safety and welfare being the primary consideration.

And I think we've seen the mitigation efforts working. We have really good signs of that now, which I think just...speaks to the resiliency of the American people. But that has to be balanced with all the other issues that have to be taken into account as we move forward...

On testing, Hahn said everyone's working to "try to ramp up further testing." Todd wondered why we're still looking for innovation in that regard, and said that we're still behind other countries with the rate of our testing. Hahn focused on the importance of having the right tests - ones which are "valid and accurate and reliable." 

Hahn admitted he hadn't gone through the government's pandemic exercises. But he does feel that there's enough institutional knowledge in the group working on all of this, and the experts, particularly at FDA, are responding as the situation changes.  He denied feeling any political pressure, but he does feel the pressure of urgency. 

Finally, circling back to that May 1st date, Hahn said there have been some good debates within the task force, but noted he can't predict when we'll be ready, 

because, as I said, things are happening very rapidly. But this team... they're focused at looking at the earliest possible time that we can get Americans back to work safely and to give Americans the confidence they need to make sure that these are the right decisions.

A couple highlights from the conversation with Dr. Nabarro, who noted that WHO is still "very worried" and trying to support countries with weaker health systems. He also said they're not sure if this virus will act like the flu, which comes in waves.

We think it's going to be a virus that stalks the human race for quite a long time to come, until we can all have a vaccine that will protect us, and that there will be small outbreaks that will emerge sporadically...

Every single country will need to be able to "pick up cases as soon as they appear, isolate them, and stop outbreaks from developing." And on global cooperation? 

I'd love to see much greater cooperation between leaders. I'd like to see them uniting, and showing the world that they believe that this global threat has to be dealt with through united action between all countries and their people.

He appreciates WHO being seen by public health professionals as "a really good direction finder" and that they've been able to help those professionals. But,

I would like leaders to be a little bit more cooperative. Yes please.

Todd asked about Trump's threats to withhold money, amounting to perhaps as much as 20% of WHO's total funding, and wondered "how devastating" that would be. Pointing to the "massive epic struggle" affecting everyone around the world, Nabarro said

I really do hope that all nations will not find any reason to make threats or other such things that will undermine our capacity to bring together all the best knowledge that we can find... And that would be so unfortunate if anything happened to lessen that cooperation... It's too important to have anything that disturbs the functioning of the international system at this time.

He's got that last part right, doesn't he?

Moving on to Chris Wallace's conversation with Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and a bit of a maverick himself, on Fox News Sunday. They talked about the administration's desire to be back and open for business come May. Cuban doesn't seem convinced.

Will it be open 24 hours a day? No. Will we open some doors and take some baby steps? Yes. How will I decide? When the scientists say it's safe for my employees to come back to work, that's when I'll feel confident enough...

Cuban doesn't see the sharp v-curve that the president sees happening.

I wish he was right, but he's not. I think it's going to be slower. I think there's going to be so many different ways we have to adapt to this new abnormal... (people) are not going to feel confident right off the bat... And that concern is going to lead people to holding back on spending money...

And, he thinks there's a better way to help than the forgivable loans for small businesses: overdraft protection, where the bank guarantees that checks won't bounce. That eliminates all the friction, he said.

With overdraft an overdraft protection program, companies could just continue as usual, pay their payrolls, pay their insurance, pay the utilities, rent, etc. and they wouldn't have that fear that they wouldn't be able to make those payments.

Cuban also feels we taxpayers should get something - equity kickers, he said - if we're going to bail out large corporations. We need to be more like Warren Buffett, who helped bail out Bank of America with a $5B loan, but the considerations he got as part of the loan ended up giving him a $12B profit. We need the feds to do that for us.

He has other ideas too, things like pre-paying for government air travel, having federal employees be the confidence-builders in the airlines and what not, which will help them back up and running. That's better than bailing them out, don't you think?

They closed the interview with some talk about one of them possibly running for president. I'll let you dig into that one yourself.

And finally, Martha Raddatz talked with Gov. Larry Hogan (R-MD) on This Week with George;  there were a couple of key points in this one.

There was a lot of discussion about racial disparity, which has become a very hot topic. Hogan said they're doing a lot of checking on test results, compiling data down to the zip code level, and getting a "hot spot" designation for the Baltimore and the Baltimore-Washington corridor, the area where there's the highest concentration of people of color.  He said that statewide data would be released soon.

Raddatz wondered what they're doing with all the data they're gathering; he said they're directing all the resources in the areas the data identifies.

It’s where almost all of our attention and all of our focus, all of our money, all of our healthcare, all the assistance from the National Guard, it’s really where all of our testing is being done, it’s where all of our healthcare is being ramped up, where we’re adding 6,000 hospital beds. So it’s definitely where the attention of the entire state and local governments are focused. And now we, thankfully, have gotten the attention of the federal government to consider this entire corridor as a place to focus on.

And the other topic that we've been hearing so much about? Governors and states getting everything they need to help with fighting the pandemic.  Last Friday, the president said "we're not getting any calls from governors at this moment. We're getting very few calls from - from governors or anybody else needing anything" and he's made similar comments before.

Hogan, who's chair of the National Governors Association, said he's "had 12 calls now with every single governor in America, eight of which the president and/or vice president was on the call with us." And, he said, 

Look, I think the -- we’ve certainly seen an improvement over the past week from the week before. I know that a lot of people in Washington are working very hard. Everybody has gotten more supplies than we had the week before and the day before. And I know there’s people in Washington that are working very hard as partners to try to help the states. 

But I think to say that everybody’s completely happy and that we have everything we need is -- is not quite accurate. I mean everybody still has tremendous needs on personal protective equipment and ventilators and all of these things that you keep hearing about. Everybody’s fighting to find these things all over the -- all over the nation and all over the world.

So, it would seem that someone's not telling the truth here. I've got a guess as to who that might be, do you? 

Keep keeping your distance; everyone who's in the know says it's working. And those nice clean hands? They're doing the trick, too. 

I'll see you around the virtual campus.