April 11, 2020
Atheists in church
Possibly, just possibly, the country will learn a
lesson from the coronavirus crisis: don’t put people in charge of government
who don’t believe in it. The damage is
especially great if the federal government is in their hands.
They reject what they are told by government
agencies. They are reluctant to use
government resources, preferring to dump responsibility on the states. They argue that private enterprise can work
more efficiently than any public body.
When they are forced to act, they bungle, being unfamiliar with, and
resentful of, administrative practices, and needing resources that they have
neglected or destroyed.
Governmental agencies, employees and experts are
part of the dreaded Deep State. Trump
knows that he
mustn’t trust them because Rush Limbaugh, to whom
he awarded the Medal of Freedom, told him so.
Rush dismissed the coronavirus as merely the flu and, when those with
some knowledge of the subject declared otherwise, offered this rebuttal: “You
know, we've talked about the ‘Deep State’ all these years since Trump was
elected . . . well, the Deep State extends very deeply. And the American people
did not elect a bunch of health experts that we don't know. We didn't elect a
president to defer to a bunch of health experts that we don't know.”29
For the President, inspectors general are the
epitome of the dreaded Deep State (a concept so captivating that he referred to
his foreign office as the Deep State Department). Any action by an inspector general is suspect and probably
disloyal. After all, one of them, the
Intelligence Community Inspector General, informed Congress of the whistle
blower complaint about the Ukraine phone conversation. Trump fired him.
Another such sinister operative produced a report
on the current crisis: “The Office of Inspector General at the Department of
Health and Human Services conducted phone interviews with administrators from
323 hospitals across 46 states” which revealed that hospitals are “unable to
keep up with COVID-19 testing demands" and are experiencing "severe
shortages." Trump’s response:
“It's just wrong, Did I hear the words ‘inspector general’? Really? It's wrong."30
As part of the stimulus plan, Congress created the Pandemic
Response Accountability Committee (PRAC), within the Council of the Inspectors
General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE).
On April 1, 2020, the CIGIE released a statement that, "The PRAC
will promote transparency and support independent oversight of the funds”
provided by the stimulus bills and "prevent and detect fraud, waste,
abuse, and mismanagement."31 Acting Pentagon Inspector General Glenn Fine was selected by
a council of inspectors general to lead the Committee. Trump fired him as Defense IG. and, because
he is no longer an inspector general, he is ineligible to hold the committee
post. “Inspector General” and
“independent oversight” are frightening terms.
Fortunately, there is an antidote to the Deep State
readily available: Jared Kushner, all-around expert whom no one will accuse of
depth.
Republicans in Congress, surprisingly, voted for
relief bills. However, the
administration’s ineptitude and its reliance on private banks has delayed
distribution of funds. As to obtaining
badly needed protective gear, it first left that to the states, then interfered
with orders for equipment placed by them.
Even if the Trump administration had realized early
on how serious the virus pandemic is, its previous anti-government bias would
have left it ill-prepared to respond. A
group specifically designed to warn of possible pandemics was disbanded, and
numerous relevant positions were unfilled.32 This thinning out was no accident. Stephen Bannon had declared that “the
mission of the Donald Trump Administration would be ‘deconstruction of the
administrative state’.” Those appointed
to Cabinet posts, he said, “were all selected for a reason. And that is the
deconstruction.”33
Despite efforts to dismantle government, warnings
about a possible pandemic were made and, at least in theory, reached
Trump. According to ABC News, “As far
back as late November, U.S. intelligence officials were warning that a
contagion was sweeping through China’s Wuhan region, changing the patterns of
life and business and posing a threat to the population.” The warning was contained in “a November
intelligence report by the military's National Center for Medical
Intelligence.” That led to “briefings
through December for policy-makers and decision-makers across the federal
government as well as the National Security Council.” Finally, “a detailed explanation of the problem . . . appeared in
the President’s Daily Brief of intelligence matters in early January.”34
Even if Trump doesn’t read the Daily Brief, or have
it read to him, even if he dismissed those reports as coming from Deep State
experts, a warning was circulated by another, presumably trusted source. Peter Navarro, the President’s trade
adviser, authored a memo on January 27 stating: “The lack of immune protection
or an existing cure or vaccine would leave Americans defenseless in the case of
a full-blown coronavirus outbreak on U.S. soil. This lack of protection
elevates the risk of the coronavirus evolving into a full-blown pandemic,
imperiling the lives of millions of Americans.”35
Should Trump act?
No: "It’s going to disappear. One day, it's like a miracle, it will
disappear." Even if it doesn’t, the administration won’t take the lead:
“States can do their own testing. . . . We’re the federal government. We’re not
supposed to stand on street corners doing testing.” As the organization he
nominally heads has no role, he can
tell us “I take no responsibility at all.”
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29. https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/rush-limbaugh-health-experts-are-part-deep-state-and-
shouldnt-be-trusted
30. https://americanindependent.com/donald-trump-health-and-human-services-inspector-general-report-
covid-19-testing/
31. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandemic_Response_Accountability_Committee#cite_note-CIGIE_040120-4
32. https://time.com/5792015/trump-coronavirus-vacancies/
https://americanindependent.com/donald-trump-coronavirus-warnings-ignored-pandemic-response-team-white-house-covid-19/
33. https://time.com/4998276/demolition-crew/?xid=homepage&pcd=hp-magmod
34. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/intelligence-report-warned-coronavirus-crisis-early-november-sources/
story?id=70031273
35. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/us/politics/navarro-warning-trump-coronavirus.html
