It has reached parody levels. No matter the crisis, no matter the issue, the GOP answer to everything is tax cuts. Apparently, tax cuts are just what the doctor ordered to fight the Coronavirus:
President Trump on Monday said the White House will ask Congress to approve a payroll tax cut and relief for hourly workers to combat the economic fallout of the coronavirus.
“This was something that we were thrown into and we’re going to handle it, and we have been handling it,” Trump told reporters in the White House briefing room.
If only tax cuts could have built the wall, ended birthright citizenship and the pointless wars – alas they can’t. If only tax cuts could restore faith in our institutions – alas they can’t.
The source of the panic is that, once again, the institutions in charge of our public health have shown themselves to be wholly unprepared. Passengers stranded in cruise ships serving as incubators. Seniors trapped in nursing homes. No health checks for travelers coming from affected countries. Mixed messages over whether masks help deter the disease. The best healthcare system in the world was short of testing kits for the virus and the list goes on.
I lost faith in the CDC during the Ebola crisis. We were told with complete confidence that the virus would never reach our shores – it did. We were told that our protocols would ensure that the healthcare staff taking care of the Ebola patient at Presbyterian Hospital Dallas would never contract the disease – two nurses did. All of it could have been avoided if only our State Department stopped issuing tourist visas to countries experiencing the Ebola epidemic.
In addition to watching the Keystone Cops at the CDC struggle with the latest outbreak, we learn that 90% of our antibiotics are made in China along with essential ingredients for other medicine. The extent China has taken over our healthcare system was outlined in a recent monologue by Tucker Carlson:
At the end of his brilliant monologue, Tucker invited Ned Ryun to discuss how America can begin to manufacture again its own medicine. His answer: tax cuts. Give tax cuts to companies as an incentive to move production back to America. I say forget tax cuts. Pass a law simply stating: sell here, manufacture here.
