Sure, but that’s just Decaying Empire 101. At this stage in the life cycle of America there are really only two options:
Loot the wealth of the declining empire, and spread it around to create a softish landing where the greatest number of people suffer the least amount of harm.
Loot the wealth of the nation and give it to the 1% most well connected powerful elites.
Biden won’t accept #1 because he is delusional about America’s place in the future of the world. Is that a matter of administrative “competence”? I guess, but I wouldn’t see it that way. He’s just fundamentally wrong about how the world works, so his plans don’t work.
Is there a federal solution to the Covid crisis? Not JAQing off here, just genuinely curious what can be done at the federal level that hasn’t already been done? Maybe mandatory vax for fed employees, but I think that’s already happening.
Its a pretty standard shitlib take to be honest. But the real “end of the empire” is when the far right takes over undemocratically and our “best” corporations cut and run (and the USD is no longer the world’s reserve currency). Which could all easily happen in the next 3 years.
I’m sure he could come up with something for a universal mask mandate as just one example. Make it means tested like you don’t get your interstate highway money or whatever if you don’t do it (that might not be a doable example but something of that nature). It might not hold up in court but as Trump has shown who cares.
I mean people on this board were asking Trump for universal mask mandates and lock downs and now Biden can’t do it because reasons?
Right. So clearly the federal government does have the ability to do it. Find something that Biden does have control of the funding over rather than congress and use it as a carrot/stick. If you don’t want to follow the mandate no $$$ for you.
The entire board wanted Trump to do more. Biden isn’t doing much more than Trump and yet most people here have now pivoted to “what more can he do”.
Well my point was that congress had to get involved for the thing in your example. I think you’re on pretty dubious constitutional grounds if you start withholding congressional funds without an act of congress. I’ll cop to not knowing the ins and outs.
The mandate isn’t really that important either imo. People won’t comply anyways.
I agree that some people won’t comply. Some people would though. I also agree it would be pretty dubious constitutional grounds. As we learned during the era of Trump though, do it first and fight it out in the courts later.
Even if it might have zero actual impact it is worth a shot. Like if you can’t come up with any real policy to combat Covid then what the fuck were were bitching about with Trump?
I’d argue the vast majority of Trumps harm didn’t come from his actual policy, but from his public comments that covid was not a serious threat, his failure to set an example of caution, and him allowing the issue to become politicized because the stock market went down for a few days.
There’s no federal mask police, I don’t even know what good another lockdown does at this point. Vaccines are widely available across the US and there’s jack all any President can do if people won’t go out and get vaxxed. Securing supplies of PPE and vaccine seem to be the main things on the federal govts plate and those seem okay right now.
Counterpoint: Once the state mandates (which also didn’t have mask police) expired almost everyone took their masks off. Even if not enforced by actual consequence they mattered.
Trump constantly lied to his followers about how serious this virus is and he put his failson in charge of securing PPE. Sorry, no one here told you Biden was going to magically solve this problem.