If you were the President, what would you do?

There have been so many threads in which right wingers ask this. As if they expected me to say "Gee! I don't know what I would do. Your argument is so smart!". Sorry. No such luck! Any moderately intelligent person can think of things that Trump should do, and isn't doing.

Neverminded what he should have done. That would be an even longer thread. Only what he should be doing now as opposed to what he is actually doing about the pandemic. Which is basically to whine about losing the elections and play golf.

So what should Trump be doing if he were even a moderately competent President? I'll throw in a few ideas. Of course, this would be under advisement from the experts. Both medical experts and financial experts.

-Get his loyalists to wear masks. These are people who worship Trump, and would find excuses for him even if he shot some random person in the middle of 5th avenue. Explaing to them convincingly the need to wear masks. Most specially indoors. As if he really meant it. This includes not making fun of people who do wear masks.

-Mandate masks for federal workers: I think most agencies are requiring this. But not because of any action from the President. And Trump giving this a push would help. Also require any company that wants to do business with the federal government to mandate the use of masks among their employees, or lose that business.

-Start a big campaign to get people to not make any unnecessary travel: FDR did this during WW2. All over there were billboards asking "Is this trip really necessary?". Traveling is what spreads Covid to areas with lower infection rates or that have taken precautions. A campaign together with the tax in the next point could go a long way.

-Impose a temporary gas tax: A $0.50 per gallon temporary nationwide tax could be used for many things. Americans use about 390 million gallons per day. You do the math. Primarily the money would be used to equip hospitals, hire more personnel, increase the salaries of emergency workers, purchase more hospital beds, or establish field hospitals. Maybe even to help pay for relief to small businesses and employees who have been affected by the crisis. If this can be done through Congress, great! If it can be done with an executive order... well... Trump has shown that absolutely anything can be done with an executive order between the moment it's enacted, and the moment the Supreme Court strikes it down. Even if it's only for that period, it could do a lot of good.

-A huge campaign for people to AVOID crowds: Using fear-mongering? Absolutely! If it's necessary. If you call educating people on the danger of infection in crowds "fear-mongering". Especially indoor crowds.

Imagine you're in an indoor event with 500 people. And you KNEW for sure that a shooter would storm in and kill 35 people. And about 75 seriously wounded to the point that they have to be treated at a hospital under risk of dying. Would you still go to that event? That's the number of people who would most likely die or end up in the hospital in an indoor event with 500 assistants, according to the "Covid-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool," created by Georgia Tech researchers, Why isn't the federal government paying commercial space in all media to make people aware of things like this?

These are just the ones that came to mind while writing this post. I'm sure there are many more things that Trump could do, but won't because he's not interested in doing anything.

 

All good suggestions but living here in SD where doing nothing is looked upon as genuine "leadership" because people will use "personal responsibility" and ANYTHING that will help stop the spread is taking away imaginary "freedom". Taken as a whole, people are dumb as crap. It's because of this herd stupidity that over time things like seatbelts are mandatory and (this is just hilarious) smoking can't be done in public buildings. How long did that take to happen? Remember the outrage? It's the same thing now but the circumstances don't allow for the time. As bad as covid is, what would happen if an even worse pandemic came along? Even the denial of climate change is like a slow moving cancer. We have proven ourselves to be incredibly self destructive.

 

I'm with you until you get to that gas tax. That would only punish the poor and the working class who must drive to and from their jobs. Very bad idea.

 

By executive order where possible, and by motivating congress where not, I would:

-Create a process by which counties that border other states could vote to switch states.

-Decentivize the practice of using multiple residencial properties as a means of generating capital investment, and then open up portions of federal land to homesteading.

-Federally deregulate marijuana, alcohol, tobacco, firearms, abortion, and prolly some other stuff. Leave that for states to decide.

-Simplify the tax code. Drastically. Eliminate most or all deductions, credits, loopholes, and then lower taxes across the board, except on imported luxury goods.

-Leave NATO, UN, WHO, etc.

-Pull all troops out of any country that isn't begging us to stay.

 

So nothing he can really do except for talking to the people huh?

OMG and all these deaths could have been prevented if Trump just asked people nicely.

That is a crime against humanity man!

 

However, since the tax would be used in large part to provide relief to the poor and working class due to the consequences of the pandemic, they would still benefit greatly. There are many ways around that. Such as special stimulus checks for middle class and the poor, or income tax breaks for workers making under a certain amount.... things like that.

 

I should've made it clearer that I was referring to the response to the pandemic.

 

I know that this would require us to imagine that Trump is not the incompetent asterisk President* that he is. Very difficult to do. Even by his own supporters.

 

We have a very good republican governor who has mandated masks. Less than half the people wear them. It has little to nothing to do with Trump. They just don't like being told what to do. They are fairly compliant about big crowds. Lots of meetings, etc have been cancelled. In fact, I cancelled two myself, a high school class reunion and a family reunion. But those are not being cancelled by the average Joe.

Biden, with his mandated 100 days with a mask, is not going to have any more success than our governor. It would take law enforcement to make it happen and that is not going to happen.

Face it. Trump understands people better than Biden ever will.

 

We have an idiot governor who refuses to mandate them, and about 75% of people wear them (at least in my area). It has everything to do with Trump. I only half the people wear them, and Trump can compare 10% of those who don't, that would mean now 55% wears them. And that would save many lives.

 

You live in Florida with an abundance of older people. They are more likely to wear masks than younger people.

 

Oh. Lol.

-Secure funding for 'at risk' individuals (the elderly, the imunocompromised, and folks with other exascerbatory conditions) to allow them to self-quarantine, and allow access to these funds to those who get recomendation from their HCP

-Mandate that essential services (grocery, medical, public transit and applicable gov't services) allocate several hours of one or two days each week for use only by 'at-risk' individuals to allow them to be isolated when they must leave quarantine

-Allow everyone and everything else to go about business as usual

 

So make sure the few that still have a job can't afford to put gas in their cars! Brilliant!

 

Actually, make sure that they can put gas in their cars and keep their jobs. And, as an added bonus, reduce the likelihood that they will die of Covid.

All of the above being the things that Trump couldn't care less about.

 

A temporary tax at the federal level. I almost split a gut reading it. Federal government doesn't do temporary taxes.

 

You would have a point if the rate of infection was significantly higher among republicans. The risk if dying is 2% and mostly affects the elderly and those with medical conditions. Most of your list describes Los Angeles. They already take in more taxes and have billboards. How are they doing?

 

Take that 170m and go with a scorched earth campaign on Congress to get aid to people and states to this economy afloat.

 

It would if Trump were a competent President.

 

Huh? What are you talking about? Is somebody keeping track of the party affiliation of people with Covid?

And what the hell does anything you wrote have to do with the post you quoted?

Looks like you sat down and just wrote the first nonsense that popped into your head.

 

I appreciate you posting your opinion. It just so happens that your opinion is pretty close to the mandates already in place where Trump has no voice.

Los Angeles has
mask mandates.
Crowd limitations.
Covid Billboards
2 gas taxes and increased registration fees.

 

Huh? Trump has "no voice" in Los Angeles???? Are you aware that Los Angeles is in the U.S.? There are just as many Trump cultist nuts in Los Angeles as there are in any other city in the country.

 

So you are claiming that those calling him a liar made an exception and trusted him when it came to their health? Your claims don't exactly put you in a position to call others nuts!

 

Interesting math, too bad it doesn't work in this reality. If the bull frog had wings...

 

Yep ................ If TRump had done this he would have won a 2nd Term in a Landslide

 

Tax the poor and working class so the government can then help them? Really?