Budowsky: Trump’s COVID-19 catastrophe

Warning to Republicans: while I fervently want to win a Democratic landslide in November, I do not want to win it because President Trump’s incompetence and negligence destroys the health of the nation through a massive but preventable second wave of COVID-19 deaths.

An increasing number of states are reopening far too much, far too soon, which could ultimately lead to the total of deceased Americans rising to 100,000 by June and, if there is a second wave of the deadly virus by flu season in the fall, to 200,000 or 250,000 by Election Day.

Trump might call that a great victory. American voters will not. They will punish Trump and all Republicans who today act like his political prisoners.

Suggestion for Democrats and former Vice President Joe Biden: I applaud Democratic leaders for proposing another relief payment of $2,000 and condemn Republicans for opposing it. What is needed is a one-time payment of $5,000 that would provide three months of financial security and a lessening of intense psychological pressure that drives many Americans to return to work too soon.

For those who state that this will increase the deficit, the Congressional Budget Office should do a budget analysis of what happens if the premature reopening of the economy causes a dramatic increase of illness and death and forces the economy to close again by fall.

Americans should not be asked to choose between mass death and a Great Depression that could last for years, not months. A $5,000 payment would dramatically help hard-hit Americans and buy a little time to achieve the widespread testing that will enable the economy to reopen more safely, and stay open without having to close again for many more months.

Trump’s conduct in combating the deadly coronavirus has been an unmitigated disaster, constantly behind the medical curve, repeatedly making statements that are grotesquely untrue and consistently failing to take urgently needed actions throughout January, February, March and April that continues today.

An increasing number of states are reopening for business far too much, far too soon. The consequences will be disastrous in the short term by increasing the number of casualties — dramatically above the current total of more than 80,000 American deaths to 100,000 or 200,000 deaths.

Many of those deaths were preventable if the president had acted wisely and forcefully during the last four months instead of wasting that time to insult the media, Democrats and former presidents, among many others.

Even worse, the premature opening of states today substantially raises the high odds of America and the world being aggressively invaded by a second or third wave of COVID-19 casualties when flu season begins in the fall. Every government official addressing the COVID-19 crisis, and every private citizen looking out for the health of their families, should carefully read the history of the great pandemic of 1918, where the second wave was dramatically more deadly than the first wave.

It was governmentally and medically insane for Trump to have repeatedly denied the importance of testing from January through today. When he said this week that any American who wants a test can get one today, he was lying. Not one medical expert believes this. This is the most deadly delusion a president can have, because the safety of the nation when reopening for business is protected by the availability of testing, and gravely endangered when adequate testing is not available which is the case today.

If COVID-19 fatalities increase in the coming weeks because many states are reopening for business far too much and far too soon, and if there is a devastating second or third wave of COVID-19 casualties as the flu season arrives, Trump Republicans will go down in history as disasters for the nation who destroyed the Republican Party for a generation.

Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and former Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.), who was chief deputy majority whip of the House of Representatives. He holds an LLM in international financial law from the London School of Economics.