I know. He definitely was getting a lot of laughs at his rally around the "hoax" word. I know it's fun to laugh at rallies, but I probably wouldn't have at that moment.
In early 2018, the WSJ reported that the CDC lost 80% of it's global disease outbreak funding. The CDC have to pull back from 39 of the 49 countries it monitors, including China. This was funding that started with the Ebola response and was set to expire in 2019. The Admin didn't prioritize it in their CDC budget and let it expire. Separately, the team under Bolton reorg and did away with the whole WH global disease and pandemic response team in 2018. That team was not replaced (unless you call Pence a temp replacement). These people that were let go were not sitting around doing nothing. The very fact that we are on the verge of a dangerous pandemic is reason why you do need them. In the busn world, it takes weeks to months to hire good people. Trump doesn't seem to even understand busn.
WSJ Editorial Board this morning: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-virus-and-the-economy-11582935404?mod=hp_opin_pos_1 The Virus and the Economy U.S. growth will take a hit but Trump has a leadership opportunity. By The Editorial Board Feb. 28, 2020 7:16 pm ET When markets are stampeding, anyone can get run over. And that’s what happened Friday as White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow spoke the truth that the coronavirus threat will eventually pass and the U.S. will recover. Equities nonetheless fell another 1% or so Friday, and the questions are how much damage there will be to the real economy and what, if anything, can be done about it. Mr. Kudlow is right to want to prevent a panic and buck up consumer confidence, which has been holding up U.S. growth. He’s also right that the foundation of the American economy has been solid with an historically low jobless rate, healthy income gains, and a housing market that is gaining steam. But stocks don’t fall 11.5% in a week without cause, and they are responding to clear signs that the spreading coronavirus will hit the global economy hard. China’s first quarter GDP may be negative. Europe was already wobbling. The U.S. is sturdier but not immune to global weakness, especially if the virus causes extensive quarantines; business travel restrictions have already begun. The 10-year Treasury note has fallen through the floor of its historic low to 1.15%, a sign that investors expect slower growth and Federal Reserve rate cuts. The price of Brent crude is down 24% this year to $50 a barrel, on expectations of slower demand. Copper futures are down 9% since January and were off another 1% on Friday in a sign that a manufacturing recovery isn’t imminent. The junk bond and leveraged loan markets are under pressure as financial conditions have tightened. The rebound in business investment that many expected with the decline in trade tensions will now be postponed for at least the first half of the year. Supply chains need to be restored, and medical and economic uncertainty will have to ease. A U.S. economy that was expected to grow between 2% and 2.5% for the year will now likely be under that for the first half, with hope for a second half bounce. *** All of this is complicated by the political uncertainty of an election year and Washington’s climate of relentless and extreme partisanship. Democrats clearly see the Covid-19 disease as a cudgel to use against President Trump, perhaps turning it into his version of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. There’s no other way to read the rhetorical barrage they’ve aimed at Mr. Trump no matter what he does or says about the virus. The resistance media are also piling on. This feeds the public’s unease and turns every government decision into a political battle. Our sense is that this could still be an opportunity for Mr. Trump despite the partisan catcalls. Voters aren’t going to blame him for a slowing economy caused by the virus. They will blame him if the government response seems inept, or if he dismisses the problem and it turns out to be much worse than he has advertised. The best posture is to tell the public the truth that no one knows how much damage the virus may do, while offering assurance that the government’s infectious disease experts and enormous public-health bureaucracy are ready for the challenge. It’s best to project confidence without the gratuitous boasting or attacks. If reporters ask about some attack from Nancy Pelosi or Chuck Schumer, Mr. Trump should shrug it off and say he’s focused on reducing the risks from the virus. Voters will appreciate the show of leadership, and score Democrats for the rancor. Unlike the impeachment brawl, the public cares about this one and doesn’t want cheap partisanship. *** Which brings us to the possible economic policy responses. Mr. Trump could help by immediately lifting his unilateral tariffs, which would amount to a tax cut on trade and consumers. A fiscal “stimulus” is probably a waste of time, given that Democrats would insist on new spending or temporary tax rebates of the kind that Mrs. Pelosi and George W. Bush negotiated in 2008 but didn’t help growth. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell made clear in an unscheduled statement on Friday that monetary policy is in play, with a 25 basis-point cut in the fed funds rate widely expected in March. We’ve been skeptical that rate cuts can address a classic supply-side shock like the coronavirus. Fed funds are already low at 1.5%-1.75%, so the impact of rate cuts will also be less than if the Fed had moved faster to normalize its policy in the years after the financial panic and 2008-2009 recession. On the other hand, the Fed can fight a financial virus. Stocks pared their losses after Mr. Powell’s Friday statement, which shows the Fed’s psychological clout. If the Fed does cut rates as an insurance policy, it should be prepared to raise them again quickly if the coronavirus turns out to be less damaging. The Fed kept rates too low for too long after 9/11 and spurred the housing bubble and bust. This week’s market selloff is a warning but it isn’t cause for panic. We simply don’t know how much harm this coronavirus will do. Investors who keep a cool head will be rewarded, and voters will reward politicians who do the same.
Good luck with this... If reporters ask about some attack from Nancy Pelosi or Chuck Schumer, Mr. Trump should shrug it off and say he’s focused on reducing the risks from the virus. Voters will appreciate the show of leadership, and score Democrats for the rancor. Unlike the impeachment brawl, the public cares about this one and doesn’t want cheap partisanship.
Althouse on the "hoax" question: https://althouse.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-deceptiveness-of-politicos-claim.html February 29, 2020 The deceptiveness of Politico's claim that Trump called the coronavirus "a hoax." I watched the Trump rally last night, so I knew as soon as I saw this that it was a serious distortion. Headline: "Trump rallies his base to treat coronavirus as a ‘hoax.'" Here's how the text quotes him: Then Trump called the coronavirus “their new hoax.” The fact that the quote doesn't continue and "Then Trump called the coronavirus" is inserted before "their new hoax" should make you suspicious, whether you've heard the original or not. But the purportedly verbatim text above it is not, in fact, verbatim. Here's the original: I'll have more to say about all that is left out. But let me give you this for now. ADDED: Let me do a transcription, restoring the words that Politico elided (without using ellipses to show where they're dropping words and changing the flow of the meaning). The embedded video above has its own cuts, so I found uncut video. Here: Trump is clearly not calling the virus a hoax. What he's calling a hoax is the political talking point that Trump has been failing to protect the country from the virus! Now, Politico is pushing a hoax hoax — it's putting out a false story about what Trump called a hoax. Trump is certainly not "rall[ying] his base to treat coronavirus as a ‘hoax.'" Trump is rallying his base to believe that he's doing an excellent job of handling the problem and to see the criticism of his work as a hoax. He's not saying they should "treat" the virus as a hoax! AND: Here's my transcription, with boldface for what Politico left out: "Now, the Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus. You know that, right? Coronavirus. They're politicizing it. We did one of the great jobs. You say: 'How's President Trump doing?' They're going: 'Oh, nothing, nothing.' They have no clue. They don't have any clue. They can't even count their votes in Iowa. The can't even count. No, they can't. They can't count their votes. One of my people came up to me and said, ‘Mr. President, they tried to beat you on Russia, Russia, Russia.’ That didn't work out too well. They couldn't do it. They tried the impeachment hoax. That was on a perfect conversation. They tried anything. They tried it over and over. They've been doing it since you got in. It's all turning. They lost. It's all turning. Think of it. Think of it. And this is their new hoax. But you know, we did something that's been pretty amazing. There's 15 people in this massive country, and because of the fact that we went early. We went early. We could've had a lot more than that. We're doing great. Our country is doing so great. We are so unified. We are so unified. The Republican Party has never been more unified than it is now." Posted by Ann Althouse at 6:16 AM
"The criticism of his work as a hoax"? You meant to tell me the criticism aren't real? Sorry bud, but they are real. Look, Athouse and Trump are absolutely correct. The public and market fear of the Coronavirus is a DEM created hoax and Trump is doing an excellent job of handling it.
Some interesting facts here: if you're under 60 years old, and get the corona virus, there is a 99% chance you will live based on the statistics If you're over 80 years old, that drops to only roughly an 85% chance you'll live. 81% of the people who have gotten it have reported only "mild symptoms" and can recover at home 97% of the deaths have been in China https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-age-sex-demographics/
I just read that, and watched the clip with his followers literally screaming and fawning over every word, and I wouldn’t assume that they took in from that speech that the Coronavirus isn’t a “hoax perpetuated by the Democrats.” Quite the opposite, in my opinion. It is one thing to parse his words trying to find fault in the media coverage. It is another thing entirely to view the impact it makes on his most ardent followers, promptly amplified by Fox News and the lesser parts of the trump propaganda machine. He said that we - “the radical left Democrats in Washington” - in other words, the Democrats, were trying “overthrow our democracy.” An outrageous lie, one of far more than I care to count in his 2 hour tirade. Another lie? “ ...and we have completely rebuilt the awesome power of the United States military.” He has, not for the first time, pilfered billions from the same military for his vanity project, The Wall, taking it not only from the ships, aircraft, and critical weapons systems needed to confront Chinese and Russian aggression, but from badly needed infrastructure to improve woeful readiness and equally woeful housing for our people and their families. His new budget is also a cut, hardly part of “rebuilding,” a cut that literally every branch of our military are testifying before Congress, in carefully couched language (trump will not abide criticism from any quarter), is not only a mistake, but that they need increases. Increases this Democrat supports. To get back to the Coronavirus, did you watch the speech? He belittled the danger it poses for the country, comparing it to the flu. We don’t understand it well enough to compare it to anything that has come before. He claimed that “15 people have it” here, another lie. He claimed that we are “ready for it.” We are not. Why do you not provide a more balanced view of what trump is doing? If you did, you wouldn’t be subjected to accusations that are likely unfounded, yet what do they have to base their opinions on? You might think that there are plenty of posts that present that side, criticism of trump, his media machine, criticism of the GOP, but you could very well provide your own found sources that could add to these discussions. Not simply columns and articles that essentially defend what trump and his administration are, or aren’t, doing. Just a thought.
So basically this is an incredibly long winded way of saying Trump shouldn’t act like Trump. The article acts like Trump is a 5 year old and is bestowing some sort of wonderful and precious knowledge upon him; and doing so in as arrogant a way as possible. Trump is who he is and that isn’t going to change. The same for Pelosi.
Trump is going to come out ahead on this. He is ignorant on the illness and he did cut funding which was stupid. However he will come out on top because the Corona virus is being turned into the bubonic plague by the media and outrage culture. The impact will never reach the level it is being hyped up to be, and Trump can say “See I kept it from becoming as bad as the libtard’s said it would be.”
Politico did him a favor by removing the unintelligible stuff. Figuring out that "speech" is like reading tea leafs. It never said he called coronavirus a fake news. It said Democrats are making it into their next hoax - ie bigger deal than it is. It is a f*cking huge deal and if anyone is trying to spin the story, it is the article that you posted. That's how I read it anyway. You are welcome to point out where I'm wrong
Why is the table with confirmed cases empty? Is there a way to see that tbe overall rates add up to what mainstream media and cdc is reporting?
Deck, I'm a bit pressed for time but yours is a thoughtful response, wanted to at least respond in part. I can't speak to the effect Trump's words have on his listeners, I was really only trying to respond to the question asked earlier in the thread whether Trump called coronavirus a hoax. I tend to rely on Ann Althouse as a fairly level-headed, even-keeled analyst, who incidentally is herself not a big fan of Trump. I find her assessment here accurate enough. And I only listened/watched the relevant clips of the speech, I don't have the time or the patience for an hour or more of Trump, I barely have patience for the little I watched. But what I watched reinforced the general point Althouse is making. As far as "belittling" the danger of coronavirus, you may be right--perhaps Trump is doing that. But a more charitable read is that Trump is (ineptly) reinforcing the mainstream medical/CDC/etc. advice that the best thing to do right now is not to panic. And if he compared the virus to the flu . . . well, so he compared coronavirus to the flu--lots of people are doing that, e.g., https://www.ynhhs.org/patient-care/urgent-care/flu-or-coronavirus Sure, a more biologically precise comparison would have been to the common cold, but I don't expect precision from Trump. anyway. much of what you say here I don't disagree with.
What do you think of the markets? Buy the dip? I like how politicized Trump's "do not panic" messages are. Protecting the public - one Republican rally at a time.
