Relief bill negotiations apparently are going to resume, but helping state and local governments, which have suffered massive tax revenue declines, continues to be a major sticking point because of Trump’s adamant opposition to aid for “poorly run blue states.”
But what does that mean? CNBC reported on Thursday, October 8, 2020, that
“A Trump administration official … focused on … governor-led states … and called it ‘a bailout for poorly run blue states.’ The official added that these states have higher unemployment because they have pursued overly restrictive lockdown rules that hurt growth.”
(Read story here.) So there you have it. Trump wants to punish Democratic governors for locking down on the advice of health experts. For not reopening. For trying to save lives.
Governments do make decisions to sacrifice the lives of their citizens for larger ends. Every time they go to war. Thousands of American lives were sacrificed on the Normandy beaches, thousands more on Iwo Jima and Guadalcanal, and on other battlefields. We’re at war with a deadly virus, and Trump decided to sacrifice American lives to keep the economy open so he could get reelected. There’s no relief bill because he’s seeking retribution against Democratic governors who didn’t cooperate. The Joe Kennedy principle of “don’t get mad, get even” (although he does both).
In our system of government, governors aren’t the president’s subordinates. They have independent authority over their states. Voters have every right to elect a president who will prioritize the economy — and his own reelection — over saving lives. That’s the president we have, and that decision is within the authority that voters gave him. But voters also have every right to elect governors who will prioritize lives over the economy and Trump’s reelection, and voters in many states did that, too. But to Trump, that means those states are “poorly run.”
With Trump, there’s no such thing as an honest difference of opinion, or divergent priorities. It’s his way or the highway.
Republicans don’t have to agree to relief for the citizens of those states.
The citizens of those states don’t have to vote for them.