Kevyn

President Trump’s reluctance to use the Defense Production Act has been one of the most enduring mysteries of the coronavirus epidemic. The Defense Production Act is a 1950 law allowing the federal government to redirect vital industry for use in a crisis (primarily a war, but an epidemic would also do). Hospitals are desperately short of ventilators and respirators, and governors, doctors, and public-health officials have begged Trump to invoke the act to direct emergency production before hospital staff gets infected and patients begin dying.
Trump’s diffidence is puzzling, given his normal tendency to push presidential authority to, or well past, its constitutional limits. This is a president who claimed national-security powers to slap tariffs on steel from Canada and Mexico, and to build a border fence.
The New York Times resolves the mystery. Trump has refused to invoke the act because big business doesn’t want him to. “The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the heads of major corporations have lobbied the administration against using the act,” the Times reports. “They say the move could prove counterproductive, imposing red tape on companies precisely when they need flexibility to deal with closed borders and shuttered factories.” Trump, Lawrence Kudlow, and Jared Kushner all reportedly found these arguments persuasive.
Of course, persuading that troika does not necessarily require a solid factual basis. Kudlow is a fanatical adherent of supply-side economics whose career of wrongness has been sustained by a willingness to advance the narrow interests of the superrich. Kushner is a dilettante heir to his father’s shady construction empire. Trump is … also that, but less intelligent than Kushner.
Trump has touted the voluntary efforts of businesses to crank out emergency supplies. But Trump appears to be getting his rosy information from the firms themselves. Production is not happening fast enough, or at a high enough level, to ensure hospitals will be protected. The Times reports that Hanes, Fruit of the Loom, and other companies are producing respirator masks, the underwear masks “will be made of a three-ply underwear fabric, and do not provide the level of protection given by the N95 masks that health care workers need for intubation and other procedures.”
That isn’t the fault of the underwear-makers, who are dealing with the materials they have and trying to help. It does suggest that the administration’s policy of corporate voluntarism is being driven by the needs of business owners, not the public health.

LogicallyRight Loc: Chicago

NWR

nonalien1 Loc: Mojave Desert

I heard Ford ar Chevy both stopped producing cars to make mass quantitys of ventalators

Blade_Runner Loc: DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

Copy that.

Kevyn

You did hear that, sadly it is a lie told by Trump, AKA Scumbago the clown.

Geo

TRUMP: Give me Money or Give me Death, your death not mine.

(CNN)The first time most of us learned that President Donald Trump was thinking about relaxing existing measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic was on Sunday night, just before midnight. That's when his tweet shouted in all caps, "WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF."

He went on to say he would make a decision at the end of the current 15-day period of CDC guidelines recommending social distancing.
The idea to change course may have come from his favorite network, Fox News, where a Sunday morning host suggested that when it comes to fighting the coronavirus, "The cure is worse than the disease." The question for the rest of us is, can we trust Trump to make a decision of this magnitude? To be blunt, the question is whether relaxing restrictions will lead to illness and death for large numbers of Americans.

jack sequim wa Loc: Blanchard, Idaho

Expect a national lockdown with more military presence.

Cadiver Loc: Frankfort IL

This situation is precisely what this Act is for...what is his rationalization (or even excuse) for not implementing???

Lonewolf

None it's not like a company retooling to make ventilators will not be paid handsomely for it.

LogicallyRight Loc: Chicago

Wrong as usual. Normally you aren't worth responding to, but I am responding to correct an utter falsehood. GM is in talks with Ventec Life Systems in Washington for about a week. They are offering their expertise in supply chains and production lines. It might be to difficult to reduce an automobile production line for a small device like that, but they are looking into it. So, Kevyn, as usual your statements are lies and not worth responding to.

Blade_Runner Loc: DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

EmilyD

Trump responded to a reporter who specifically asked about the Defense Protection Act. He said many companies all over the country were already offering their own help without any pressure from the government. He mentioned Hanes (the company that makes cotton t-shirts and underwear) will start mass-producing masks. Other companies like Ford and Chevy will begin making ventilators (in fact he said there was one company in New Hampshire - a metal working company - called to say they could make ventilators), a company that makes whiskey and alcohol, called to say they could make hand sanitizers, etc. Why should he invoke a bill that says they HAVE to do something they already are willing to do? Why should he give other businesses who might offer their help in the future a message they are going to be taken over by the government? Trump might use the Act later on "down the chain" as he put it, but it is not needed just yet.

If you don't believe me, just google Sunday's coronivirus press briefing - it started at 5:00 pm (est) and ended after 7 pm.

You may be able to view it, also, on https://www.whitehouse.gov/

Cadiver Loc: Frankfort IL

The Ford assembly plant and stamping plant in Chicago are both closed right now for deep cleaning not for retooling for anything

EmilyD

So? Does that mean they won't start doing what they said they were going to do? I doubt it.

I see you registered today. Are you a troll?

Cadiver Loc: Frankfort IL

I am not a troll lol