Xanax please

[doodle]

Because he's talking about New York and California which by the fact that they are so heavily populated are experiencing this pandemic on a different scale than a state like Wyoming or Arizona. He is playing with people's lives during a pandemic to score political points. That is inexcusable behavior for the president.

[doodle]

Should also mention that I have seen data to suggest that biggest bailout states (those that take more federal dollars than they contribute ) are red States....Kentucky, West Virginia...

[shekels]

Because he's talking about New York and California which by the fact that they are so heavily populated are experiencing this pandemic on a different scale than a state like Wyoming or Arizona. He is playing with people's lives during a pandemic to score political points. That is inexcusable behavior for the president.

Political Points Political Points they all are trying to score Political Points.
What you don't think Chuck Schumer or Pelosi are trying to do? Yes score Political Points.
Truth be known this continued Lock down may be the means for them to score Political Points.
Schumer/Pelosi want a change in Management so a little Lock down/Imprisonment is not beyond their realm..

You may want to consider Trump is not the only one..Inexcusable behavior

[Tortoise]

Should also mention that I have seen data to suggest that biggest bailout states (those that take more federal dollars than they contribute ) are red States....Kentucky, West Virginia...

I assume that in the statement above, you're actually referring to subsidies, not bailouts.

A state that receives net subsidies from the federal government each year (e.g., for the agriculture industry) is not the same thing as a state that's on the brink of bankruptcy and receives a large one-time bailout from the federal government to prevent it.

I'm generally opposed to most subsidies and bailouts -- whether of companies or of state governments. It tends to introduce moral hazard and distort markets.

In the special case of this pandemic, I'm very curious about how some of the states that are at risk of bankruptcy (e.g., NY and CA) got that way. Specifically, I'm wondering if a big part of the problem was that when those state governments issued their lockdown orders, they continued to pay the salaries and benefits of most state employees even while they choked off the salaries and benefits of millions of private-sector employees by forcing "non-essential" companies to shut down. If so, that seems like a stark double standard.

[Tyler]

One of the biggest problems I have with state bailouts is the incentives involved. If states get the idea that the Feds will step in and bail them out if things get bad enough, they actually have an incentive to stay closed and ruin their own economies in the short term to get bailed out of their long term obligations that existed way before the virus ever hit. Companies have no choice of when they're allowed to open for business, but states do. And frankly I don't trust many of them to act in the best interests of their own residents, much less the residents of other states paying the bill.