May 14th 2020

By Thom Hartmann

While other countries have eliminated or controlled the coronavirus, we learned today that Donald Trump chose specifically not to order test kits, personal protective equipment or ventilators way back in January because Jared Kushner advised him that it might spook the stock market if the nation were to prepare for the pandemic.

Now the Fed chief, Jerome Powell, is warning that our cratered economy could remain bombed out for years because Republicans’ and the Trump administration‘s response to it have been so small and ineffective. Most of the other developed countries of the world have been able to get the virus under control and keep their unemployment rate well below 10%, some below 6%, through early and aggressive action.

Trump’s response, on the other hand, has caused America - 4.5 percent of the world’s population - to have a third of the world’s coronavirus cases and over a quarter of the world’s coronavirus deaths, in addition to the most severely damaged economy in the developed world. This bungling forces us to confront a terrible question: Will the next president be able to undo Trump’s damage and the GOP’s obstructionism in a few months, or is it going to take years or maybe even decades to put America back together?

Thom Hartmann is a talk-show host and the author of The Hidden History of the War on Voting and more than 30 other books in print. His most recent project is a science podcast called The Science Revolution. He is a writing fellow at the Independent Media Institute.