Congress Shovels Trillions at Virus, With No Endgame

“There is a growing list of detailed plans for how the federal government can bring the United States economy safely out of lockdown and back on a path to normalcy amid the coronavirus pandemic. Congress isn’t following any of them,” the New York Times reports.

“Instead, lawmakers who have spent the past two months rushing to respond to a public health and economic emergency with a series of ever-larger, taxpayer-financed spending packages appear to be locked in a reactive cycle, as the toll and financial costs of the virus mount. They are placing an array of expensive Band-Aids on a gaping wound, leaning on the hope that the economy will soon recover but offering no real blueprint for what to do if the recession lingers for months or more.”

“The approach could prove far more expensive and less effective than an ambitious, considered strategy for addressing the pandemic.”