Over the last few weeks, the Trump base has been slowly but surely started to question some of the moves that have been made to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump is hearing the grumblings, as he now seems to be leaning toward ending the strict quarantine measures at the end of the 15-day mandatory quarantine.
WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF. AT THE END OF THE 15 DAY PERIOD, WE WILL MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHICH WAY WE WANT TO GO!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 23, 2020
Have We Gone Too Far?
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and that is largely what we are seeing right now.
A lot of suggestions were made the President and a lot of them were followed without much regard as to where they would take us in the future.
When medical experts recommended travel be shut down, he did it.
When they recommended a national self-quarantine for 15 days, he did it.
What nobody took into account, however, was the massive economic toll it was going to take and how quickly it was going to impact everyone.
Could we have told restaurants to reduce seating to help with social distancing?
Could we have offered limited shopping hours by zip code or opened early for the elderly to lessen their exposure?
This clearly could have been handled better, but we went from 100mph to stop in a heartbeat without considering any other options.
The Reality of the Shutdown
The engine, for all intents and purpose, has been turned off.
Within 48 hours of the shutdown, small businesses shuttered their doors, many for what will possibly be the last time.
Small business owners like myself saw clients suspend or end service because they too had to shut their doors.
Hotels and restaurants were forced to either lay off or outright fire a large portion of their staff.
As I write this, McConnell and Schumer are both spewing rhetoric on the Senate floor rather than hashing out a deal.
They both claim the other is pushing partisan legislation, sounding like petulant children.
Honestly, how hard is it to create a dry piece of legislation to keep people on their feet right now?
The cure here did not have to be worse than the disease IF Congress had been better prepared.
There was, however, no foresight on the part of the administration or Congress on that front.
This is an absolute disaster for our government as a whole, not for any one party or any one individual.