'An Utter Sh*t Show': Trump Effort to Enlist Private Companies to Reopen Economy Derided As a Disaster

Business leaders who took part in a series of calls with the president expressed fears they could be liable if employees went into work too early and got sick.


by
Eoin Higgins, staff writer




https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/16/utter-sht-show-trump-effort-enlist-private-companies-reopen-economy-derided-disaster







An attempt by President Donald Trump to enlist the assistance of private business leaders in his efforts to reopen the U.S. economy by early May was panned as a failure by participants and observers alike as the White House response to the coronavirus pandemic appears set to make an economic crash worse.

"He's got to stop talking about turning the economy back on and start talking about making people feel safe, things that are happening around testing, and the health care system," one CEO who commented anonymously for fear of White House reprisals told Politico. "That's the only way you will really get the economy reopened over a period of time."

The meetings and rollout of the president's "Opening Our Country Council" were reportedly beset by confusion and chaos as the White House announced a series of calls with executives on Tuesday night without consulting participants, many of whom had preexisting commitments on quarterly earnings they could not reschedule.


According to the New York Times, CEOs on a series of White House calls were most concerned about the lack of testing, which would make people feel less safe even in the event of a reopening, and the possibility company leadership could be held liable for putting employees back to work before it was safe:


Mr. Trump opened the call by saying that "testing is under control" in the country. But after each executive was given a minute or two to provide his or her overview of what was needed to reopen the economy, there was a wide consensus that more testing was needed before the economy could reopen, according to two people who participated on the call. Among those who made the point that the testing was necessary to track who was infected and who might have immunity before returning employees to work sites was Jeffrey P. Bezos, the chief executive of Amazon.




Another issue of great concern to the executives on the call, one participant said, was the need to address the liability companies could face if employees got sick after returning to work, given the possibility that workers who felt that they were brought back too soon—or were not placed in a safe environment—could sue en masse.

"CEOs will go along with Trump's plan to force employees into workplaces against the advice of public health experts, killing many—for the sole purpose of juicing the stock market and his re-election effort—but only if workers have no legal recourse," Crooked Media editor-in-chief Brian Beutler noted on Twitter.

As Vanity Fair reported, Trump's council on reopening the economy has already gone through a number of changes in just days:


Earlier this week, it looked as though Donald Trump, in all his infinite wisdom, had put his daughter and son-in-law on the council advising the White House on when to "reopen" the country. Given the president's long history of putting the dynamic duo in charge of matters they have literally no business being anywhere near, and his claim that Ivanka has single-handedly created 15 million jobs, the development appeared unsurprising if not completely absurd. Luckily, it seems that someone with some ounce of sense intervened, and told Trump he should probably speak to a few actual business executives, if not real-life economists. And what do you know? Those people have apparently told him it would be absurd to get back to regular life before the government has hugely increased testing capabilities.

Progressives derided the latest failure by the president to put together a coherent response to the ongoing economic and public health crises brought on by the pandemic and noted the reporting from the Times on the calls and task force had highlighted concerns from CEOs that they could be liable for forcing employees back to work.

"An utter shit show described here," tweeted Talking Points Memo's Josh Marshall, adding readers should note the desire from CEOs "to be immune from liability if employees are forced to go back to work and get sick and die."

'Staggering': Unemployment Claims Climb to 22 Million as US Remains Epicenter of Global Pandemic

"And that's just the beginning. These numbers only count the people who qualify for unemployment."


by
Jessica Corbett, staff writer





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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/16/staggering-unemployment-claims-climb-22-million-us-remains-epicenter-global-pandemic







Roughly 22 million Americans have filed jobless claims since mid-March as the United States has become the epicenter of the global coronavirus pandemic, with over 30% of the world's more than two million confirmed cases.


Although the new DOL report (pdf) featured a lower weekly figure than last week, the broader conditions resulting from virus-related shutdowns continued to alarm economists and elicit comparisons to the Great Depression of the 1930s.The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced Thursday that over 5.2 million people filed for unemployment insurance (UI) during the week that ended April 11, bringing the seasonally adjusted four-week total to about 22 million.

"All told, roughly nearly 12 million people are now receiving unemployment checks, roughly matching the peak reached in January 2010, shortly after the Great Recession officially ended," the Associated Press reported Thursday.

"Some economists say the unemployment rate could reach as high as 20% in April, which would be the highest rate since the Great Depression of the 1930s," the AP noted. "By comparison, unemployment never topped 10% during the Great Recession."

Using unadjusted rather than seasonally adjusted DOL figures, Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) pointed out that "the 20.1 million jobless claims in the last four weeks are more than five times the worst four-week stretch of the Great Recession."


Shierholz, a senior economist and director of policy at EPI, added in her statement:


It is important to note that the extraordinary UI claims of the last month don't include people who aren't eligible for regular UI but are nevertheless out of work due to the virus—people like independent contractors, those who had to quit work to care for a child whose school closed, and many others.

Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) made a similar point while responding to the DOL announcement on Twitter. "It's staggering," he said of the 22 million claims, "and many are still having trouble filing for unemployment insurance, meaning the true number is even higher."

The youth-led Sunrise Movement also recognized the DOL data as incomplete and reiterated a growing demand that the federal government pursue a #PeoplesBailout rather than just bailing out corporations and executives affected by outbreak:


"Mass unemployment is a policy choice," Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) declared in response to the DOL report. "We need my Paycheck Guarantee Act to ensure all workers get their paycheck during this crisis."

Jayapal's proposal, introduced last week, has the support of labor unions and small business advocates. The measure would allow companies nationwide to fully cover their employees' salaries of up to $100,000 annually, following the lead of similar schemes in other countries around the world.

The United States has long faced ridicule for being the world's only industrialized nation that doesn't have universal healthcare but criticism of the inadequate, for-profit U.S. system has ramped up as the coronavirus has ravaged the country, killing at least 31,000 people. The global death toll for COVID-19 is over 139,000.

EPI's Ben Zipperer and Josh Bivens on Thursday estimated that 9.2 million U.S. workers have likely lost their employer-provided health insurance in the past four weeks and urged the federal government to "fund an expansion of Medicare and Medicaid to all those suffering job losses during the pandemic period."

Noting the new DOL data and that about half of Americans have health insurance through an employer, the advocacy group Public Citizen tweeted: "Millions are losing health insurance during a pandemic. We need Medicare for All."


"This crisis combines the scale of a national economic downturn with the pace of a natural disaster," Daniel Zhao, a senior economist at Glassdoor, told the outlet. "And that's really unprecedented in American economic history."Based on the number of jobs deemed nonessential that cannot be done remotely, economists estimate about a third of all positions in the United States—or up to 50 million—are at risk of coronavirus-related layoffs. "It's unlikely that all those workers will be laid off or file for unemployment benefits. But it suggests the extraordinary magnitude of unemployment that could result from the pandemic," the AP reported.

EPI projects that "near-term job losses could exceed 30 million, even taking into account the relief measures already in place," said Shierholz. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act that Congress passed in March "had some crucial provisions in it, but it is no match for the damage the economy is facing, and federal policymakers need to do more."

"The next relief and recovery package should provide aid to state and local governments, extend unemployment insurance benefits, provide better protections for workers and jobs, and include funding to safeguard our democracy," the economist added. "And importantly, we cannot turn off federal government relief too early.

"At this point it appears that even under the best-case scenario—a rapid bounce-back in the second half of the year—the unemployment rate will still be close to 10% in the fourth quarter of this year," she concluded. "Congress has the power to dramatically mitigate the suffering associated with the coronavirus shock, and they have an obligation to exercise it."

'Thriving During a Pandemic': UnitedHealth Group Posts Surge in Profits as Millions Lose Insurance and Thousands Die

"The earnings were so good, the company said it still expects to make as much in total profits this year as they predicted in December... when no one could predict the massive loss of life and jobs caused by the coronavirus."


by
Jake Johnson, staff writer




https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/16/thriving-during-pandemic-unitedhealth-group-posts-surge-profits-millions-lose







"That's the story of healthcare in America today," former insurance executive Wendell Potter said Wednesday after the largest private health insurance provider in the U.S. announced that it saw a significant increase in profits over the last three months while the Covid-19 pandemic killed thousands of people and forced millions more off their employer-sponsored coverage.

UnitedHealth Group, whose CEO is an outspoken opponent of Medicare for All, said the coronavirus outbreak had "minimal impact" on its earnings in the first quarter of 2020 and is unlikely to disrupt the company's profit outlook for the rest of the year. As of Thursday morning, the novel coronavirus has officially infected more than 636,000 people and killed more than 28,000 in the United States.


"First quarter earnings from operations grew $164 million or 3.4% year-over-year to $5.0 billion," the company said, noting that the costs of the coronavirus pandemic were offset by "lower elective care demand," meaning fewer people sought out non-essential medical treatment over the last three months as Covid-19 spread across the U.S."UnitedHealth Group's first quarter 2020 revenues grew $4.1 billion or 6.8% to $64.4 billion, reflecting broad-based revenue growth across Optum and UnitedHealthcare," the company said in its quarterly earnings report (pdf). Optum and UnitedHealthcare are both owned by UnitedHealth Group.

Potter, a self-described "reformed insurance propagandist" who now heads the advocacy group Medicare for All NOW!, wrote in a series of tweets Wednesday that "while America's reeling from the Covid-19 crisis, my old industry—the private health insurance racket—is winning big."

"UnitedHealth easily blew away Wall Street's expectations for the first 3 months of 2020. The $5 billion it reported earning over the first 3 months of the year is actually UP 3.4% over the same quarter last year—despite losing almost 1.2 million in health plan membership," said Potter. "In other words, they're thriving during a pandemic."

Potter noted that instead of using profits to reduce premiums and out-of-pocket expenses for its customers amid the coronavirus pandemic, UnitedHealth Group "used $1.7 billion to buy back its own shares."

"The bottom line: Americans are getting sick and dying, and doctors risking their lives to save them, in this crisis," Potter wrote. "Meanwhile, health insurance companies are denying coverage and squeezing doctors to generate record profits."




UnitedHealth Group's earnings report came as Democratic lawmakers are offering competing plans on how best to tackle the coronavirus-driven healthcare crisis. According to an analysis by Covered California, the pandemic could lead insurance companies to hike premiums by as much as 40% next year even as industry profits rise.

As Common Dreams reported Tuesday, Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) unveiled legislation that would allow laid-off and furloughed workers to continue buying into their employer-sponsored insurance plans at no additional cost.

While the bill received some applause, including from the AFL-CIO, progressives criticized the proposal as a mere "subsidy to insurers" that would not address the structural problems at the heart of America's profit-driven insurance system.

Meanwhile, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) last week introduced legislation that would provide no-cost healthcare to all for the duration of the coronavirus crisis by empowering Medicare to cover all essential medical costs for the uninsured and all out-of-pocket expenses for those with insurance.

"With an estimated 35 million Americans in danger of losing their employer-provided health insurance over the coming weeks and months," said Sanders, "this legislation is needed now more than ever."

OSHA Flooded With Thousands of Worker Complaints Accusing Employers of Violating Covid-19 Guidelines

"Powerful evidence that workers across the country are terrified and frustrated that their employers are not providing them with safe workplace."


by
Jake Johnson, staff writer





1 Comments




https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/16/osha-flooded-thousands-worker-complaints-accusing-employers-violating-covid-19l




The Occupational Safety and Health Administration in recent weeks has been flooded with thousands of worker complaints accusing employers of violating federal coronavirus prevention guidelines by failing to ensure proper social distancing on the job and providing inadequate safety equipment such as "masks made out of paper towels."

More than 3,000 coronavirus-related complaints were filed with OSHA between January and early April, according to the Washington Post, which obtained the records Thursday through a Freedom of Information Act request. That number is likely an undercount because it does not include complaints from 20 states that collect the records on their own, the Post noted.


One worker said of their employer in a complaint to OSHA that "they are forcing employees to work in very close contact with other employees and employees are worrie[d] for their health and safety.""Collectively, the records depict the desperation of the employees and their frustrations with employers, who in the view of workers were at best simply unprepared for a pandemic and at worst callously unconcerned with worker safety," the Post reported.

According to the Post, the records "include numerous complaints from healthcare workers, including by those given 'plastic ponchos' and masks made out of paper towels. Employees report lack of hand sanitizer or soap in bathrooms, as well as pharmacists and technicians forced to work in close proximity without protective gear."

News of the surge in worker complaints comes as OSHA, which is overseen by Labor Secretary Eugue Scalia, is facing growing criticism for refusing to require employers to comply with federal coronavirus guidelines.




David Michaels, the former head of OSHA, told the Post that "the large number of complaints they have received is powerful evidence that workers across the country are terrified and frustrated that their employers are not providing them with safe workplaces."


The lack of adequate workplace protections amid the coronavirus pandemic has had devastating consequences for frontline workers. Many workers in the healthcare and retail industries have walked off the job in recent weeks to protest unsanitary conditions and a lack of safety equipment.

An analysis released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that more than 9,200 U.S. healthcare workers have tested positive for Covid-19 and 27 have died as of April 9. The Post reported Sunday that at least 41 grocery store workers have died from Covid-19.

"Despite thousands of complaints from workers citing unsafe conditions, OSHA is still refusing to issue an emergency safety standard to protect workers from Covid-19 infections," the House Committee on Education and Labor tweeted Thursday.

After Selling Stocks as Coronavirus Pandemic Reached US, GOP Senators Loeffler and Perdue Join Committee to Reopen Economy

"It's time to revive the economy, says woman who did insider trading to avoid taking the loss when it tanked."


by
Julia Conley, staff writer





6 Comments




https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/16/after-selling-stocks-coronavirus-pandemic-reached-us-gop-senators-loeffler-and







Three weeks after government watchdogs demanded the resignation of U.S. Sens. Kelly Loeffler and Richard Burr following reports that both responded to briefings about the burgeoning coronavirus pandemic in late January by selling millions of dollars in stocks, critics slammed President Donald Trump's appointment of Loeffler to the White House's committee on reopening the economy.

Loeffler's fellow Republican senator from Georgia, David Perdue, was also named as a member of the committee weeks after reports revealed he bought stock in a personal protective equipment (PPE) manufacturer after learning about the public health crisis which would soon cause nationwide shortages of the equipment as healthcare workers treated coronavirus patients. Perdue sold stocks after briefings in January and early February, as well.

Journalist Ryan Grim called the appointments "an odd choice of senators for this role."

Following reports that Loeffler was one of dozens of members of Congress to be tapped for a committee seat, the first-term senator—a former financial services CEO who had no political experience before being appointed to the Senate by Georgia's Republican governor, Brian Kemp—tweeted, "It's clear we must start working to revive our economy and get the American people back to work safely."


Perdue wrote that he was "humbled" to be appointed to the task force.

Critics on social media denounced the appointment of two senators who, while their party publicly downplayed the risk of the coronavirus outbreak spreading across the U.S. early this year, prioritized their personal finances based on private briefings instead of warning their constituents.

"It's time to revive the economy, says woman who did insider trading to avoid taking the loss when it tanked," wrote progressive activist Jordan Uhl.


Loeffler, who owns a stake in the Atlanta Dream WNBA team, has likely found "a new way to profit off coronavirus deaths," tweeted comedian Mike Drucker, as Loeffler and other Republicans push to bring social distancing practices to a halt and reopen businesses and schools across the country, against the advice of public health experts and economists.



Ed Tarver, a Democrat running to unseat Loeffler in November, compared her appointment to "putting a shark on the task force to reopen the beaches on Amity Island" in the movie Jaws.

Democrat Jon Ossoff, who is challenging Perdue, called the new White House task force "The Senate Select Committee on Stock Tips" and suggested Perdue's appointment "could allow the senator to obtain insider information that he passes along to financial advisers."

Even Republican Voters Support $2,000 a Month Payments During Coronavirus Crisis: Poll

A plurality of all respondents cited a wealth tax as their preferred way to pay for the program.


by
Eoin Higgins, staff writer




https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/16/even-republican-voters-support-2000-month-payments-during-coronavirus-crisis-poll







A majority of Americans—including over half of Republican respondents—support a monthly $2,000 universal basic income check to help defray the effects of the ongoing coronavirus outbreak on the U.S. economy, according to new polling from Data for Progress and the Justice Collaborative Institute.

A wealth tax proved most popular among all respondents in a follow-up question presenting options for paying for the universal basic income (UBI) policy.

"UBI and taxing the rich: two ideas whose time has come," tweeted historian Rutger Bregman.

According to The Appeal reporting on the results:


Our polling found that 68% of the public prefers receiving a pre-loaded debit card to a deduction on next year's income tax. This includes a majority of both Democrats (73%) and Republicans (65%).

[...]

Imposing a wealth tax (42%) was supported the most from the public, followed by adding to the deficit (35%) and then by using new currency (24%). Republicans preferred adding the deficit the most (42%) and Democrats preferred the wealth tax the most (50%).




Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), who has been at the forefront of efforts to provide UBI to everyone in the U.S. during the pandemic, said on Twitter that the polling reflects a changing national mood on the benefit.

"A majority of Americans know what I've been saying from the start of this: one-time payments to a portion of the population simply aren't enough to get us through this crisis," tweeted Tlaib.


Tlaib introduced with Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) the Automatic BOOST to Communities (ABC) Act on Thursday.

The bill would provide "a $2,000 payment using BOOST debit cards to every person in America as critical relief during the COVID-19 crisis, followed by $1,000 recurring monthly payments for one year after the end of the crisis to help our country and families recover."

"The ABC Act provides immediate relief to those in need—regardless of their immigration status—and ensures that relief lasts the duration of the pandemic," Jayapal said in a statement. "We're in an unprecedented public health and economic crisis and the American people desperately need Congress to take this bold action."

As Flint Water Crisis Enters Sixth Year, 'Astounding' Report Exposes Lies of Ex-Gov. Rick Snyder and Other Officials

"Coronavirus is the biggest story in the country, and rightfully so. But today, this enormous, exclusive, and damning story should be a very, very close second."


by
Jessica Corbett, staff writer





3 Comments




https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/16/flint-water-crisis-enters-sixth-year-astounding-report-exposes-lies-ex-gov-rick




VICE on Thursday published an "astounding" and "important" exclusive report on how Rick Snyder, a Republican who served as Michigan's governor from 2011 to 2019, "knew about Flint's toxic water—and lied about it."

The report, based on a year-and-a-half investigation, comes almost six years after an emergency manager appointed by Snyder switched Flint's water supply from Detroit's system to the Flint River. Since that move on April 25, 2014, city residents have endured health consequences resulting from a deadly Legionella pneumophila bacterial outbreak and exposure to heavy metals and cancer-causing contaminants.


As Jordan Chariton and Jenn Dize reported Thursday:


Hundreds of confidential pages of documents obtained by VICE, along with emails and interviews, reveal a coordinated, five-year cover-up overseen by Snyder and his top officials to prevent news of Flint's deadly water from going public—while there was still time to save lives—and then limit the damage after the crisis made global headlines.

All told, the waterborne bacterial disease may have killed at least 115 people in 2014 and 2015, and potentially more whose pneumonia wasn't officially considered Legionnaires' disease, the illness caused by Legionella. In addition to the outbreak, Flint's water supply was contaminated with lead and other heavy metals, harmful bacteria, carcinogens, and other toxic components. This wreaked havoc on Flint residents, leaving them with a laundry list of illnesses, including kidney and liver problems, severe bone and muscle pain, gastrointestinal problems, loss of teeth, autoimmune diseases, neurological deficiencies, miscarriages, Parkinson's disease, severe fatigue, seizures, and volatile mood disorders.

Beyond this, the long-term effects of heavy-metal poisoning takes years to develop, meaning many ill residents' conditions are worsening as the years go on. Many have said they still rely on bottled water to avoid using the water that comes through their pipes and into their homes, schools, and businesses.

The report detailed actions of local and state officials both leading up to and during the public health crisis, which continues today. It is based on interviews and documents from a criminal investigation of Snyder's administration that was led by special prosecutor Todd Flood from 2016 until last year, when newly elected state Attorney General Dana Nessel fired Flood and others.

The prosecution team led by Flood charged 15 Flint and Michigan officials with various crimes; seven of those cases were resolved with plea agreements. In January 2019, Nessel appointed Fadwa Hammoud as the state's solicitor general and assigned her to take over the Flint criminal cases.

In June, the state's prosecution team dismissed all pending criminal charges against the eight remaining defendants and launched a new probe based on concerns about the initial one. That decision, as Common Dreams reported, "elicited fresh concerns and demands for justice."

VICE noted that with Flint about to enter its sixth year of the water crisis, "the clock for justice is also ticking." Unless the Republican-controlled state legislature intervenes, the statute of limitations for filing new felony misconduct-in-office charges will run out next week. Chariton highlighted that detail in a series of tweets about the reporting Thursday.


In August, a pair of state legislators from Flint proposed legislation to extend the statute of limitations from six years to 10. Karen Weaver, then-mayor of Flint, expressed support for the proposal, declaring at the time that "there is no time limit that can be put on the amount of suffering that we have faced, nor the amount of pain as a result of the loss of life."

Weaver told VICE that the governor's office repeatedly dangled "a pot of money for different things" and pressured her to publicly claim that the city's water was safe. The outlet reported that "after repeated attempts by the Snyder administration to get Mayor Weaver to cooperate proved unsuccessful, the promised funding suddenly became unavailable."

The outlet added:


Weaver was even pressed to say the water in Flint's schools was safe to drink, according to former city government officials familiar with the administration's overtures to Weaver. Weaver didn't, and soon after, the remaining free water-bottle stations Flint residents relied on were prematurely shut down.

When the stations were shuttered, Weaver attempted to reopen them by turning to the $48.8 million rainy-day fund that was allocated to Flint from the state's 2017-2018 budget. But when Weaver looked, the money was gone. The Snyder administration had been using these funds—meant to be under Flint's control—to pay for the water stations.

In addition to detailing interactions between Weaver and the Snyder administration from the mayor's perspective, the report highlighted a few findings from the Flint criminal investigation documents:
Snyder was warned about the dangers of using the Flint River as a water source a year before the water switch even occurred.
Snyder had knowledge of the Legionella outbreak in Flint as early as October 2014, six months after the water switch—and 16 months earlier than he claimed to have learned of the deadly outbreak in testimony under oath before Congress.
Communication among Snyder, his top officials, and the state health department spiked in October 2014 around the same time state environmental and health officials traded emails and calls about the Legionella outbreak in Flint.

Snyder and his attorneys did not respond to VICE's requests for comment. Several other officials named in the exhaustive report also declined to respond or comment, with some of them citing the ongoing criminal investigation.

The reporting provoked a fresh wave of criticism directed at government officials involved in the crisis and was published as the international community contends with a global pandemic that has infected more than two million people since late last year.

Sharing Chariton and Dize's Flint piece on Twitter Thursday, VICE senior editor Maxwell Strachan wrote that "coronavirus is the biggest story in the country, and rightfully so. But today, this enormous, exclusive, and damning story should be a very, very close second."