It’s Time for Democrats to Go Big—Really Big

In a moment of extreme crisis, with Americans losing their jobs at record-shattering rates and a quarter-million projected to die from COVID-19, congressional Democrats face a stark reality: they’re the only elected officials in federal office capable of responsible governance. Congressional Republicans are too paralyzed by their fear of Trump to govern effectively. For three years, they surrendered every pretense of independence to march in lock step behind him. And in the past few months, they stood by as his inept response to a global pandemic put us on a dark trajectory towards many more deaths and worse economic suffering than we would’ve had to endure if we had a competent president more concerned about the loss of American life than his standing on Facebook.

At every step of the way, Democrats sounded the alarm and pointed the way to a competent federal response, but Republicans ignored them. In 2018, the top Trump administration official responsible for responding to global health crises left and the team he oversaw was disbanded. Senators Patty Murray of Washington and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts sounded the alarm, but Republicans did nothing. When the COVID-19 pandemic materialized, Trump called it a “hoax” and said it was “just like a flu,” while Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer called for an emergency release of funds to the Centers for Disease Control and and Warren outlined steps to contain and prevent infectious diseases in late January, but they were met with silence and inaction from their Republican colleagues. As the pandemic got worse, the most aggressive action congressional Republicans took was when senators Richard Burr of North Carolina and Kelly Loeffler of Georgia cashed out their stock portfolios just before the market crashed.

Everything about Trump’s disastrous response was foreseeable, including the unprecedented number of “acting” directors running important agencies and lack of top-notch talent in mission-critical roles. Terrifyingly, Jared Kushner—a dilettante heir to a real-estate fortune—is now “perhaps the most pivotal figure in the national fight against” COVID-19. Michael Lewis wrote an entire book, The Fifth Risk, about experienced government officials being chased out of the Trump administration—and leaving with dire warnings about our lack of preparedness for exactly this type of crisis. But Republicans did nothing.

Now, the consequences of Trump’s predictable failure are unfolding before our eyes. Taking their cues from Trump, many red-state governors took a lackadaisical approach as COVID-19 spread through their communities. Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who is close to the Trump administration, refused to close beaches, so that spring breakers packed them (many contracted the virus and then returned to their home states), and was one of the last big-state governors to call for social distancing. Two days ago, Georgia governor Brian Kemp said he didn’t realize infected people could be asymptomatic, despite the fact that health officials had been saying this for months. Governor Greg Abbott of Texas, the second-most populous state in the union, is among those still refusing to implement stay-at-home orders. It will take weeks to have an accurate picture of the spread in their states, but it’s not looking good. And it’s hard to imagine these Republican governors taking these lax stances if Trump had conveyed accurate information and a more serious approach from the beginning.

This cascading disaster has cost 10 million Americans their jobs in the last two weeks, and it’s clear that the first three phases of the federal economic response were just a prelude. While Republicans took the lead in the early phases, their failure to meet the crisis on the scale it demands gives Democrats enormous leverage in the next one—and millions of suffering Americans are counting on them to use it to the full extent of their power. Here's a plan for how Democrats can approach the critical Phase Four.

1. The Power Is in the Paper

Democrats must write the next relief bill, and they have a clear opening to do it for two reasons. First, the economic news is so dire that Trump will have to come back to the well for more relief. The Federal Reserve is projecting the unemployment rate to hit 32 percent—higher than the 25 percent it reached at the height of the Great Depression. When Trump asks Congress for more aid, it will be a clear admission not just that his previous efforts have failed, but that Republicans lack the policy chops and political imagination to craft a sufficient federal response to this challenge.

Second, Republicans are stalling, and that gives Democrats time to seize the initiative. In response to Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s initial calls for a Phase Four, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell told her to “stand down.” It’s an obnoxious comment that will age poorly, but McConnell’s delay gives House and Senate Democrats time to write a Phase Four bill together, pass it through the House and drop it in McConnell’s lap.

The news will get worse with every passing day, and the relief from the Phase Three legislation will not come fast enough, building enormous pressure for more action. In the best case scenario, the Senate relents and passes the Democratic bill, or a version close to it. Worst-case scenario, McConnell brings it up for a vote to kill it, but even then, Democrats will have set the starting line. At a time of unprecedented crisis, it is politically and morally untenable to argue against relief for Americans, or that it’s too generous. The mover wins—all the upside lies in acting quickly to deliver generous relief. Democrats have the high ground and they should use it decisively, because lives depend on it.

2. Go Big—Like, Really Big.

Here’s how Democrats should decide what goes in the bill: Get the biggest box you can find. Then take every policy that will help working people and our democratic institutions survive this crisis. Put them in the box, address it to Trump and McConnell, and drop it off for curbside, no-contact pickup.

To survive this, we need to structurally reorient key aspects of our economy. The massive job loss is wiping out the employer-based model for health care, which America is the only developed country in the world to maintain. At a minimum, we need to reduce costs, reopen Affordable Care Act enrollment and create a pop-up public option that can be implemented immediately. Senator Warren’s transition health care plan, which creates a public option, lowers prescription drug prices, strengthens Medicare and Medicaid and attacks corruption in the health care industry, is a good place to start. We need to put as much cash in people’s hands as possible to prevent Americans from starving and to spur consumer demand; direct cash payments have reliably proven to be highly effective as economic stimulus. We also need massive debt forgiveness. And we need a plan to put people to work on infrastructure projects—including green jobs, which are enormously popular—when health conditions allow, in a government initiative modeled after FDR’s Works Progress Administration. It will take a long time to dig out of this crisis, and a program like this will put people to work while bringing our crumbling infrastructure into the 21st century. And since a democracy can’t function without voting, we need remote voting and enhanced federal resources for states to carry out secure elections.

The worst-kept secret in Washington is that there is plenty of money to help working people. All we need is the political will to deliver it to them. Whatever this bill costs, the price of failing to meet this moment will be larger in every respect, from human suffering to the long-term economic costs of cratering consumer demand in an economy reliant on it, than the up-front cost of relief.

3. Push Hard Against Corruption

Corruption is already breaking our government, but when big sums of federal funds start flowing, it can get exponentially worse. The money needs to reach the people, not be diverted to corporate stockpiles or shareholders. The $425 billion corporate bailout leveraged in Phase Three should be tightly restricted in Phase Four. And at a minimum, Phase Four should establish an anti-corruption commission with subpoena power, regular public meetings, and frequent public reports.

4. Level with the American People about Why We Are Where We Are

The American people will be furious about the fallout from this global health crisis and they have every right to be. It did not have to be this bad. A global pandemic is not Trump’s fault, but a piss-poor federal response resulting in more fatalities and more economic carnage is entirely his responsibility—and that of congressional Republicans who abetted him every step of the way. Democrats need to drive this home because the message and the policy go hand in hand: the more effective Democrats are at holding Republicans accountable, the more leverage they will have to deliver the relief people desperately need.

Trump failed at the moment that could have limited the damage. His incompetence and Republicans’ obsequiousness left America facing the worst federal response to this pandemic of any peer nation. Countries that have taken aggressive approaches—like Singapore, Germany, and South Korea—have seen promising results on the health front and less economic carnage than we are seeing here. This is on him.

At the end of the day, Democrats are not the deciders: any bill has to pass a Senate controlled by Republicans and be signed into law by President Trump. But the utter failure of Trump and congressional Republicans gives Democrats enormous leverage. And Americans are counting on them to use it.

Adam Jentleson is a GQ columnist. He served as deputy chief of staff to Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid.

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Originally Appeared on GQ