White House: 'We're Not Going to Control the Pandemic'

Plus, Pelosi and Mnuchin fail to make a deal  [The Fisc](   By Yuval Rosenberg and Michael Rainey Hopes Fade as Pelosi, Mnuchin Fail to Make a Deal House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin spoke for nearly an hour Monday, but once again were unable to agree on terms for a massive new round of spending to boost the U.S. economy. Pelosi’s spokesman Drew Hammill said Pelosi was still “optimistic” about making a deal, but the failure to reach an agreement Monday all but guarantees that no bill will be passed before Election Day. Numerous issues still divide the negotiators, including the language defining a national testing and tracing program for the coronavirus – a problem that was supposedly nearly solved last week. Congressional staff spent the weekend working on various aspects of the legislation, but reportedly made little progress. White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow [said]( Monday that differences between the sides “have narrowed,” but “the more it narrows, the more conditions come up on the other side.” Pelosi blamed the White House for the failure to come to terms. “Today, we are waiting for an important response on several concerns, including on action to crush the virus,” Pelosi said Monday in a [statement](. “Ten days after Secretary Mnuchin went on CNBC to declare that he was accepting our testing plan, the Administration still refuses to do so.” Pelosi called on the White House to continue to work on a potential deal. “We must come to agreement as soon as possible,” she said. “But we cannot accept the Administration’s refusal to crush the virus, honor our heroes or put money in the pockets of the American people. The Democratic message to the American people is: “Help Is on the Way. It Will Be Safer, Bigger, Better and Retroactive.” It is a matter of life-or-death, and Democrats are deadly serious about the responsibility we face.” Focus on lame duck: As hopes fade for a stimulus bill in the near term, lawmakers are turning their attention to the weeks after the election, when Congress will need to pass fiscal legislation ahead of a December 11 deadline to fund the federal government. “The prospects will improve after the election once we get past the current unpleasantness that we go through every even numbered year,” Sen. John Thune (R-SD) said Sunday. “There’s a whole range of things that we all agree on. And I don’t know why we can’t at least do that.” Not everyone agrees that a stimulus bill is likely to pass after November 3, however, with much depending on the results of the election. Surveying the various possible outcomes of the election. Bloomberg’s Timothy L. O'Brien and Nir Kaissar [said]( Monday that one of the most likely outcomes – Biden winning with the Senate remaining in Republican hands – could mean no deal gets done. In that scenario, the economy is “left to its own devices, and a return to the pre-Covid economy is unlikely anytime soon,” they wrote. Meadows: ‘We’re Not Going to Control the Pandemic’ “We’re not going to control the pandemic,” White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “We are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigation areas.” “It is a contagious virus, just like the flu,” Meadows added. Later in the [interview]( Meadows said: “When we look at the number of cases increasing, what we have to do is make sure that we fight it with therapeutics and vaccines, take proper mitigation factors, in terms of social distancing and masks when we can.” Critics pounced, saying that Meadows’ comments were an admission that the White House had capitulated in the fight to stop the spread of the coronavirus, or a further acknowledgment that the Trump administration has embraced a controversial strategy of trying to reach [“herd immunity,”]( an approach that experts have warned could cost [millions more lives]( and overwhelm the health-care system. The comments also came after [The New York Times]( reported this weekend that several members of Vice President Mike Pence’s staff had tested positive for the virus in recent days and that Meadows “had sought to keep news of the outbreak from becoming public.” Pence is [continuing to campaign]( rather than self-quarantine in the final days of the race, with the White House maintaining the he is an essential worker (and thus is not flouting Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance). White flag? “This wasn't a slip by Meadows, it was a candid acknowledgement of what President Trump's strategy has clearly been from the beginning of this crisis: to wave the white flag of defeat and hope that by ignoring it, the virus would simply go away,” former vice president Joe Biden said in a statement Sunday afternoon. “It hasn't, and it won't.” Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-SD) said, per [Politico]( “We all have a responsibility as leaders to set an example that consists of doing the right things to stop the spread, and I think that’s encouraging the wearing of masks and encouraging social distancing. We all know that stops the spread. Science proves that.” Trump insisted Monday that his administration was still looking to curb the spread of the virus and that it was Biden who was waving the white flag. “No, no, he has,” Trump said in Allentown, Pennsylvania, after being asked about Biden’s charge. “He’s waved a white flag on life. He doesn’t leave his basement. This guy doesn’t leave his basement. He is a pathetic candidate, I will tell you that.” The president again claimed his administration has done an “incredible job” in combating the virus. “We are absolutely rounding the corner, other than the fake news wants to scare everybody,” Trump said. Meadows took a similar line of attack on Monday morning. “The only person waving a white flag, along with his white mask, is Joe Biden,” a maskless Meadows [told reporters]( outside the White House. “We’re going to defeat the virus. We’re not going to control it. We will try to contain it as best we can, and if you look at the full context of what I was talking about, we need to make sure that we have therapeutics and vaccines." Meadows added: “A national lockdown strategy or a national quarantine strategy that is proposed by the left is not effective [and] is not what ultimately [will] contain or control this virus. So any suggestion that we’re waving … the white flag is certainly not in keeping with this president.” Trump has said that a vaccine is just weeks away, but experts note that a vaccine likely won’t be ready for mass distribution until the middle of next year. Why it matters: Meadows’ comments explain so much of the Trump administration’s mystifying pandemic response, from its lack of a testing and tracing strategy to its push to reopen schools without investing in needed resources, writes Leana S. Wen, a visiting professor at George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, at [The Washington Post](. But the administration plan, counting on vaccines and therapeutics, “is riddled with problems,” Wen says. “To begin with, a vaccine will be far from a silver bullet. Even if it offers, say, 75 percent protection, we will need other public health measures to reduce virus spread. Therapeutics, too, will have substantial limitations. A medication that reduces mortality by 50 percent means that many still will die, and those who survive may still live with long-term effects. Contrary to Trump’s claims, there is no cure on the horizon. Prevention will still be the best medicine.” Why it matters, part 2: The comments keep the presidential race focused on the pandemic and the administration’s response, to the apparent displeasure of the Trump campaign. “Meadows sh*t the bed again,” one anonymous campaign adviser said, per [CNN](. Chart of the Day: Rounding the Corner? From [Time]( White House Hands Over Fake Health Care Plan Before walking out on the interview in what appeared to be anger over the tone of the questioning, President Trump told Lesley Stahl of “60 Minutes” that his oft-cited but never-seen health care plan is “fully developed:” Lesley Stahl: Okay, I'll ask you another health question, okay? ... You promised that there was gonna be a new health package, a health care plan. President Donald Trump: Yeah. Stahl: You said that it was, "Going to be great," you said, "It's ready," "It's going to be ready"-- Trump: It will be. Stahl: "It'll be here in two weeks." "It's going to be like nothing you've ever seen before." And of course we haven't seen it. So why didn't you develop a health plan? Trump: It is developed, it is fully developed. It's going to be announced very soon — Stahl: When? Trump: When we see what happens with Obamacare. The president did not explain why he was keeping the much-anticipated plan under wraps, with or without a decision on the fate of the Affordable Care Act from the Supreme Court, which is set to hear arguments on a legal challenge to the law a week after Election Day. He did, however, provide Stahl with what the White House said was a copy of the plan. “Lesley, the president wanted me to deliver his health care plan,” Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said as she handed Stahl an enormous tome. “It's a little heavy.” In a widely-seen photo taken shortly after the handover, Stahl can be seen opening the book, only to find a blank page, sparking speculation that Trump had used an enormous book filed with blank pages as a prop to back up his claim about having a health care plan. But Stahl [said]( later that the book was not blank. Instead, it was “filled with executive orders and congressional initiatives, but no comprehensive healthcare plan.” To paraphrase Samuel Beckett: We must go on waiting for the Trump health care plan. We can’t go on. We’ll go on. Send your tips and feedback to yrosenberg@thefiscaltimes.com. Follow us on Twitter: [@yuvalrosenberg]( [@mdrainey]( and [@TheFiscalTimes](. And please tell your friends they can [sign up here]( for their own copy of this newsletter. News - [Trump Claims the Worsening U.S. Coronavirus Outbreak Is a ‘Fake News Media Conspiracy’ Even as Hospitalizations Rise]( – CNBC - [Dr. Scott Gottlieb: U.S. at COVID ‘Tipping Point’ but Can Still Prevent New ‘Exponential Spread’]( – CNBC - [The Third Wave of COVID-19 in the U.S. Is Officially Worse Than the First Two]( – Time - [Full Hospitals, Talk of Rationing Care: New Wave of Coronavirus Cases Strains Resources]( – Washington Post - [The US Had More Daily Covid-19 Cases in the Past Week Than Ever Before. And No, It's Not Just Due to More Testing]( – CNN - [Trump’s Carrier Deal Fades as Economic Reality Intervenes]( – Washington Post - [Progressives Push for Warren as Treasury Secretary, Signaling Bigger Ideological Battle if Biden Wins]( – NBC News - [Wealthy Investors Seem to Be Exploiting Land-Conservation Tax Breaks, and the Senate Is Taking Notice]( – Washington Post - [Election Could Affect Trillions in Sustainability Investments]( – Roll Call - [Single Moms Fear Falling Through Holes In Pandemic Safety Net]( – NPR - [Lockheed F-35 Full-Production Decision Delayed as Key Test Slips]( – Bloomberg Views and Analysis - [If Elected, Biden Must Go Big]( – James Downie, Washington Post - [Time’s Up: Stop Playing Games With Covid Relief]( – Timothy L. O’Brien and Nir Kaissar, Bloomberg - [We Finally Know the Trump Administration’s Pandemic Strategy: Surrender]( – Leana S. Wen, Washington Post - [White House Admission on Pandemic Overshadows Trump's Last Push for Reelection]( – Stephen Collinson, CNN - [Winter Is Coming: Time for a Mask Mandate]( – Scott Gottlieb, Wall Street Journal - [Four Pinocchios for Trump Ad That Takes Biden’s Comments on Taxes Out of Context]( – Glenn Kessler, Washington Post - [COVID-19 Herd Immunity Strategy Fits Donald Trump's Failures in Coronavirus War]( – USA Today Editorial Board - [Trump’s Last Gasp: The Pandemic Isn’t Real and Everything’s Fine]( – Paul Waldman, Washington Post - [The White House Has Admitted Defeat on Controlling the Spread of Coronavirus]( – Jack Holmes, Esquire - [The Media Never Held Trump Responsible for a Mass Atrocity]( – Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post - [The IRS Is Making a Final Push to Get Stimulus Payments to Millions of Americans]( – Michelle Singletary, Washington Post - [How Many Households Can’t Pay Next Month’s Rent? That’s a Tricky Question]( – Jenny Schuetz, Brookings Institution - [Four Decades After Proposition 13’s Tax Revolt, Will California (Split) Roll It Back with Proposition 15?]( – Richard C. Auxier at al, Tax Policy Center - [To Reduce Racial Inequality, Raise the Minimum Wage]( – Ellora Derenoncourt and Claire Montialoux, New York Times - [Trump Hates Biden's Stretch-Run Strategy. Biden Loves Trump's.]( – Jonathan Allen, NBC News - [Protecting Our Public Lands Is a National Health Issue]( – Maite Arce, Roll Call Copyright © 2020 The Fiscal Times, All rights reserved. You are receiving this newsletter because you subscribed at our website, [thefiscaltimes.com]( or through Facebook. The Fiscal Times, 399 Park Avenue, 14th Floor, New York, NY 10022, United States Want to change how you receive these emails? [Update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe](