Cuomo addressed this in the press conference. I believe it relates to Medicaid. New York modified some Medicaid rules in January and the relief bill won't grant money to states with modified Medicaid rules. He didn't get into specifics, but said that the bill needed to be updated.
I am as well, but overall I’m very frustrated by the lack of coordination and leadership overall. This combined with de Blasio’s proven inability to lead is making the situation much worse than it needs to be.
There are so many unfair takes against politicians these days it’s hard to tell who is actually right anymore.
It’s good people are holding them up to a high standard (elections are regularly presented as choosing the lesser of evils) but when all of them seem to be getting killed it makes you wonder if it’s just the nature of the beast. Especially in the west.
The few who have gotten praise (South Korea) were the ones that were more likely to ignore WHO and bypass other typical established political processes, allowing them to react quickly - and are by far the rare exceptions, not the rule.
‘Government’ and ‘moving quickly’ are rarely things you see in the same sentence in normal times, nor would ‘good’ politicians typically be defined as the ones who ignore the recommendations of international organizations, but yet it’s something everyone thinks can immediately be fixed on demand like flipping a switch.
> There are so many unfair takes against politicians these days it’s hard to tell who is actually right anymore.
Here is a handy guide:
- If they are angry at the media, they are confused and should be muzzled for a time
- If they are exercising insider trading, they should be removed from office
- If they are coordinating and appear to be going to too much of an extreme regarding lockdown and response, they are actually well informed and should be granted additional responsibility and leadership, if capable
- If they are offering help to business but not individuals, they should be muzzled for the extent of the crisis and not allowed to submit amendments or legislation
- If they are deliberately slowing down responses, they should be muzzled for the extent of the crisis and their decision powers be given to their deputies
- If they are ensuring the public nothing is wrong they are incorrect and should be muzzled for the extend of their crisis, and their decision and executive powers given to their deputies.
These heuristics would ensure incompetence is kept in its place -- away from the lives and livelihoods of individuals, and ideally removed from office during the next election cycle as incompetent politicians have no business executing the will of their constituents during wartime or peacetime.
Cuomo OTOH has been quite effective at working with the administration to ramp up testing to the highest throughput in the nation, as well as enacting other measures, and getting FEMA involved, while DeBlasio's response was pretty much only to point out that "orange man bad", and dragging his staff around with him to infected areas. As of 2 days ago, he went to the _gym_.
If you listen to WH pressers, you will see that federal government wants the governors to do what they can to procure stuff and enact measures for their states, and step in when the governors feel their response will be inadequate. Which is what we're observing in CA and NY as the governors of those states chose to put politics aside for the time being and actually engage.
The reason for delegating frontline response to the states is that if the federal government steps in to buy medical supplies for example (which BTW it still does from time to time - they ordered $500M worth of N95 masks yesterday), such a purchase would first soak up available capacity, and then it'd have to be disbursed to the states, instead of going to them directly, adding delay and confusion.
FWIW, I have not seen this level of coordinated response to _anything_ and I've been in the US for 20 years now. I did not know some of the things that are being done are even possible. FEMA and Army Corps of Engineers started to step in massively over the past week. Companies are starting to make ventilators. Drugs and testing equipment are approved for use in weeks instead of years. The list goes on.
>Cuomo OTOH has been quite effective at working with the administration to ramp up testing to the highest throughput in the nation
Let's be honest, Cuomo just went out and outbid everyone to get the materials his people needed. He didn't work with the admin to do a thing, he waved money around in the global marketplace. Not hating on him, that's his job. He's supposed to look out for New Yorkers. But a lot of states out there don't have New York's bottomless checkbook. Nor do they have New York's influence.
Easy to look good when you're not really depending on the federal government for testing throughput. Again, guy's done a great job. But he's done it by circumventing the limitations set by the administration not really by living with them like the rest of us have to.
"Cuomo also urged the federal government to nationalize the effort to acquire protective medical supplies — including masks, gowns and gloves — that are in short supply. He says masks that used to cost 85 cents are now priced at $7 as states are forced to bid against each other for limited supplies."
Now imagine an entity which can literally print money outbid _NY_ and sent a substantial part of that capacity to WA (which initially was the epicenter, but where there were no new cases in the past 24 hours) and CA (which seems to have much less of a problem), as well as to the remaining 47 states where the number of cases is pretty low. Imagine what that'd do to NY and their case load a week from now. I'd like to also remind you that the three states hardest hit by the virus have some of the deepest pocketbooks in the nation. CA and NY have huge economies. WA has two of the richest people in the world who they could "ask" to "share their wealth" as it were.
I know I may sound naive asking this, but wouldn't it just be easier to change the Bill? If the bill doesn't help New York, what good is it? It should provide Coronavirus relief for everyone in the nation who needs it.
But I'm not a political type, so if I'm thinking about this wrong I'm open to being corrected.
If that be the case, I mean, yeah, just, no words.
I'm disappointed I guess.
I've always had limited faith and political and economic leaders, but this crisis has really just cratered the little faith I did have.
Let's screw the liberal states?
Let's make a few bucks on the stock market?
Just, wow. Can't even be angry really, I don't deserve any better. In a democracy, you get exactly the leaders you are deserving of. I guess I know how much we rate. Lesson learned.
