Time To Grow Up America

To The Rescue...?

I am genuinely unused to defending a sitting president during a national crisis. It's not something that I believe I have ever had to really worry about. In my lifetime, there have not been a vast number of crises on a national level, so I guess I was simply assuming that people were able to recognize certain facts in such situations. Facts like response times, executive actions, congressional actions, border closings, and so forth.

Things that are explicitly intended to address a unique and specific event have historically had some opposition. As 'Honest Abe' once said, "you cannot please all the people all the time." Generally, that opposition, even in hindsight, can be understood. During the Civil War, it was a few Senators who opposed several pieces of legislation in favor of handling the problem another way. During World War Two, several members of Congress wanted the president to handle further engagement differently. Never did anyone simply oppose something solely for the sake of resisting.

So imagine my surprise when I find out that the Covid-19 stimulus legislation has been jam packed with a bunch of useless, pointless, bovine scat. I'm being entirely serious, here. Provisions for the Kennedy Center for instance, are not, as some have ignorantly claimed, to ensure employment security. The exact same sum of money was lobbied for about four months ago; for the exact same place; and it was to be used for new paint and flooring. Guess what that provision is marked as in the legislation? "Maintenance." That is just one example of dozens that have nothing to do with Covid-19.

The Freedom Of The Press

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Then I discover that certain publications are claiming that the president's actions are "inadequate." One in particular ran a headline that said "Due To Several Missteps US Now Epicenter Of Covid-19." This publication went on to talk about all the things that they felt were done wrong. Mind you, each of these news sources (I use the term loosely) had previously attacked the president for going "too far."

Again, "you cannot please all the people all the time" comes to mind.

When it comes to the press, however, it seems that certain organizations don't even fit into that category properly. I believe we might have to add another line to the Emancipator's observation: "Some people will never allow themselves to be pleased." In the case of some so-called journalists, the president could personally disarm a criminal trying to mug them, and they'll write an article on his use of excessive force.

Intellectual Bankruptcy

Finally, today I heard something that nearly caused my brain to explode. It happened during the Covid-19 briefing. A reporter asked the president what he was planning to do about the airlines, using

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a specific air line by name as an example. The president answered the question; and while he added a lot more information than was probably needed, it was answered. The reporter followed up with: "I guess my question is what do you intend to do about the individual employees and their jobs?"

Folks, I had to turn the briefing off at that point. I saw the comments on various social media platforms, many of which echoed the asinine and clueless idiocy of this pretender to journalism. I saw the usual hotheads using their usual fractured structure, limited vocabulary, and all three emoticons. Normally I would be tempted to reply to such troglodytes, but today I opted out entirely.

Instead, I've chosen to once again write. It's much easier to leave a link than to attempt a conversation, I've learned. Not that I won't make the attempt, mind you. There are simply some people who cannot be reasoned with, and you know those I reference.

Special Education

Now, I'm not going to go into detail about Nancy Pelosi and the flipped bird she gave to the American people, figuratively speaking. I'm not going to get into the various rags once known as respected news sources, either. It's not worth my time to do anything more than mention, and the writers are simply not worthy of my attention, period. Instead, I'm going to address the last issue. The sheer lack of free thinking, common sense, and rational logic. The issue of air lines and air line employees.

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People have been talking about how nothing the president has done has addressed the individual. No measure that has thus far been taken by his administration has, apparently, provided for the individual citizen. These people speak out of their ignorance, whether that is willful or unintended.

Nowhere is this more clearly seen than with this air lines issue. The president stated that the legislation provides a sum of money for these companies to maintain operations and stay above the proverbial water as best they can. He talked about the various top minds he was bringing in to help craft and organize the response. The bottom line was that the air line companies are staying in business and continuing to operate.

The opposition then implied, or directly said in the case of social media comments, that it did nothing to help the employees.

Wow.

The United States has ten major air lines. American Airlines, the largest such company in the world as of 2019, employs over 128,000 people. Delta, the second largest, employs more than 86,000. United: 96,000. Southwest: 60,000. JetBlue: 22,000. Spirit: 7,000. Allegiant: 4,000. Hawaiian: 7,000. In case numbers make your eyes go blurry, this amounts to 410,000 people employed by these companies.

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Those of you playing at home might have noticed that I did not include all ten companies. That's because not all of the companies had this information readily available. For the sake of completionism, let's just say that the remaining two (Frontier and Alaskan) each employ the average. That's 51,250 employees; so perhaps too high for those companies. Maybe we just use the low average: 6,000 employees. That's still a total of 422,000 people.

Now here's the next big deal. I rounded down. These air lines directly employ nearly half a million people. They subcontract almost twice that in the United States alone, making that number about 1.5 million. They also lease space in most airports, if you didn't know, meaning they indirectly impact the employment of airport workers. According to a five year old Congressional hearing, air lines also buy an average of 60% of their parts and services from United States companies.

What does all of this mean? What am I driving at?

Folks, especially you pretenders to journalism, if the air line companies go down, at the very least our unemployment rate rises by a half percent almost overnight. Best case scenario in that event. The worst case scenario is far less likely: Everyone they deal with goes under due to their absence and lack of patronage. Most realistic scenario? All the employees of these companies lose their jobs; half of the subcontract employees lose their jobs; massive personnel cutbacks take place in their supply companies (parts, etc), and airports experience massive layoffs. If every major airline in the United States went bankrupt overnight, it would affect a tenth of the US population.

Still wonder why it was so important to make sure that these companies got a financial shot in the arm?

The Spidey Phrase

I will never be in support of big government. I will never be in support of the bailout of a corporation whose CEO or Board played fast and loose with company funds. Nor will I ever be in favor of the government funding lazy and stubborn individuals. Don't read into the above views; understand the context.

We are dealing with a situation which is unlike anything we as a nation have previously dealt with. If there's interest, I'll get into that point in a later installment. Right now, suffice to say that the United States government is doing exactly what it is supposed to do in such situations: Protect its citizens. Many people are not working right now, not due to their own laziness, but because of what is essentially bioterrorism. Companies are not struggling because they made bad choices; they are struggling because of the sudden lack of business.

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Moreover, a one time tax break on all citizens isn't going to help, nor will it help the various companies and corporations. It's too great a shortfall, taken on too suddenly. In my opinion, this kind of stimulus is the only thing that makes sense; and while I will have a problem with it if the government attempts to extend these benefits beyond the current crisis, it is what is needed right now. The desperate times and desperate measures adage holds true in this highly unusual point in history.

It was for reasons such as this that the framers of the Constitution alloted certain powers to each branch. Not to award cash prizes to pet projects. Not to fund or penalize preferred or distasteful entities. These powers were given to protect the people and infrastructure. It's time we got on board. Keep a watchful eye on our leaders, by all means; but quit debating the piddling and asinine.

In short: It's time to grow up, America.