Trump Goes VIral, Con't

So what's the White House plan to save the economy that's crashing around us?

Tax cuts for Trump resorts and hotels.

I wish I was kidding.

The travel and tourism industries are facing their worst crisis since the 2001 terrorist attacks, prompting White House officials to consider deferring taxes for the cruise, travel and airline industries to stem the economic fallout from the coronavirus, according to two people briefed on the discussions.
The discussions are a sign that the White House is grappling with how to respond to an outbreak that officials have publicly played down. The talks remain fluid and are preliminary.

The tax deferrals for the travel industry are being considered as airlines cut back on routes and warn about declining ticket sales. Hotel chains are struggling with vacancies in Asia and are bracing for similar waves in the United States. Business travel is falling, and trade shows, music festivals and conventions are being canceled from San Francisco to Chicago to Austin to Miami. Families and college students are reconsidering spring break excursions and distant summer plans.

Other countries have already enacted tax relief for their hardest-hit industries. On Sunday, Italy announced a tax credit for any company that has seen revenue decline by more than a quarter. That is on top of Italy’s announcement last month that companies and individuals in areas affected by the “epidemiological emergency” would be granted an extension on spring tax filings.

It’s not clear how U.S. relief would be administered or whether President Trump’s own hotels could be beneficiaries. Administration officials also disagree on the extent to which some of these measures could be undertaken without Congress.
On Friday, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow confirmed that the administration is considering “timely and targeted” federal interventions to help workers, businesses and industries most vulnerable economically to the outbreak.

If you think Trump's hotels won't benefit from this by billions of dollars, then you really haven't been paying attention at all.   The rest of us?  Well, good luck.  Hope you have sick time and paid leave.

You know, in the only western country that doesn't guarantee sick time and paid leave.

States are stepping in where Trump does nothing, unless you're a business sector that needs tax relief during these trying times.  New York is moving to contain public gatherings parts of the NYC metro.

With New Rochelle, a small city just north of New York City in Westchester County, emerging as the center of the state’s outbreak, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York on Tuesday announced a targeted containment strategy to halt the spread of the virus.

The state’s plan focuses on a “containment area” in New Rochelle with a one-mile radius centered around a synagogue believed to be at the center of the cluster, officials said.

Schools and other large gathering facilities like community centers and houses of worship within the area will be closed for two weeks beginning on Thursday, Mr. Cuomo said. Businesses such as grocery stores and delis would remain open. The state did not plan to close streets or implement travel restrictions, he said.
“You’re not containing people,” he said. “You’re containing facilities.”

The state also planned to deploy the National Guard to the containment area to clean the schools and deliver food to quarantined residents, Mr. Cuomo said.

The cluster in Westchester County first came to the authorities’ attention last week, when a lawyer who lives in New Rochelle and works in Manhattan, Lawrence Garbuz, became the second person in New York to be diagnosed with coronavirus last week.

Meanwhile here in Kentucky, Gov. Beshear is acting where the Trump regime is failing miserably.

Gov. Andy Beshear announced two new novel coronavirus cases in Kentucky late Monday, bringing the state’s total to six.

The newest positive tests were conducted in Fayette County and Harrison County, bringing the total in Harrison County to three patients and the total in Lexington to two patients. Beshear said he does not know if the person who tested positive in Lexington is a resident of the city. The sixth patient is in Louisville.

“We are now up to six positive cases and folks, we’re going to have more,” Beshear said. “That doesn’t mean we’re not ready, we are, and it doesn’t mean that people should overly worry. We’ve just got to make sure that we take the necessary steps to move forward and we will come out of this on the other side.”
Both of the people who tested positive Monday are being treated in isolation. The Fayette County resident who tested positive Sunday is also being treated at a hospital, Beshear said.

University of Kentucky spokesman Jay Blanton said the newest Fayette County patient is not being treated at a UK HealthCare hospital.

Beshear said he hopes to release more information about the patients, such as their age and gender, Tuesday morning.

Beshear said 34 people in Kentucky have been tested so far for the virus, including 13 tests conducted Monday. Twenty-eight of the tests have come back negative.

The state can now test individuals for COVID-19 in under 12 hours, he said. Samples received at the state lab in Frankfort by noon are generally completed before 6 p.m., he said.

“That turnaround time is one of my beliefs in why we’re reporting some more cases than some other states,” Beshear said. “I don’t think we’ve been hit harder, I just think we’re more aggressive in how we’re responding.”

Beshear has declared a public health emergency in the state, and has ordered free COVID-19 testing that will be covered by health insurance.  Democrats in the State Senate have filed bills that would guarantee sick leave for all workers and to require the Kentucky Health and Family Services Cabinet to estimate the costs of battling COVID-19 in the state and to include it in the state budget while the legislature is in session between now and April 15.

Kentucky Democrats are coming through.  Whether or not Kentucky Republicans, who control the state House and Senate, and have already moved to strip almost all power from Beshear's office and give the legislature the power to object to any executive order and force a full legislature vote on it, will agree to any of these measures?

I have no idea.