While the political jockeying gets more attention, the candidates in the 2020 presidential race are advancing serious policy proposals. The Washington Times takes a weekly look at how their proposals stack up against each other.
With all eyes on the coronavirus pandemic, presumed Democratic presidential nominee Joseph R. Biden has called on President Trump to act more quickly on several fronts.
The two spoke by phone this week, with both sides reporting a cordial, if likely inconsequential, exchange.
Mr. Trump has defended his administration’s response, and his campaign team has said ideas being floated by Mr. Biden are recycled or mirror what Mr. Trump is already doing or has proposed.
Joseph R. Biden
Mr. Biden has called for a financial version of the Defense Production Act and called on Mr. Trump to appoint a single “supply commander” to coordinate the delivery of critical materials to all U.S. states and territories.
The former vice president and other Democrats have said Mr. Trump was slow to use fully the Defense Production Act, a Korean War-era law that gives the president wide latitude in ordering certain levels of procurement in the private sector.
Mr. Biden’s campaign said, if he were running the show now, the candidate would use the act to prod banks to quickly process state unemployment benefits to laid-off workers.
He said a $350 billion small-business lending program that was includes in the recent $2.2 trillion rescue package relies on banks to provide government-backed loans but that there’s little in the way of an enforcement mechanism.
“I’m calling for a Banks Defense Production Act authority, to make sure that banks are processing loans for all who qualify within a few working days of application, not sitting on this money or turning away qualified applicants,” he said in a piece for USA Today.
Mr. Biden also called on Mr. Trump to coordinate a single “supply commander” who would work with governors and coordinate the purchasing and distribution of key items like protective masks and ventilators.
“It is clear that the current structure President Trump has put in place is not working — either because he hasn’t fully empowered those in charge or because he hasn’t made it clear that the mandate must be to take over the entire supply chain and determine the demand across all of our states, tribes and territories for these critical materials,” Mr. Biden said.
President Trump
Mr. Trump has defended his use of the Defense Production Act, saying that even threatening to invoke it has swiftly prodded the private sector to produce and distribute more key goods like protective masks.
He said the DPA helped lead to an agreement for 3M to deliver an additional 55.5 million protective masks per month for frontline health-care workers, or 166.5 million masks in the next three months.
“So the 3M saga ends very happily,” Mr. Trump said.
Mike Roman, the company’s chairman and CEO, said the 166.5 million mask imports would supplement the 35 million N95 respirators the company produces monthly in the U.S.
Mr. Trump had used his DPA authority to stop 3M from exporting masks and the company said the agreement lets them continue exporting to Canada and Latin America.
3M had previously said there would be significant humanitarian implications if they couldn’t export the goods.
The president has also bristled at the notion that the federal government’s distribution and supply efforts are disorganized.
“A ‘senior military officer’ is in charge of purchasing, distributing, etc.,” the president said in a recent letter to Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer. “His name is Rear Admiral John Polowczyk. He is working 24 hours a day, and is highly respected by everyone.”
Mr. Trump’s re-election team has said the solutions Mr. Biden has offered to get the U.S. out of the current crisis aren’t new.
“Joe Biden’s ‘Emergency Action Plan’ is late to the game, plagiarizing from the Trump Administration’s plan while brazenly taking advantage of the crisis to ram through radical left-wing pet projects that have nothing to do with the coronavirus,” the Trump campaign said.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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