Is Covid-19 Trump’s seventh bankruptcy?
11th May 2020 · 0 Comments
By C. C. Campbell-Rock
Contributing Columnist
Led by the King of Bankruptcies, Donald Trump, Republicans on Capitol Hill are spending like drunken sailors. They are handing out taxpayers’ money under the COVID Stimulus Packages like Santa Claus at Christmas. If it weren’t for the feds’ capability for printing endless amounts of money, the United States would be filing for bankruptcy.
Donald Trump’s business history is fraught with bankruptcies. He’s bragged about using “laws” to conduct his business and about not paying taxes. Who can forget Trump’s response to Hillary Clinton after she called him out for not paying taxes during the 2016 presidential debate? “That would make me smart,” Trump replied.
Trump has six bankruptcies to his credit. And just like he ran his businesses into IRS bankruptcy protections, he is running the U.S. Treasury into the same situation. According to news reports, Trump’s hotels and casino businesses declared bankruptcy six times, between 1991 and 2009 – “five times in New Jersey, where he had casino holdings, and once in New York – due to his inability to meet required payments and to re-negotiate debt with banks, owners of stock and bonds, and unsecured creditors.
Journalists writing in the balance nailed Trump’s reckless spending in a few key takeaways: “President Trump promised to eliminate the national debt in eight years. Instead, he plans to add $8.3 trillion. Trump treats the national debt like personal debt. He believes that economic growth through tax cuts will pay for itself, though the evidence paints this as unlikely.”
And while there is no chapter in the IRS bankruptcy laws that allows the federal government to seek financial protection, you can bet that social programs will be on the cutting block sooner rather than later, from cuts to social security, food stamps, veterans benefits, housing vouchers, and aid to families with dependent children, to name just a few.
And if states and cities think they’re going to get any financial help in dealing with their plans to contain the coronavirus…well, good luck.
U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell last week tossed out red meat to the GOP base suggesting some states should consider filing for bankruptcy to shield themselves from the financial drain of the COVID-19 pandemic. His staff circulated a news release, in which his statement appeared under the heading “Stopping Blue State Bailouts.”
McConnell’s arrogant partisan statement was meant to stick it to Democratic governors. It was a deceptive and ignorant comment because neither the federal bankruptcy code nor the U.S. Constitution allows states to file for bankruptcy protection, according to the Council of State Governments.
The National Governors Association are asking Congress for $500 billion in direct aid after receiving $150 billion in the $2.1 trillion CARES Act. They are also asking for flexibility to use funds received not just on COVID-19 related expenses, as was stipulated in the third stimulus package.
If states and cities don’t receive much needed financial relief from the feds in the next coronavirus stimulus package, citizens should prepare to deal with cuts to essential services, including sanitation, police, fire, and other services, such as parks and recreation maintenance. And we can forget about infrastructure repairs.
New Orleans Mayor Cantrell has already cut garbage pick-up service down to once weekly, instead of twice a week.
Behind McConnell’s foolish pronouncement is Donald Trump’s adversity to helping “blue states.”
Trump told the New York Post that increased federal funding to help states recover from the coronavirus pandemic is unfair to Republicans, “because all the states that need help – they’re run by Democrats in every case…I don’t think the Republicans want to be in a position where they bail out states that are, that have been mismanaged over a long period of time.”
Trump’s disingenuous criticism of blue states, including Illinois New York and California, and McConnell’s jab, prompted New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo to respond. Of McConnell’s bankruptcy suggestion, Cuomo said, that’s “one of the saddest, really dumb comments of all time.” Cuomo said at one of his daily updates that “New York pays more into the federal government than McConnell’s Kentucky (which takes more out of the Treasury)” and he advised the feds to give New York its money back.
Trump’s blue states comment followed his rant about sanctuary cities. What was unmistakable in Trump’s criticism of was his desire for governors, like California’s Governor Gavin Newsome, to buy thousands of doses of hydroxychloroquine, the drug used to treat malaria and lupus. That was before a recent study of veterans showed that several of those who took the drug developed cardiac complications and some died.
Trump has a small financial stake in a French company that makes hydroxychloroquine, but news reports say profits from his shares would be minimal. Still, the company’s stock quadrupled after Trump started promoting the drug.
Whether Trump is pressuring the states to buy unreliable drugs or to disavow being sanctuaries for undocumented workers, we are seeing the same pattern of quid pro quo dealings we saw in the Ukraine affair and in Trump’s scheme to force Dr. Rick Bright to make chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine widely available to the public, after drug maker Bayer offered to donate three million pills to the national stockpile.
Bright had led the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) since 2016. He was leading the effort to develop a corona virus vaccine, until he refused to widely distribute Trump’s favorite drug. Bright also alleged that his early warnings about the coronavirus were ignored. Trump’s retaliated against Bright by transferring the doctor to a lesser position.
Bright, who filed a whistleblower complaint, is asking to be reinstated to his former position.
A New York Times article outlined Trump’s modus operandi for giving taxpayer money to his cronies. “The federal scientist who says he was ousted from his job amid a dispute over an unproven coronavirus treatment pushed by President Trump said top administration officials repeatedly pressured him to steer millions of dollars in contracts to the clients of a well-connected consultant…Questionable contracts have gone to “companies with political connections to the administration,” the complaint said, “including a drug company tied to a friend of Jared Kushner’s, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser.”
So, what we have here is Donald Trump using the deadly coronavirus to redistribute the nation’s wealth – remember the permanent tax cut he signed, as his first official act? – to donors and corporate buddies, at the expense of small businesses, front line workers, and the elderly.
Meanwhile, Trump has abdicated his responsibility for a national plan to contain the virus to the states and he has cavalierly adjusted the fatality rate upwards, without empathy, without blinking and totally devoid of remorse. He now estimates 125,000 Americans may die. If Trump had did his job, he could have saved thousands of Americans.
There are lessons to be learned from Donald Trump’s handling of this coronavirus pandemic. Trump has proven how important government is and what will happen to us if we allow a greedy, self-consumed person to become the most powerful person in the world. We have already learned that such a person will gut the government of essential personnel (when the coronavirus hit no one at the CDC was there to stop it), will destroy the rule of law, will ignore the advice of experts, and will use every opportunity to blame someone else and to shirk responsibility.
We have already learned that Trump, a self-described billionaire, who told us he “loves using other people’s money,” will go against his own federal guidelines in the pursuit of money, like he did at the Hanes plant he visited in Arizona. At the Hanes plant, which was making face masks, a sign was posted that all must wear a face covering. Look at Trump. No mask but goggles.
The music blasting from the plant’s speakers was a heads up for us all. As Trump went bare-faced through the factory, greeting workers who wore face coverings while making face masks, the James Bond movie theme played, “Live and Let Die.” How apropos.
If we survive this pandemic, will we have learned our lesson that government and voting is crucial to our continual survival? Let’s hope so.
This article originally published in the May 11, 2020 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
