No, Sen. McConnell, impeachment isn’t an excuse for a lousy response to COVID-19
Recently, Senator Mitch McConnell tried to deflect claims that the government had botched its coronavirus response early on by blaming the slow response on impeachment. One thing must be made clear: Impeachment is not an excuse for the president’s response to this virus.
The presidency is one of the hardest jobs in the world, and it requires tackling many issues every single day. President Trump himself has commented on this issue before when he was critical of Hillary Clinton in 2016, saying that she lacked the stamina to be president. Part of having the proper stamina for the presidency involves being able to focus on multiple issues all the time. Impeachment is no reason for a government to stop functioning or for a president to stop doing their job. If President Trump was unable to perform the basic tasks of the presidency, like monitoring and preparing for emerging threats such as this virus, while also facing consequences for his scandals, it is clear that he is the one who lacks the stamina to be president.
Even if impeachment were an excuse for the President’s lack of early response—and it is not—he has still made numerous errors both before and after the first reported case of COVID-19 that could have significantly damaged the response. In 2017, he and the Republican Party undertook an effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act that would have damaged protections for people with preexisting conditions, a group which likely includes people who are more vulnerable to this virus. Luckily for those with preexisting conditions, the president’s relentless effort to take away patient protections was unsuccessful, but should it have succeeded, we would certainly be feeling it in this outbreak.
In 2018, he eliminated the National Security Council’s directorate for global health, security, and biodefense, a decision of which Dr. Anthony Fauci himself has said “It would be nice if the office were still there”.
Just on Monday, it came out that Trump would not reopen Obamacare markets for those who have recently lost their jobs due to the economic fallout of the pandemic. Such a move will make it harder for people who have lost their jobs to get healthcare access quickly.
Since getting into office, the President has proposed budget cuts to the CDC year after year, including most recently in his 2021 budget that was released after the World Health Organization had named COVID-19 an issue of international concern. That same budget proposal released on Feb. 10 that sought to cut the CDC budget also proposed a 53 percent funding cut to the World Health Organization and a 75 percent cut to the Pan American Health Organization, the main international institution that fights disease outbreaks and a health organization focusing on disease threats in North and South America, respectively. Although none of his CDC or WHO cuts have passed, what do they say about a president who sees an emerging virus threaten the world and proposes budget cuts to the main organizations designed to fight disease outbreaks? These are just a few of the President’s irresponsible actions regarding public health policy, and none of them were decisions made during the impeachment process.
Senator McConnell is clearly trying to pin the President’s incompetence on Congressional Democrats, forgetting that Trump’s record on public health has been disastrous throughout the duration of his presidency. Impeachment isn’t an excuse for trying to take away protections for those with preexisting conditions, impeachment isn’t an excuse for eliminating the NSC directorate, impeachment isn’t an excuse for making it harder for those out of work to access health insurance, impeachment isn’t an excuse for his proposed budget cuts to public health organizations, and impeachment isn’t an excuse for any of his response to this crisis. Why is Senator McConnell making excuses for a president who has none instead of pushing him to make the right decisions during this crisis?
Aidan O’Brien is a University of Kentucky student studying biology and political science.