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Biden declares no federal solution to unrelenting waves of COVID-19

  

Category:  News & Politics

Via:  jeremy-in-nc  •  3 years ago  •  11 comments

By:   Jeff Mordock

Biden declares no federal solution to unrelenting waves of COVID-19
President Biden on Monday delivered a cryptic warning to the nation’s governors when he said there is “no federal solution” to the COVID-19 outbreaks and called on the states to do more. The message was in stark contrast to his campaign pledge to “crush the virus” with a federal response that he said eluded former President Donald Trump.

S E E D E D   C O N T E N T



President   Biden   on Monday delivered a cryptic warning to the nation’s governors when   he   said there is “no federal solution” to the COVID-19 outbreaks and called on the states to do more.

The message was in stark contrast to his campaign pledge to “crush the virus” with a federal response that he said eluded former President   Donald Trump.


“There is no federal solution. This gets solved at the state level,”   Mr. Biden   said on a conference call with the governors about the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.

Though Mr. Biden sought to assure the governors that the federal response would not hamper their efforts, his call for more help from states underscored the administrations’ failure to bring the pandemic under control.

Mr. Biden’s efforts to stop the spread of the virus include a vaccine mandate for federal workers and private businesses, a push for increased testing and mask requirements in federal buildings, airports, and public transportation.

And yet, since taking office, more than 400,000 people have died in the U.S. from COVID-19, roughly the same number of deaths attributed to the virus in 2020.

Mr. Biden’s critics pounced on his concession that there is “no federal solution.”

“He’s trying to avoid blame for his incompetence. If he really believes this, he should rescind his unconstitutional federal [vaccination] mandates,” tweeted Sen. Tom Cotton, Arkansas Republican.

The president’s call for the states to get more involved was in response to Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, cautioning Mr. Biden not to step on state’s rights while fighting the pandemic.

“One word of concern or encouragement for your team is that as you look towards federal solutions that will help alleviate the challenge, make sure that we do not let federal solutions stand in the way of state solutions,” Mr. Hutchinson said.

The governors also pressed Mr. Biden on the shortage of coronavirus tests as the surge of the omicron variant has sent consumers racing to buy testing kits only to discover long lines and sold-out stores.

“We, as governors, are getting pressure to do more, and the need is great to do more in terms of the rapid test and the availability of it,” Mr. Hutchinson told the president.

Mr. Biden said that when he took office, no over-the-counter at-home coronavirus tests were available and now almost 200 million tests have hit the market. Still, he admitted that’s insufficient to satisfy demand as omicron cases rapidly increase.

“It’s clearly not enough,” Mr. Biden said. “If we had known, we would have gone harder quicker. … We have to do better.”

Monday’s call marked Mr. Biden’s first time joining the weekly call between his COVID-19 response team and the governors.

Speaking with reporters after the call, Mr. Biden denied a Vanity Fair report alleging that the administration rejected a plan to ramp up COVID-19 testing ahead of the holidays.

We didn’t reject it,” Mr. Biden   said, without elaborating.

The magazine reported that it obtained a 10-page plan from testing experts calling for roughly 732 million tests per month ahead of the holidays. The plan was outlined to Biden officials on a Zoom call on Oct. 22, according to the report.

If adopted, the plan would likely have avoided the long lines and empty shelves at pharmacies across the country.

Administration officials told the experts — which included researchers from Harvard, the Rockefeller Foundation, the COVID Collaborative and other organizations — that the plan was “dead.” Instead, the administration announced plans to move tests more swiftly through the FDA’s regulatory approval process, according to the magazine.

Officials also told the experts they couldn’t approve the plan, preferring to implement “smaller-scale plans,” it said.

The Biden administration last week used the Defense Production Act to get 200 million to 500 million COVID-19 tests to market free of charge to Americans.

The testing shortage has been a particularly stinging thorn in the administration’s side since Mr. Biden made the lack of COVID-19 test a chief criticism of Mr. Trump.  He called it a “failure of planning, leadership and execution.”

Despite the latest bid to ramp up testing, the administration has not signed a contract to buy tests, and the website order will not be ready until January.

The administration has been mum about how many tests people can order and when they will be shipped once they are ordered.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki last week dismissed concerns about the lack of a contract. She said it is just a matter of time before it is finalized.

“We have no concern about the contract being finalized,” she said. “We’re just working to finalize the contracts. We just announced this two days ago. But there’s no — we don’t see any issue or any halt to getting that done and finalizing that.”

Mr. Biden said Monday that the government will continue to use the Defense Production Act — a relic from the Korean War that allows the government to prioritize contracts on items deemed necessary for national defense — to produce tests.

While Americans are waiting to order the tests, they’ve flocked to local pharmacies only to be met with long lines and empty shelves.

Consumers are buying so many in-home testing kits that some stores have imposed limits on how many can be purchased. Walgreens, for example, has limited tests to four per person.


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Jeremy Retired in NC
Professor Expert
1  seeder  Jeremy Retired in NC    3 years ago
President      Biden      on Monday delivered a cryptic warning to the nation’s governors when      he       said there is “no federal solution” to the COVID-19 outbreaks and called on the states to do more. The message was in stark contrast to his campaign pledge to “crush the virus” with a federal response that he said eluded former President      Donald Trump.

Promises made.  Promises broken (again).

Mr. Biden’s efforts to stop the spread of the virus include a vaccine mandate for federal workers and private businesses, a push for increased testing and mask requirements in federal buildings, airports, and public transportation.

So with this admission, the vaccination mandates should be rescinded.  

 
 
 
Snuffy
Professor Participates
1.1  Snuffy  replied to  Jeremy Retired in NC @1    3 years ago
So with this admission, the vaccination mandates should be rescinded.  

It is difficult to see how a SCOTUS case could be won by the administration after this admission.

 
 
 
Jeremy Retired in NC
Professor Expert
1.1.1  seeder  Jeremy Retired in NC  replied to  Snuffy @1.1    3 years ago

Common sense would be to just publicly rescind the mandate would be the smart thing to do.  But then again this is the Biden Administration.

 
 
 
Sparty On
Professor Principal
2  Sparty On    3 years ago

More empirical evidence of how Biden is wrong more often than not.

Just ask Robert Gates:

 
 
 
Nerm_L
Professor Expert
3  Nerm_L    3 years ago

Biden just says anything that gets him off the hook at the particular moment.  Biden isn't planning anything; he's just making it up as he goes.  A Senator might get away with that but a President cannot.

A lot of news reporters have been asking Biden if he will run in 2024.  But the more important question isn't whether or not Biden will run for President.  The more important question is when will Joe Biden become the President.

 
 
 
Jeremy Retired in NC
Professor Expert
3.1  seeder  Jeremy Retired in NC  replied to  Nerm_L @3    3 years ago
Biden just says anything that gets him off the hook at the particular moment.

He's in cover your ass mode.  

The more important question is when will Joe Biden become the President.

With his diminished mental state, that will never happen.  The only reason so many "voted" for him was the unfounded dislike of his predecessor.  Looks like many are now suffering from buyers remorse.

 
 
 
goose is back
Sophomore Guide
4  goose is back    3 years ago

Looks like it's time for CNN to start their Covid "Death Toll" tracker for Joe Biden since he has surpassed Trump in the number of deaths.

 
 
 
Jeremy Retired in NC
Professor Expert
4.1  seeder  Jeremy Retired in NC  replied to  goose is back @4    3 years ago
"Death Toll" tracker for Joe Biden since he has surpassed Trump in the number of death

Didn't Biden say that "anybody responsible for that many deaths should not remain President of the United States."?  Oh wait.  He did.  In the same debate where he said "I will end this.  I will make sure we have a plan".

So applying HIS standard, why hasn't he resigned?

 
 
 
Sean Treacy
Professor Principal
5  Sean Treacy    3 years ago

This is has always been obvious, but of course that would have robbed the left of their great talking point in their anti-Trump jihad.  Biden could promise to "shut down the  virus" and call on Trump to resign because of the number of people who died on his watch and the progressive cultists cheered him on, believing the President could magically stop a virus in it's tracks.  Think how many times Trump was accused of murder on this site alone by those can't deal with reality.

So now almost a year into his Presidency with states like NY setting new records for infections, suddenly it's no longer a problem Biden can solve. And the last two years of insanity from the left will just get thrown  down the memory hole. 

 
 
 
Tacos!
Professor Guide
6  Tacos!    3 years ago
“There is no federal solution. This gets solved at the state level,”   Mr. Biden   said

I about fell on the floor when I heard this shit - not because I agree or disagree, though. What blows my mind is that this federalism, this notion that the federal government can’t - and isn’t going to - solve everything is exactly the kind of the thing that Trump would - and did - say.

Trump completes reversal, telling govs 'you are going to call your own shots' and distributes new guidelines

Trump says states need to "work out" competing bids for medical equipment for themselves

Trump: U.S. states, not federal government, must improve testing

But when Trump took this approach, Democrats and the news media lost their MFing minds. In those days, Biden’s whole approach was to flex the power of the federal government.

From 2020:

Comparing Trump and Biden on COVID-19

To date, in place of a coordinated, national plan to scale-up and implement public health measures to control the spread of coronavirus, the Trump Administration has chosen to rest the main responsibility for the COVID-19 response with the states, with the federal government serving as “ back-up ” and “ supplier of last resort .” While this in part reflects federalism and the decentralized nature of U.S. public health, the lack of a national plan and strong federal guidelines have significantly contributed to a patchwork of policies, supplies, and outbreak trajectories across the country, and worsening community spread.
VP Biden’s plan states that “The federal government must act swiftly and aggressively” and that “Public health emergencies require disciplined, trustworthy leadership grounded in science.” His approach calls for the federal government, not the states, to assume primary responsibility for many aspects of the COVID-19 response, including for scaling up testing and contact tracing, providing and managing the distribution of critical supplies, and setting strong national standards.

Here, though, it’s all like water off a duck’s back. Everyone hearing “this gets solved at the state level” just nods their heads and accepts it.

What’s really funny/ironic/pathetic is that when Trump declared that he had this or that authority to deal with Covid, they called him a tyrant for it. So whether you want to use federal power or state power, you can’t fucking win.

I’m confident that both men wanted to use their high position to solve the problems of Covid, but both found out that our system makes that hard, and our partisanship makes it even harder.

This country is working so hard on being partisan, we can’t actually look at a problem objectively and solve it in a way that just makes sense. 

And yet, since taking office, more than 400,000 people have died in the U.S. from COVID-19, roughly the same number of deaths attributed to the virus in 2020.

Yeah - and that’s with a vaccine, plus a year’s head start on testing and treatment. Biden has nothing in particular to be proud of when it comes to his actions/inactions on the pandemic. The idea that we have a shortage now of testing supplies is positively shameful.

 
 
 
TᵢG
Professor Principal
6.1  TᵢG  replied to  Tacos! @6    3 years ago
This country is working so hard on being partisan, we can’t actually look at a problem objectively and solve it in a way that just makes sense. 

exactly.jpg

 
 

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