Never Let a Crisis Go to Waste: Democrats Cite Wuhan Virus to Push Longstanding Policy Priorities

[Ubiquitous]

As the nation braces for the effects of the Wuhan coronavirus,
congressional Democrats and left-leaning groups have seized on the
moment of crisis to push for the enactment of longstanding policy
goals.

Legislation introduced by House and Senate Democrats has snuck in
universal, employer-funded sick leave alongside temporary emergency
measures, potentially shuttering employers and serving as a poison pill
to slow congressional negotiations. Democratic electoral groups,
meanwhile, have already included the coronavirus in their attack-ad
messaging, while left-leaning policy organizations have called for
substantial reductions in incarceration and enforcement, in alignment
with their preexisting policy goals.

Such efforts to push through longstanding legislative priorities recall
the attitude of former Obama White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel
during the Great Recession, who is remembered for his now-infamous
exhortation that "you never let a serious crisis go to waste."

House Democrats on Wednesday released their proposal for a
comprehensive fiscal response to the impending pandemic. Much of the
bill pertains to emergency-related funding, including an additional
$500 million for SNAP and guaranteed sick leave for individuals
quarantined with the disease.

But the bill's sick-leave section creates new obligations for employers
to allow employees to accrue sick leave regardless of whether or not
there is a national crisis, and which will persist after the pandemic
is over. In effect, the bill would impose a paid-leave mandate on
employers nationwide, independent of current emergency conditions—a
longstanding legislative priority of Democrats, which Republicans have
consistently opposed for fear of costs.

Sen. Patty Murray (D., Wash.) scored approving headlines for attempting
and failing to pass a proposal for employer-funded sick leave through
the Senate health committee. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R., Tenn.) blocked
her efforts, saying that while universal sick leave would be "a good
idea," the federal government should pay the costs, not small employers
already facing an impending recession.

Although Murray and cosponsor Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D., Conn.) framed
their bill as an emergency measure in response to the Wuhan
coronavirus, the pair were, in fact, reintroducing a bill they have
pushed before. As Samuel Hammond, director of poverty and welfare
policy for the libertarian Niskanen Center, noted, "DeLauro and Murray
have introduced versions of this bill in the past and will no doubt do
so again in the future. For better or worse, Republicans are simply not
about to pass a new and permanent paid leave mandate, but they may be
open to something more temporary."

DeLauro and Murray's original bill, the Healthy Families Act, would
cost employers roughly $1.5 billion a year, according to an analysis
from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office of a version of the
bill released in the 2007-2008 Congress. The DeLauro-Murray bill would
impose these requirements on businesses with 15 or more employees, many
of which are likely to face substantial financial strain in the coming
months.

While congressional Democrats have focused on implementing universal
sick leave, other liberal groups have used the crisis as a pretext for
pushing other priorities. Multiple criminal justice reform
organizations have called for the mass release of jail detainees and a
major reduction in arrests. The Center for American Progress, one of
the nation's leading liberal think tanks, called for a moratorium on
immigration enforcement at or near testing sites and hospitals, citing
no evidence that federal immigration officials were prioritizing such
enforcement efforts during the current crisis.

Democratic spending groups have also moved to leverage the coronavirus
to their electoral advantage. One major dark money group, Protect Our
Care, has launched an ad attacking incumbent Republican senator Steve
Daines's (Mont.) opposition to Obamacare. Senate Majority PAC, which
pushes for the election of Democrats to the Senate, has also launched
an ad hitting Republican and Michigan Senate contender John James for
his record on health care.

The use of a crisis to further a preexisting agenda is hardly
unprecedented. The idea that crises are opportunities for political
change is perhaps best captured by Emanuel, who as the newly appointed
chief of staff, told a Wall Street Journal panel that "you never let a
serious crisis go to waste," adding that such events are "an
opportunity to do things you think you could not do before."

Emanuel's comments presaged the Obama administration's all-of-
government response to the crisis, which proponents cheered for keeping
the recession from growing worse. Critics, however, perceived the
bailout of major banks and the effective nationalization of the U.S.
automotive industry as a dangerous expansion of federal power, one
which helped prompt the rise of the libertarian Tea Party movement.

The "never let a crisis go to waste" mentality has also informed the
far-left's response to global warming. Proposals for a Green New Deal
floated by, among others, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.)
would have little effect on global warming (thanks in part to the
United States' shrinking share of global emissions) but would implement
a slew of socialist policy goals, including a Universal Basic Income
and jobs guarantee.


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Democrats and the liberal media hate President Trump more than they
love this country.