{"id":38676,"date":"2020-04-19T14:33:53","date_gmt":"2020-04-19T18:33:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=38676"},"modified":"2020-04-19T14:33:53","modified_gmt":"2020-04-19T18:33:53","slug":"heads-i-win-tails-you-lose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=38676","title":{"rendered":"Heads I Win, Tails You Lose"},"content":{"rendered":"

The media has become something of a joke during the past three years as they have been overtaken by Trump Derangement Syndrome. We have reached the point that whatever President Trump does is wrong and even when it turns out to be right, it is still wrong. On Friday, Paul Mirengoff at Power Line Blog<\/a> posted an article that illustrates that point.<\/p>\n

The article reports:<\/p>\n

Yesterday, President Trump released federal guidelines<\/a> regarding the reopening of the economy. Trump did not suggest a date by which the economy of the U.S. or of any state should be reopened. The guidelines call on state and local officials to make these decisions.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Trump was wise to say these decisions should be made locally. First<\/em>, he lacks the power to make them. ( The Washington Post says<\/a> that Trump\u2019s \u201cplan effectively reverses [his] claim that he had \u2018total authority\u2019 to declare the nation reopened.\u201d But Trump hasn\u2019t agreed that he lacks this power. He\u2019s merely declining to attempt to exercise it.)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Second<\/em>, in theory state and local officials are better able than the feds to decide when and how to reopen things in their jurisdiction. I say \u201cin theory,\u201d because some state and local officials, despite their closeness to the situation, have made highly questionable decisions.<\/strong><\/p>\n

However, Trump deals with governors on something like a daily basis. He has said that the vast majority of governors, whether Democrat or Republican, are doing a good job. If Trump is sincere, and he probably is, then it makes sense for him to defer to governors.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Finally<\/em>, Trump\u2019s deference makes political sense. If things go horribly wrong in a state, whether in terms of public health or the economy, its governor will have to take the blame. Trump can always say the governor made the wrong call.<\/strong><\/p>\n

After insisting that governors should be making these calls, and accusing Trump of playing \u201cking\u201d for denying their power to make them, the president\u2019s critics are now accusing him of passing the buck. The Post asserts<\/a> that \u201cTrump\u2019s the-buck-stops-with-the-states posture is largely designed to shield himself from blame should there be new outbreaks or for other problems. . .\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

So when President Trump is taking charge, he is acting like a king. When President Trump appropriately delegates authority, he is passing the buck. So is there anything he could do that the press would approve of? Probably not, so he is better off simply following his instincts as a businessman and doing what he thinks is right.<\/p>\n

The article concludes:<\/p>\n

New York governor Andrew Cuomo has matched Trump\u2019s media critics in this regard. He says<\/a> Trump is \u201cpassing the buck without passing the bucks.\u201d \u201cDon\u2019t ask the states to do this without the funding,\u201d Cuomo moaned.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cuomo, though, led the charge to brand Trump a king<\/a> for claiming the power to make reopening decisions for states. Is Cuomo now saying that, absent the funding he desires, he doesn\u2019t want to make such decisions?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s power (or lack thereof) to make reopening decisions isn\u2019t contingent on federal funding decisions. If Cuomo doesn\u2019t get the funding he wants, it\u2019s still his call on when to reopen. If things go badly, he can blame the feds for not giving New York money. Voters can decide whether he made the right call under the circumstances.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As for Trump, I think he made the right call by deferring to state and local officials. As for his guidelines, they seem sensible, but I haven\u2019t analyzed them carefully.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We are about to find out who the competent governors are in America!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The media has become something of a joke during the past three years as they have been overtaken by Trump Derangement Syndrome. We have reached the point that whatever President Trump does is wrong and even when it turns out … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4605,12501,3046,627,8203,10589,8367,1134],"class_list":["post-38676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-andrew-cuomo","tag-coronavirus","tag-paul-mirengoff","tag-power-line","tag-power-line-blog","tag-president-trump","tag-the-washington-post","tag-washington-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38676"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38677,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38676\/revisions\/38677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}