[ad_1]

President Joe Biden



Photo:

Alex Wong/Getty Images

Is the Covid-19 pandemic over? President Biden’s answer is yes no yes no. The latest example of politically convenient pandemic schizophrenia came Thursday when the Department of Health and Human Services again extended the official public-health emergency, this time through January.

WSJ Opinion Live: Can Republicans Retake Congress?

Join Journal Editorial Page Editor Paul Gigot and Columnists Kimberley Strassel and Karl Rove live from Dallas as they discuss how inflation, Donald Trump and the Supreme Court’s abortion ruling will affect the midterms.

WSJ members are invited to attend this exclusive member event live in Dallas, TX, or via livestream online on Monday, October 17 at 7:00 PM CT / 8:00 PM ET. Purchase tickets to the live event in Dallas or to register for the virtual livestream.

“The pandemic is over,” Mr. Biden told CBS’s “60 Minutes” only three weeks ago. “We still have a problem with Covid. We’re still doing a lot of work on it. But the pandemic is over.” Not to get all philosophical, but how can something be an emergency if it has already ended? The HHS statement this week says “a public health emergency exists and has existed since January 27, 2020, nationwide.”

This isn’t the only example of Mr. Biden talking from both sides of his N95 mask. When he decided to forgive student loans of up to $20,000 per person, the White House said this would “address the financial harms of the pandemic.” But the government had halted student loan payments since 2020, holding borrowers harmless. A month before he declared the pandemic “over,” Mr. Biden extended that student loan pause through Dec. 31.

On the southern border, the pandemic apparently ended in April, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention terminated President Trump’s policy of expelling migrants using Title 42 health powers. The CDC said this is “no longer necessary.” The agency cited “the development and widespread deployment of COVID-19 tests, vaccines, and therapeutics.”

A judge held that the Biden Administration couldn’t stop Title 42 enforcement, at least for now. But it’s another example of Mr. Biden’s choose-your-own-pandemic policy. Whether the crisis is over varies by agency and depends on what the White House is trying to accomplish. The HHS extension this week will freeze state Medicaid rolls and prevent ineligible recipients from being removed.

Certain work requirements for food stamps are also on hold. Yet businesses need help. Unemployment is 1.9% in Minnesota, 2% in New Hampshire, and 2.5% in Missouri. Maybe Mr. Biden hopes to keep the emergency going until the end of the next recession.

Review & Outlook: Inflation is the fault of Congress’s Covid spending blowouts and the Federal Reserve’s too slow response in tightening. Joe Biden and the Democratic Party now need a pro-growth agenda to help mitigate the economic pain. Images: Reuters/Getty Images Composite: Mark Kelly

Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

Appeared in the October 15, 2022, print edition as ‘Biden’s Choose-Your-Own-Pandemic Policy.’

[ad_2]

Source link

(This article is generated through the syndicated feeds, Financetin doesn’t own any part of this article)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *