Conservative: Virus-Proof the Economy
President Trump has “hinted at potential government assistance” for businesses hurt by lowered demand because of coronavirus concerns, but that help has to come now, argues National Review’s Daniel Tenreiro. If airlines default on debt, for example, “it could spell doom” for an industry “that employs roughly 500,000 Americans,” while defaulting oil companies would threaten US energy independence. Bailouts tend “to be unpopular due to the ‘moral hazard’ involved in saving flailing businesses,” but these companies are “not responsible for the havoc caused by the coronavirus.” Letting them default would “permanently hinder economic growth.” Warns Tenreiro: “The clock is ticking.”
Security watch: Fix, Don’t Fold, FISA
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is “under fire due to a series of deficiencies in how the FBI used it to justify surveillance of Carter Page,” an American citizen and former Trump campaign adviser, note Joseph Moreno and Keith Gerver at The Hill. After the Justice Department inspector general’s “damning” report revealed how the FBI “manipulated” the process, politicians have proposed “eliminating FISA entirely.” That “would be a mistake,” Moreno and Gerver argue: Instead, “address the legitimate concerns about FISA,” starting with giving those targeted a “dedicated advocate” to “pressure test” the government’s case while preserving the ability to hunt “suspected spies and terrorists.” If we reform FISA, we can “restore confidence” in the process — and “protect both our national security and our privacy.”
Ed desk: Opposing Choice Hurts Poor Kids Most
At Spectator USA, Satya Marar blasts a Kentucky school administrator’s threat to delay students’ graduations if state lawmakers pass a school-choice law. One big error is the “misguided” assumption that public schools would lose funding. Actually, not all government funding follows kids, even from one public school to another, so some “schools that lose students to choice” actually get more funding per-pupil than before. Plus, money “seems to have little to do with improving failing schools”: America shells out “significantly” more than the average for Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries, yet its kids fail to “outperform their OECD peers.” Meanwhile, “the wealthy” already take advantage of choice, so those opposing it “are only hurting low-income families,” who benefit from it most.
From the left: Beware Trump’s Black Outreach
“Donald Trump understands the importance of African-American voters much better than Democrats and progressives do,” Steve Phillips declares at The Guardian. While Trump’s campaign is running ads featuring black voters and “opening field offices in 15 cities with large black communities,” Democrats aren’t spending to shore up their support there, focusing instead on winning over white Trump voters. Watch out: When Dems “overlooked and underinvested” in black voters in 2016, they faced “a cataclysmic drop-off in black voter turnout” and lost the election. If Democrats don’t “course correct,” the results will be “catastrophic in November.” After all, the Republican objective is “to bring down the amount of black support for Democrats just enough to tip a close contest.”
Urbanist: Get Real About Homelessness
“Activists, journalists and political leaders” insist homelessness is a result of “rising rents, heartless landlords and a lack of economic opportunity” and “have proposed investing billions in subsidized housing” to solve it, observes Christopher Rufo in City Journal. But “an emerging body of evidence confirms what people see plainly on the streets: Homelessness is deeply connected to addiction, mental illness and crime.” An investigation in Los Angeles found “46 percent of the homeless and 75 percent of the unsheltered homeless have a substance-abuse disorder — more than three times higher than official estimates from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.” And new data from Seattle show “homeless individuals are nearly 100 times more likely to commit crimes and get booked into jail than the average citizen.” So “public fears about homeless encampments,” contrary to activists’ complaints of “mean-world syndrome,” are “a rational response to the increased probability of crime.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board