Editorial Roundup: New York

Recent editorials of statewide and national interest from New York’s newspapers:

Mr. Trump’s War on Accountability

The New York Times

May 4

President Trump can’t handle the truth - at least, not when it makes his administration look bad. With his move Friday night to replace the top watchdog for the Department of Health and Human Services, the latest in a series of direct attacks on statutory oversight of his administration, it’s clear that the president remains committed to withholding the truth from the American people as well.

Mr. Trump’s latest target, Christi Grimm, is the department’s principal deputy inspector general, whose office issued a report a month ago revealing the dire state of the nation’s pandemic response. After hundreds of hospital administrators across the United States were interviewed, the report detailed enduring equipment shortages and concerns about testing. “Further, hospitals reported that changing and sometimes inconsistent guidance from federal, state and local authorities posed challenges and confused hospitals and the public.”

Asked about the results of the report at his April 6 news briefing, Mr. Trump declared: “It’s just wrong. Did I hear the word ‘inspector general’? Really? It’s wrong. And they’ll talk to you about it. It’s wrong.”

The president then rushed to discredit Ms. Grimm. “Where did he come from, the inspector general? What’s his name? No, what’s his name? What’s his name?” When told of Ms. Grimm’s two-plus decades in government under Republican and Democratic administrations, Mr. Trump dismissed her as an Obama-era agent of the deep state, an attack he continued on Twitter the next day.

For Mr. Trump, there may be no greater betrayal than being the bearer of unflattering news about his administration.

In recent weeks, the president has been working to cleanse his administration of officials he considers insufficiently loyal. (A very high bar indeed.) Mr. Trump has displayed a particular hostility to inspectors general. On April 3, he informed Congress he would be firing Michael Atkinson, the inspector general for the intelligence community who alerted lawmakers to the existence of a whistle-blower complaint about Ukraine that ultimately led to the president’s impeachment. At the same time, Mr. Trump announced his intention to install a handful of new inspectors general throughout the administration, including naming a White House aide to the new post of special inspector general for a pandemic business rescue fund.

On April 7, he ousted the acting inspector general for the Defense Department, Glenn Fine, who had been tapped by his fellow I.G.s to head a new panel tasked with overseeing how the government spends $2 trillion in coronavirus relief. This came less than two weeks after the president issued a signing statement that he would disregard some of the oversight measures contained in the CARES Act - or, as he called the measures, “impermissible forms of congressional aggrandizement.”

Republican lawmakers say they are “concerned” about Mr. Trump’s war on accountability for the administration’s conduct and the expenditure of taxpayer dollars. At least on paper.

In response to Mr. Atkinson’s firing, a bipartisan group of senators, including the Republicans Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Susan Collins of Maine and Mitt Romney of Utah, called on the president to explain his decision. In an April 8 letter, they reminded him that inspectors general report “to both the president and Congress, to secure efficient, robust and independent agency oversight,” and they noted that he had failed to abide by the notification requirements for the removal of an inspector general. They requested, in the name of “transparency and accountability,” that Mr. Trump address their concerns by April 13.

The White House could not be bothered.

On April 14, two more Republican senators, Rob Portman of Ohio and James Lankford of Oklahoma, sent their own letter to Mr. Trump, noting that recent moves by the administration had “raised concerns” about its “support for I.G.s and the statutory authority Congress has granted them.” They offered ideas for helping the president “ensure that I.G.s continue to play their important and appropriate role.”

Yet Mr. Trump has made clear that he considers any efforts to hold him accountable to be, by definition, illegitimate. Republicans, by their actions rather than their words, have done little to disabuse him of this notion. Since the G.O.P. controls the Senate, Democrats would need Republican support to check the power of the executive branch. It hasn’t been forthcoming.

On matters ranging from domestic spending to U.S. military intervention in Yemen to the appointment of administration officials, Mr. Trump has stiff-armed Congress. When lawmakers refused to fund construction of a border wall, Mr. Trump declared a faux national emergency and redirected billions from the Pentagon to build it anyway. Doing so runs roughshod over Congress’s constitutionally invested power of the purse.

Lawmakers serious about protecting inspectors general could start by taking a closer look at the “Inspectors General Independence Act.” Introduced last month by Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Representative Jim Cooper of Tennessee, both moderate Democrats, the bill aims to shield I.G.s from politically motivated firings by establishing seven-year terms and limiting removals to “for cause,” such as “permanent incapacity, inefficiency, neglect of duty, malfeasance or conviction of a felony or conduct involving moral turpitude.”

In announcing the legislation, Mr. Murphy noted, “We simply cannot allow President Trump to weaponize independent oversight positions in his administration to reward his friends, punish his political enemies and cover up wrongdoing.” The particular proposal is unlikely to go anywhere in a presidential election year, with this Congress - and this president. But lawmakers should consider whether additional protections for I.G.s might make sense in the future.

Congressional capitulation is dangerous in ordinary times. Now, with a pandemic killing thousands of Americans every day and lawmakers having handed the administration trillions of taxpayer dollars in relief funding, the need for effective checks and balances has never been more acute.

Online: https://nyti.ms/2YEorcd

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See beyond the mask

Newsday

May 3

We should all be wearing masks.

Yes, that includes you, who went out for a walk, bare faced, to enjoy the lovely weather this weekend, or did a quick shopping trip and forgot the cover-up in the car. It’s not easy, and the masks are annoying, but there is some evidence that they can help us through the coronavirus pandemic. Until we get vaccines and other medications to protect us, the masks, hand-washing, and social-distancing are the most we can do. No one wants to see this deadly disease roar back.

An April study of New York data by Arizona State University researchers suggested that widespread adoption of masks could prevent on the order of 17% to 45% of projected deaths over the next two months in New York State. If that’s not enough, masks or face coverings when in public and near others are the law of the land in the state thanks to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s April 15 executive order.

So why isn’t everyone covering up?

Maybe it’s because authorities were lukewarm on masks for weeks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that ordinary, healthy citizens didn’t need to mask up, only reversing course at the beginning of April, faced with new data about widespread incidences of asymptomatic transmission.

Cuomo had called for vulnerable people and those interacting with them to wear masks on March 20. But on April 3, almost two weeks before his mask executive order, his health Commissioner Howard Zucker said there was “no clear evidence” that covering faces for the general public would help. Cuomo clarified that it “couldn’t hurt” but shouldn’t give a false sense of security.

Advice from top experts to local elected officials hasn’t been consistent. The World Health Organization’s guidance is merely that in “the community, we recommend the use of medical masks by people who are sick and those who are caring for a sick person at home.”

Then there is the bad mask example set by Vice President Mike Pence. Pence stupidly skipped the mask during a visit to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota last week, though he put one on for a General Motors visit a few days later. President Donald Trump has downplayed his need for a mask but said he might wear one. The president would set a good example on Tuesday if he dons one while visiting an Arizona mask manufacturer.

There were legitimate concerns about encouraging widespread mask use. An inexplicable national shortage of heavy duty medical masks strained supplies of other masks leading officials to worry about sufficient stock for front-line workers. As we’ve learned more about this disease, it seems more and more likely that masks can help prevent transmission.

Whether they’re off the rack or custom made, a strip of cloth or an old scarf, the devices are often a nuisance - fogging glasses and heating cheeks, making it hard to talk or simply feel at peace outside.

But think of them as a civic step that helps, even a little. It’s a way to do our part, for those we love and everyone else at risk.

Online: https://nwsdy.li/2SJECRI

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If Elective Surgeries Can Resume, Then So Should Economy

The Post-Journal

May 5

One of the main reasons to shut down our society was to keep hospitals from being overwhelmed by COVID-19 cases.

Why, then, are reopening plans for the economy being handled differently than the reopening plans for elective procedures in hospitals? It’s a valid question whose answer directly affects each and every Chautauqua County resident.

Late last week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that elective procedures could resume in many areas of the state, including Chautauqua County. At UPMC Chautauqua, the governor’s decision means health care procedures that weren’t essential but are still an important part of keeping people healthy that were postponed in March can resume. That’s good news, as we said last week, because the area residents need to have access to such essential care.

It does seem incongruous, though, that the marching orders from the state are to reopen hospitals to elective procedures in counties like Chautauqua and Cattaraugus that have hardly any active COVID-19 cases, yet base those same counties’ economic reopening on Erie County’s ability to have 14 days of continuous decline in COVID-19 cases.

In fact, the state’s logic with hospitals is sound. Areas with higher numbers of cases should place a higher emphasis on treating COVID-19 infections. When a county has few enough cases that its the health care system can handle its COVID-19 cases, then the health care system should expand to allow more types of care.

If that logic works for a county’s hospitals, then it should apply to a county’s business community as well. One can’t stop travel from one county to another, as is evidenced by essential workers in the Buffalo area traveling to Chautauqua County for work or for Chautauqua County residents who travel to the Buffalo or Erie areas for work. We must all have faith that reasonable people will travel only if they are symptom-free and are willing to take the proper precautions to keep themselves and others safe.

Those precautions exist whether or not Erie County’s hospitalization rate declines for 14 consecutive days, and once you realize that, keeping rural areas closed on account of the Buffalo region makes little sense.

Online: https://bit.ly/2zXfW1B

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Don’t need Gates Foundation to tell us schools need computers

Adirondack Daily Enterprise

May 6

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday that he has enlisted the help of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in reimagining education in New York state, in light of the distance learning forced upon us by the COVID-19 pandemic. Honestly, though, how many New Yorkers would choose the founder of Microsoft as a reliable guide to tell us what our schooling should look like?

Everyone has different ideas about how to improve education. For example, we feel strongly that foreign languages should be taught all through elementary school, starting in kindergarten, since the human brain is particularly receptive to learning languages at a young age rather than the teenage years, when our brains have changed and language learning is harder.

We expect the Gates Foundation is likely to recommend more technology. We don’t need them to tell us that.

Differences aside, people should be able to agree that schools that had equipped their students with chromebooks or computer tablets were better prepared for the quarantine. In Saranac Lake, for instance, middle and high schoolers were on their second year of chromebooks all around, and education continued relatively seamlessly. In Albany, however, the Times Union reported that weeks went by without much teaching while the district pulled things together, tech-wise. This is going to have to become standard equipment at all schools.

A photo we published recently showed what the offline alternative looks like: At Petrova Elementary School in Saranac Lake, which didn’t have take-home chromebooks for all its students, a hallway was lined with dozens of boxes full of manila envelopes, stuffed with printouts teachers had made for their students. These were being delivered to each student’s home by school bus drivers. This is an admirable, remarkable operation, but it is also inefficient and unnecessary - like doing your taxes by pen on forms you get from the library. There is a better way.

Should all grades have chromebooks or tablets, starting in kindergarten, or should it begin a little later, maybe third grade? Educators are better qualified to answer that question than we are, but teachers and students everywhere should be able to hold classes remotely when they have to.

There is, of course, much disagreement over how to improve education in New York, and much of it comes down to taxes and spending. We agree that schools should be a top priority and that in many ways you get what you pay for, but there is also plenty of room to improve using the large amount of money New York already spends on schools.

The quarantine has opened up some common ground. Chromebooks and/or tablets seem like obvious needs. Let’s start there and see what else we can agree on.

Online: https://bit.ly/2L5dIj7

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Canceled election leaves 50th Senate District without a voice in Albany

Syracuse Post-Standard

May 5

Gov. Andrew Cuomo should not have canceled a special election to fill the vacancy left when Robert Antonacci resigned from the state Legislature to take a seat on the state Supreme Court bench.

Citizens in the 50th Senate District – roughly 300,000 people residing in Onondaga and Cayuga counties – have not had a representative in the New York state Senate since January. Now they won’t have one until next January.

With no one in Antonacci’s chair, there’s no one dedicated to look after the interests of his constituents as Cuomo and the Legislature confront the devastating effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the state’s residents, finances, healthcare infrastructure, businesses, schools and services. This is no time for no representation.

The special election already was postponed from April 28, the date of the presidential primary, to June 23. That was the right call, confirmed by Wisconsin’s primary voting debacle a week later. On April 24, Cuomo canceled a handful of special elections a few days before the state Board of Elections canceled the statewide presidential primary.

Now, the headline race on the June 23 ballot in Central New York will be the Democratic primary for the 24th Congressional District to decide who will challenge Rep. John Katko, R-Camillus. There also are a smattering of primaries for local and judicial offices. All voters will be able to apply for an absentee ballot to vote by mail.

Why couldn’t the 50th Senate District race have gone on the same ballot? The congressional and Senate districts almost entirely overlap - admittedly, with some large exceptions. The city of Syracuse and the towns of Salina and Cicero were gerrymandered into the 53rd Senate District when maps were redrawn by the Legislature in 2012. (Then-Sen. John DeFrancisco insisted the map include the town of Onondaga so that Antonacci could run for his seat - a plan that succeeded until it backfired when Antonacci grasped for a different office.)

Democrat John Mannion and Republican Angi Renna face off in November to fill Antonacci’s vacancy. The winner will take office in 2021.

Canceling the presidential primary was a 50-50 call, in our minds. With Joe Biden the last Democrat in the race, all others having conceded or suspended their campaigns, the result is foregone conclusion. Ratifying it was not worth the public health risk of having voters from around the state show up at the polls.

However, canceling an election outright sets a bad precedent. It could give cover to other states, or even the federal government, for suppressing votes under the guise of suppressing the virus.

The debate over tipping for takeout food is hereby suspended for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic (and who knows, maybe forever).

Restaurants managing to stay open by offering takeout food are operating even closer to the edge of profitability than usual. The essential workers making, serving and delivering food might be earning a bit more in wages. More likely, they are scraping by on less than they made before table service shut down.

If you can afford it, tip your takeout servers and delivery people well. They are risking their health to make your quarantine a little more bearable.

Online: https://bit.ly/2L2Rbnb

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