What a wild turkey tells us about Washington -- April 28, 2022 column

 By MARSHA MERCER

A wild turkey is terrorizing people on a bike trail in the District of Columbia. Several runners and bicyclists report being menaced by the angry bird.

“There’s actually a pretty healthy turkey population in D.C. and the surrounding areas,” Dan Rauch, a wildlife biologist with the district’s department of the environment, told NBC 4 in Washington. “There’s at least a hundred, maybe even two, here in the District.”

Oh, come on. Everybody knows there are more turkeys than that in Washington.

At least that’s what the polls say. President Joe Biden and Congress both suffer from rock-bottom approval ratings. Only about 40% of people approve of the job Biden is doing, and Congress’s approval rating is even lower.

Only about 25% approve of the job Congress is doing, according to the latest Real Clear Politics poll average. Slightly more – but only slightly – think the country is moving in the right direction, about 30%, according to RCP’s poll average.

The rampaging turkey looks diligent compared with the do-nothings in Washington.  

It’s spring, but in the nation’s capital it feels like the dark days of fall – as in election season. The midterms may be six months away, but Democrats and Republicans are so busy attacking each other they can’t get anything accomplished.

The country is awash with problems – inflation, the pandemic (still with us) and the crisis at the border, chief among them. Government is supposed to solve problems, or at least try, but Democrats keep fighting among themselves and Republicans, who smell electoral blood in the water, won’t lift a finger to help.

Biden has failed to deliver on much of his agenda. Hardly anyone even mentions voting rights legislation anymore, even though more than a dozen states have passed more restrictive voting laws.

The Build Back Better package – scaled down from Biden’s original $4 trillion proposal to about $2 trillion – appears doomed, although some Democrats still hope to salvage about $1 trillion. They disagree about what should be their priority – maternal and child health, pre-K education, a child tax credit, clean energy measures – and about what can pass.

Nearly every day the news about the environment worsens: “megadrought” in California, wildfires, water shortages, and yet, again, nothing happens in Washington.

It always comes back to: What does Joe want? A spokesman for Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said Monday he was agreeable to boosting energy production, lowering prescription drug costs and raising taxes on the rich, The Washington Post reported. But Manchin himself told reporters Tuesday there’s no formal agreement.

“I want to make sure ya’ll understand: There’s no false hopes here,” said Manchin, who also continues to hold out for fully paying for the package, a sticking point.

Manchin says he will run for re-election in 2024, so there’s no downside in his red state for his opposing Biden’s agenda.

Congress failed to pass aid to buy more coronavirus vaccines and treatment before leaving on spring break. Now, more aid for Ukraine is also in doubt, as Republicans warn they won’t allow Democrats to include coronavirus aid in the Ukraine package.

Republicans want a vote on lifting Title 42, the controversial Trump-era measure that allows the Department of Homeland Security to “expel” migrants at the border without allowing them to apply for asylum. The administration contends the emergency measure, a public health order, is no longer needed and planned to lift it May 23.

A federal judge in Louisiana has blocked the administration from phasing out the restrictions before May 23. Border crossings are up and are expected to surge even more.

Washington almost never blames itself for anything, so it was surprising to hear Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Michigan, lash out at both political parties.  

“Our immigration system is broken,” she declared at a hearing Wednesday. “Democrats and Republicans own that. Right now, Democrats have the House and Senate and White House and have done nothing to get comprehensive immigration reform.

“Four years ago, Republicans had the House, the Senate and the White House and did nothing” on immigration reform. Imploring her colleagues to introduce legislation to make the border situation better, she said: “Don’t just use it as a political cudgel.”

But they will. No wonder people are so grumpy.

©2022 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.

Midterm campaigns kick off with a political jab -- Dec. 9, 2021 column

By MARSHA MERCER

During a recent medical test, I noticed my face mask had slipped down.

“Sorry!” I said to the technician, who was also masked. “I’m vaccinated and boosted, and you are too, right?” Slight pause.

“I’m healthy,” he said, using a favorite dodge of the unvaccinated.

Why would anyone whose job requires close contact with people who could be sick or immune-compromised take such a risk for himself, his patients and co-workers?

He said he had decades of experience, including at a hospital where tuberculosis patients coughed in his face, and was healthy. He doesn’t buy the need for vaccinations against COVID-19, thinks they could be harmful, and believes the number of reported COVID deaths is inflated.

Scientists, however, agree vaccinations help reduce the spread of COVID-19 and its severity and are less risky than the disease.

Most healthcare workers voluntarily take the commonsense precaution of vaccinations. Still, about 30% of workers in hospitals were unvaccinated as of September, according to a Centers for Disease Control study.

Last month, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued rules requiring vaccinations for healthcare workers and for businesses with 100 employees or more. Both rules are stalled, at least temporarily, by court challenges.

The healthcare rule would require all workers in facilities that accept Medicare and Medicaid funding to be fully vaccinated, with no exceptions, or facilities could lose federal funding. The OSHA rule includes a provision that allows workers who do not get vaccinated to be tested weekly and wear masks on the job.

 President Joe Biden was reluctant to impose such vaccination mandates, but after incentives and voluntary behavior weren’t enough, he earlier rolled out requirements for federal workers and employees of federal contractors to be vaccinated.

The mandate for contractors, which included limited exceptions for medical and religious reasons, was blocked Tuesday in federal court. The White House vows to continue fighting for mandates.

Many private employers have imposed vaccination mandates on their own. They realize the economy won’t get back to normal – whatever that is -- until more of the population is protected against this deadly, unpredictable disease.

The latest troubling news about the fast-spreading omicron variant has led public health officials to urge everyone eligible to get vaccinations and booster shots. New research from Pfizer and BioNTech indicates a booster shot may help protect against omicron, but it’s too soon to know.

Opponents argue vaccination mandates are an example of federal overreach. Politicians like to claim they personally are pro-vaccine but anti-mandate. They conveniently forget they and their children had to receive vaccinations against other diseases to enroll in school.

But COVID-19 vaccination mandates are seen as a potent political issue for the midterm elections. The Senate voted Wednesday to repeal Biden’s mandate for companies with more than 100 employees. All Republicans and two Democrats – Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana -- voted to nullify the mandate.

The 52-48 vote was largely symbolic, if not a political stunt. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is unlikely to bring the measure up for a vote in the House, and if it were to pass, the White House said Biden would veto it. It would be his first presidential veto.

Opponents of mandates say their constituents fear mandates will cost jobs and wreck the economy, but instead of working to educate the uninformed, politicians pander.

“Encouraging and requiring are two different things,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito. Republican of West Virginia, told reporters. More than killing the American economy, she said, the vaccine mandate is “killing the American spirit of being able to make decisions about yourself, to be respected for that.”

Oh, please.

Vaccination mandates may be more popular than Republican politicians think. Half of Americans support the mandate for businesses with at least 100 employees, while 47% oppose it, a Wall Street Journal poll reported this week. Slightly more – 55% -- support vaccination mandates for public safety workers, such as police and firefighters.

Everyone is sick of the pandemic, but it shows no sign of waning. We all need to take responsibility to fight it. To everyone who’s eligible, except those with a legitimate medical excuse: Get your vaccinations and boosters.

©2021 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.

Choosing to fight climate change -- Aug. 12, 2021 column

By MARSHA MERCER

As if fires in the American West, floods in Europe and more intense storms everywhere weren’t enough of a wakeup call, a United Nations panel Monday issued a “code red” warning on global climate change.

“It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land,” states the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, urging immediate action to avert more dire effects of climate change.

The report, based on 14,000 studies, the most comprehensive summary ever, was approved by 195 governments. It says human-caused emissions have pushed the average global temperature up 1.5 degrees Celsius since the pre-industrial average.

“We can’t wait to tackle the climate crisis. The signs are unmistakable. The science is undeniable. And the cost of inaction keeps mounting,” President Joe Biden tweeted.

Biden wants to put the United States on a path to net zero greenhouse gas emissions. Transportation is a key contributor to emissions, and the bipartisan infrastructure bill the Senate passed Tuesday includes $7.5 billion for electric vehicle charging stations and $7.5 billion to replace school buses and ferries with lower-emission ones.

A separate $3.5 trillion budget blueprint Senate Democrats passed Wednesday – dubbed the Build Back Better plan – promotes sales of electric vehicles, clean energy manufacturing and a Civilian Climate Corps.

Both bills face hurdles in the House. To some congressional Democrats on the left, the bills are too lean, and to congressional Republicans on the right, they’re too fat.

Republicans continue to insist the climate is always changing, American jobs will be sacrificed, and, besides, our Chinese competitors are worse climate offenders. Our reducing emissions will only benefit them.

With COVID-19 again surging across the country, this may seem the worst possible time to bring up behavioral changes individuals can make to help ameliorate climate change.  

But the changes the pandemic brought to our lifestyles over the last year and a half can be helpful as we consider how we want to live moving forward.

What can one person do to fight climate change?

n  -- Contact your elected representatives

n  -- Eat less meat and dairy

n --  Fly less

n  -- Leave the car at home

Those are among nine steps Imperial College London, a public research university devoted to science, engineering, business and medicine, says individuals can take.  It also proposes reducing energy use, protecting green spaces and planting trees, investing responsibly, minimizing waste by donating items, and talking about the changes you make.

It quotes Al Gore’s mantra: "Use your voice, use your vote, use your choice."

I like the list because it’s straight-forward. I found U.S. government sites so fearful of offending someone they larded up very similar suggestions with “where possible,” “where feasible,” “where affordable,” and “where practical.”

Yes, of course, no one can do what’s impossible or unaffordable, but such qualifiers muddy the message.

Nobody pretends individual actions alone can end climate change, but individuals can raise a sense of urgency, which can lead to change.

Maybe we don’t resume flying to in-person conferences and continue to meet virtually. Embrace Zoom? That, I know, is a reach.

Go on foot or bike to the store. Choose a plant-based diet and make ourselves and the planet healthier. Explore charity organizations or Freecycle groups to give unwanted household items a new home, rather than sending them to the landfill.

“While individuals alone may not be able to make drastic emissions cuts that limit climate change to acceptable levels, personal action is essential to raise the importance of issues to policymakers and businesses,” Imperial says.

Bill Gates writes in his new book, “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster”:

“When somebody wants toast for breakfast, we need to make sure there’s a system in place that can deliver the bread, the toaster, and the electricity to run the toaster without adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. We aren’t going to solve the climate problem by telling people not to eat toast.”

Gates is right. Telling people, “no toast” is a non-starter. But if more of us voluntarily take small steps now, we can help reduce our carbon footprint and stave off disaster.

©2021 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.

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Steal: Unvaccinated rob America of `summer of joy' -- July 29, 2021 column

By MARSHA MERCER

In the grocery store for two items, I apologized for forgetting my mask, even though most customers weren’t wearing them.

“That’s OK. You don’t have to wear one,” the masked checker said with a shrug.

I told her I’d just heard news the government is again recommending masks in some public places.

“Oh, I don’t pay attention to the news anymore,” she said.

Some Americans are understandably sick of hearing about the pandemic, but ignoring reality is dangerous to one’s health, as well as to one’s friends and family.

For those of us who are paying attention, the latest guidance from the Centers for Disease Control was a setback. So much for the “summer of joy.”

President Joe Biden optimistically predicted in June this would be “a summer of freedom. A summer of joy,” mainly because of free and readily available vaccinations against COVID-19.

Despite an array of inducements, only about 49% of the entire population and 57.6% of those 12 and older were fully vaccinated, as of July 27. Meanwhile the highly contagious delta variant is surging, especially among the unvaccinated.

Let’s call the unvaccinated what they are: the Grinches who stole the summer of joy.

Chief Grinch may be Sen. Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, who tweeted about the new CDC guidance: “Hell no. This is politics, not science.” That’s absurd.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California, the minority leader, claimed the masking guidance was “conjured up by liberal government officials who want to continue to live in perpetual pandemic state.”

“He’s such a moron,” reporters heard House Speaker Nancy Pelosi say as she was getting into a car.

So, now, conscientious Americans are helping protect the reckless. Fully vaccinated people need to mask up again indoors in areas with high COVID-19 transmission rates, per the CDC. These include many counties in Virginia. 

While 80% of those infected with the delta variant are unvaccinated, vaccinated people rarely become infected as well, and their viral load is similar to the unvaccinated, meaning both the unvaccinated and the vaccinated can spread the variant.

“The delta variant is showing every day its willingness to outsmart us and be an opportunist,” CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Tuesday in a briefing. “This new science is worrisome and unfortunately warrants an update to our recommendations.”

It’s tempting to say the unvaccinated made their choice and deserve what they get. But children under 12 are not yet being vaccinated, and no one wants them to get sick. The CDC also recommends that all students, teachers, staff and visitors to K-12 schools wear masks this fall, regardless of vaccination status.

Fully vaccinated people in areas with low transmission may choose to mask to protect household members who are unvaccinated, immunocompromised or at increased risk of disease.

And there’s another, more important, reason to mask up. The largest concern among public health officials is potential mutations from the delta variant that could evade vaccines, which currently protect the vaccinated from severe illness and death.

Masks are a good step, but the real solution to the pandemic and the key to returning to normalcy is vaccinations.

Sadly, the very people who would benefit most from masks and vaccinations are least likely to follow the guidance. Largely Republican, white male conservatives believe masks and vaccinations are an assault on their freedom and would rather trust false conspiracy theories and misinformation on the Internet than the government.

We’d all be better off if more politicians were like Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader of the Senate, who has promoted COVID-19 vaccinations all along and will spend tens of thousands of dollars in campaign funds on radio ads in his home state, encouraging people to get vaccinated.

Biden is taking the right step in requiring federal employees to be vaccinated or face rigorous testing and social distancing. States and cities are doing the same.  Some employers, notably Delta and United airlines and The Washington Post, are requiring proof of vaccination.

Mandate is a fighting word to many, but we are headed that way, unless more people do the right thing and roll up their sleeves. The Grinches can’t be allowed to steal our future, too.

(C) 2021 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved. 

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© 2021 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.

On a holiday for the red, white and blue, we're still red vs. blue -- July 1, 2021 column

By MARSHA MERCER

 What a difference a year makes. Last July 4^th, most Americans were isolated, hunkered down at home under a pandemic cloud.

 This July 4^th, in the sunny slogan of the White House, “America’s Back Together.”

 “Because of our vaccination program and our economic response – America is headed into a summer dramatically different from last year’s. A summer of freedom. A summer of joy. A summer of get-togethers and celebrations,” President Joe Biden tweeted last month.

 You can’t blame him for trying.

 The president and top administration officials are out and about -- at parades, baseball games, cookouts, and other events -- to “celebrate Independence Day and our independence from this virus,” the White House said.

 Biden will welcome 1,000 essential workers and military families to the South Lawn for a barbecue July 4. Fireworks will again explode over the National Mall.

 But wait. Independence from the virus? America back together? Not quite. Not yet.

 Biden narrowly missed the goal he set for July 4^th of 70% of adults receiving at least one vaccination against COVID-19. His “Month of Action” in June aimed to be a sprint to the finish line but was more a slow walk.

 As of June 2, about 63% of adult Americans had received one shot and by June 30 about 66.5% had one shot, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Sixteen states, including Virginia, and the District of Columbia have met the 70% goal, but four states have vaccinated less than 50% of adults.

Meanwhile, the delta variant is a growing threat in every state. In Virginia, three-fourths of the 48 confirmed cases of the delta variant were unrelated to out-of-state or international travel, Dr. Danny Avula, Virginia state vaccine coordinator, said Wednesday.

 Still, Virginia’s state of emergency is no more, and the Centers for Disease Control says only the unvaccinated need to wear masks indoors in public places. The fully vaccinated need masks only when required – such as on planes and other public transportation – unless they have a weakened immune system.

 The World Health Organization, though, urges a more cautious approach, advising all the fully vaccinated to continue wearing masks and taking other pandemic precautions. In Israel, half those infected with the delta variant recently had been fully vaccinated.

 “People cannot feel safe just because they’ve had two doses. They still need to protect themselves,” WHO official Dr. Mariangela Simao told reporters.

While the number of coronavirus cases has declined greatly in the United States, more than 600,000 Americans have died of the disease. More than 11,000 COVID-19 cases are reported every day and just under 300 people die of the disease caused by the virus on average per day.

 Those who criticize Biden for missing his vaccination target may have forgotten how untethered from science some in the previous administration were. One year ago, the then-president insisted 99% of COVID-19 cases were “totally harmless” even though more than 129,000 Americans had perished from the virus and several states were suffering record levels of infections.

 That president used his July 3 speech at Mount Rushmore to fire up his base with a campaign-style attack on the “radical left.”

 The Biden administration will continue its no-drama efforts to use science to allay fears and motivate Americans to get vaccinated. People in the deep South and young people 18 to 26 have been slower to accept the need for the shots than others.

This Independence Day weekend indeed is different than the last. Americans are together with their families and friends. But it’s aspirational, at best, to say America is back as a country.

On a holiday dedicated to the red, white and blue, America is still red vs. blue. We have a way to go to bridge that gap, but the partisan divide should not extend to vaccinations.

Just as no one wants to be the last to die in a war, no one wants to be the last to die, or suffer long-term effects, from a disease that could have been prevented or mitigated by free, readily available vaccinations.

Each of us needs to take personal responsibility and do what we can to protect ourselves and each other from COVID-19. Only then will America truly be back together.

 (c)2021 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.

 

 

 

 

Cicadas: Hold on, they're going -- June 17, 2021 column

                                  --Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

By MARSHA MERCER

The sound of Spring 2021 is the cicada chorus.

The critters have been so thick in the Washington area they have shown up on Doppler weather radar. Even the president had a close encounter.

Joe Biden brushed a cicada away on June 9 as he was about to board Air Force One for his first foreign trip.

The separate charter flight with dozens of journalists covering the presidential trip was delayed seven hours after cicadas swarmed into a jet engine at Dulles Airport in Virginia. Panic averted: Pizza was ordered. For the humans.

Billions of Brood X – pronounced Brood 10 -- cicadas that spent 17 years underground are out in force in the eastern United States, and they’re doing what comes naturally.

Males woo females with their songs, the louder the better. They mate, the female lays eggs and, having fulfilled their destiny, they die. Their offspring burrow underground and sustain themselves for years sipping sap from roots of trees and grasses.

See you in 2038.

While entomologists revel in the periodical cicada show, the invasion makes some people anxious. Having critters fly in one’s face and hair can be a buzz kill and their noise intimidating.

“This mating call and response, which sounds to some like the whining of electrical wires rising and falling, can reach over 90 A-weighted decibels or `dBA.’ That is as loud as a lawnmower, motorcycle or tractor!” the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders reports on its Noisy Planet blog.

The Noise Research office of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health tweeted this cautionary note on June 11: “The loud calls of cicadas are a great reminder that dangerous noise can affect workers on the job and at home. . . #BroodXtraLoud.”

To measure how loud the cicadas are near you, download the NIOSH Sound Level Meter app from the Apple Store.

We had plenty of notice Brood X cicadas were coming, but imagine the shock and awe the first English colonists must have felt when hordes of cicadas suddenly emerged. The colonists lived in a far quieter world than ours. They had never heard the din of cicadas’ love songs – or lawnmowers, motorcycles or tractors, for that matter.

William Bradford, the governor of the Plymouth colony, wrote in his history about what entomologists believe was a periodical cicada appearance in 1633:

“All the month of May, there was such a quantity of a great sort of flyes like for bigness to wasps or bumblebees, which came out of holes in the ground . . . and ate green things and made such a constant yelling noise as made all the woods ring of them, and ready to deaf the hearers.”

Native Americans believed the insects would bring disease, and Bradford wrote that, indeed, the colonists were sick during the hot summer months.

We now know cicadas don’t bite, cause disease or otherwise harm humans, but they can damage young trees, especially fruit trees. Michael J. Raupp, professor emeritus of Entomology at the University of Maryland who is known as The Bug Guy, calls this damage “the dark side of cicadas.”

Soon after mating, females choose a nice soft greenwood twig or branch. The ideal branch is about the size of a pencil. The female makes cuts in the branch and deposits her eggs. These incisions can cause the branches to flag or droop and die.

But there’s no need to reach for the bug spray.

“Pesticides are generally ineffective in keeping cicadas away,” the Environmental Protection Agency says on its website. “Spraying also doesn’t make sense because cicadas are generally harmless. Applying pesticides to control cicadas may harm other organisms, including animals that eat cicadas.”

Experts suggest waiting to prune the branches until after the cicadas leave, which won’t be long. We expect to be free of this group of cicadas around July 4.

But the cicadas will be back.

Just as we couldn’t have anticipated all that’s happened since 2004, we can’t imagine how life will change by 2038 and the cicadas’ next emergence.

So, stay calm, enjoy – or tolerate – the show. The cicadas will carry on.

 ©2021 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.

`Month of action' lures with carrots, not sticks -- June 3, 2021 column

By MARSHA MERCER

Free donuts! Free beer! Free groceries! Free rides! Free childcare! Free college! Free cash!

Free guns! Wait. What?

The escalation of incentives to lure Americans to do something they should do willingly and gratefully rang the absurdity gong in West Virginia.

Gov. Jim Justice Tuesday announced his state would give away to lucky West Virginians who get vaccinated against COVID-19: two full, four-year scholarships to any state university, two new custom-outfitted pickup trucks, 25 weekend getaways to state parks, five lifetime hunting and fishing licenses, a million dollars – and, yes, five customized rifles and five customized shotguns.

Shaking my head.

Justice, a Republican who used to be a Democrat, acknowledged his state shouldn’t have to resort to such giveaways, but he said, “Unfortunately, it’s the way of the world today.”

And there’s a practical side to the vaccination nudge -- or bribe, depending on your point of view.

“The faster we get ‘em across the finish line, the more lives we save” and the more money the state will save on COVID-19 testing and hospital care for COVID patients, he said.

It’s sad the demand for vaccinations nationwide has plummeted so fast. Fewer than 555,000 people a day are getting new vaccinations now, compared with nearly 2 million a day in early April, the Associated Press reported.

In one sense, vaccinations may be the victim of their own success. COVID-19 cases are down more than 90% and deaths down more than 85% since January. Some people may feel they don’t need to get jabbed.

“The fact remains: If you are not vaccinated, you are at risk of getting the virus or spreading it to someone else,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.

About 63% of adults have received at least one shot, but President Joe Biden’s goal of having 70% of adults fully vaccinated by July 4 appears in doubt. On Wednesday, he launched a “month of action.”

The campaign will include door-to-door canvassing, texts, media ads featuring celebrities, free rides to vaccination sites by Uber and Lyft, and free childcare for parents while they’re getting shots.

Black barbershops and beauty salons will help clients find vaccinations, which are readily available. Some pharmacies will stay open 24 hours on Fridays in June to give shots.

Krispy Kreme is giving away free donuts to the vaccinated. Some supermarkets are offering free groceries to customers who get vaccinated in their stores.

When the 70% goal is achieved, Anheuser-Busch promises a free round of beer to those 21 and older who are vaccinated and sign up on their website. 

The multi-carrot approach is needed because nothing turns Americans off faster than sticks – such as mandates. And it’s hard to counter the rampant misinformation on social media.

Some people fear side effects, but they typically are mild and far less scary than the unpredictable effects of COVID. For others, not getting vaccinated is a misguided political statement, although the former Republican president and his wife got vaccinated quietly at the White House.

“Getting the vaccine is not a partisan act,” Biden emphasized. The science was done during Democratic and Republican administrations, and the first vaccines were authorized under a Republican president and developed and deployed by a Democratic one.

“I don’t want to see the country that is already too divided become divided in a new way – between places where people live free from fear of COVID and places where, when the fall arrives, death and severe illnesses return. The vaccine is free, it’s safe, and it’s effective,” Biden said.

Reason and patriotism have gotten us only so far; now it’s time for blatant self-interest, largely paid for with federal funds.

Several states, including Ohio, New Mexico and West Virginia, have launched lotteries open only to residents who have gotten vaccinated.

Ten lucky vaccinated New York students Wednesday won full tuition, room and board scholarships to any State or City University of New York campus. The state will raffle a total of 50 free rides, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said, adding each scholarship is about a $100,000 value.

Justice is right that incentives shouldn’t be necessary. But if they get us across the finish line to near normalcy, they’re a price worth paying.

©2021 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.

 

How Biden gets infrastructure plan on track -- April 1, 2021 column

By MARSHA MERCER

When President Joe Biden unveiled Wednesday his roughly $2 trillion infrastructure plan, both the political right and the left came out swinging.

“It’s like a Trojan horse,” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said, complaining of “more borrowing and massive tax increases on all the productive parts of our economy.”

“This is not nearly enough,” tweeted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, adding Biden’s plan “needs to be way bigger.” She and other progressives floated the need for an infrastructure plan five times larger than Biden’s.

Biden finally found the sweet spot of bipartisanship – and it is against his sweeping American Jobs Plan.

That’s not all bad. Infrastructure should and perhaps still can be a bipartisan issue.

Nearly everyone agrees the nation’s roads, bridges, railways, airports and waterways need updating and expanding, but how to pay for improvements is the perennial sticking point.

Biden says his bigger, bolder plan pays for itself with – here’s the stick -- higher corporate taxes over 15 years.

The carrot is an array of proposals offering something for nearly every American.

“It’s not a plan that tinkers around the edges. It’s a once in a generation investment in America” that, Biden said, will create millions of jobs and put the United States on a secure environmental and competitive footing for the future.

The plan would remake the economy, revamp transportation and fight climate change and racial inequity. It would redo sewer systems, install a nationwide network of electrical charging stations, give tax incentives for purchases of electric cars, expand broadband access and at-home healthcare, and empower more workers with collective bargaining rights.

And that’s just part of what’s in part one.

Part two – the American Families Plan – is expected shortly. It likely will include paid family leave and other popular benefits.

But nothing happens unless Congress approves. Biden is betting he can capture the imagination of people beyond the Beltway and turn his vision into legislation in even the fiercely partisan Capitol.

“We just have to imagine again,” he said.

“Imagine what we can do, what’s within our reach if we modernize those highways. Your family could travel coast to coast without a single tank of gas, on board a high-speed train. We can connect high-speed, affordable, reliable internet wherever you live.

“Imagine knowing that you are handing your children and grandchildren a country that will lead the world in producing clean energy technology . . . That’s what we’ll do.”

It’s an appealing, hopeful vision at a time when Americans need something to believe in and look forward to. But Biden needs to do more than paint pretty pictures.

He needs convince people government can work again and enough members of both parties to come together for the greater good.

A tall order. Biden proposes to raise the top corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%. That’s still less than the 35% it was before the last administration and Republicans in Congress lowered the corporate rate to 21% in 2017. He also would raise other corporate taxes to keep companies from moving overseas.

To pay for the coming American Families Plan, he said he would raise taxes only on individuals making more than $400,000 a year, not the middle class.

Big business favors traditional infrastructure improvements but solidly opposes corporate tax increases. Some congressional Democrats insist they won’t support a package unless it eliminates the $10,000 cap imposed during the last administration on individual tax deductions for state and local taxes.

Biden says he will consider and should other ways of paying. The pricetag for his two infrastructure plans is likely to total an eye-popping $4 trillion.

The Capitol is already suffering from “spending fatigue” after the $1.9 trillion stimulus plan, paid for wholly through borrowing, that Democrats passed and Biden signed in February.

In Biden’s favor are widespread public support for his policies, polls show, and his optimistic vision.

“We have to move now, because I’m convinced that if we act now, in 50 years, people are going to look back and say this was the moment that America won the future,” he said.

Biden’s legacy hinges on his negotiating skills. He needs to compromise on aspects of the plan and persuade congressional Republicans and Democrats it’s worthwhile to go along.

If he succeeds, this president will lead the country in a cleaner, greener direction. If he fails, his ambitious plan becomes a marker for 2022 and 2024, and it’s more politics as usual.

©2021 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.

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Real world beckons after `second one,' but . . . --March 4, 2021 column

By MARSHA MERCER

“Well, I’m glad you got your second one,” the woman wearing a mask and walking on the sidewalk said to the maskless man smoking a cigarette on his front porch.

In years past, this snippet of conversation would have been mysterious. What “second one” did the man get and why was the woman glad?

Now, anyone overhearing such an exchange, as I did on a walk in Alexandria Wednesday, knows exactly the subject. He’d received his second COVID-19 vaccination.

“But we’re still going to wear masks and socially distance,” she said. “Right?”

“Oh, yeah,” he said. “This is my big thing: I stand on the porch and smoke a cigarette and feel like I’m in the real world.” Then he chuckled and stubbed out his prize smoke.

Leave aside the irony of someone getting fully vaccinated against COVID while continuing to indulge in a nasty, health-defying habit. More Americans these days are sharing the joy of the jab and new-found optimism.

I had gotten my “second one” earlier that day. The sun was shining, it was early March and no snow or ice was in the forecast. What’s not to like?

We all feel the urge to return to the “real world,” however we define it. We yearn to see friends, go to dinner and concerts, shop and travel without worrying that these simple activities could literally cost us, our family members or loved ones our lives.

Ironically, some governors who are going the full-open may make it less appealing, not more, to visit their states.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, announced that as of this coming week schools and all businesses of any kind in the Lone Star State could fully reopen at 100% capacity, and masks would no longer be required.

COVID has not gone away, but the time for state mandates has, he said. Businesses can still require or ask customers to wear masks, but the message from the governor is clear: Be there, be bare or be square.

We’ve seen how well de-regulation worked for the Texas power grid during the winter storm disaster, which is to say not at all. Many residents there are still without potable water.

So now the state, where fewer than 2 million of its 29 million residents are fully inoculated against COVID, is de-regulating the pandemic. Mississippi’s governor and others are making the same decision.

“We cannot have an endless shutdown,” said Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican.

Public health experts say fully reopening as if life is back to normal is risky at best. They are pleading with residents to stay masked, keep social distance and wash their hands. 

President Joe Biden blasted the decisions to reopen in uncharacteristically harsh terms.

“The last thing – the last thing – we need is the Neanderthal thinking that in the meantime, everything’s fine, take off your mask. Forget it. It still matters,” Biden told reporters.

Everyone is sick and tired of being home. Millions of Americans are suffering economically, and we all want to get out into the real world.

But even being fully vaccinated is not a Get Out of Jail Free card. You can still get sick, though likely not as sick; it’s uncertain whether you can spread the virus.

Americans must choose for themselves whether to follow the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control to stay safe or throw caution to the winds in pursuit of the almighty dollar.

Governors believe opening their states will juice the economy. But moving too far too fast could have the opposite effect. It could discourage tourism and usher in a third wave of the deadly virus.

I was born in Texas and enjoyed visiting the spectacular Big Bend National Park four years ago. Since well before the pandemic, I’ve wanted to visit my late mother’s tiny hometown in Northeast Texas. I didn’t get around to it, and the pandemic stopped everything. I thought this summer might be a good opportunity.

But now is not the time for me to be a tourist in any state that’s tempting fate. I’ll   wait, thank you.

©Marsha Mercer 2021. All rights reserved.

In the time of COVID, a shot of hope -- Feb. 11, 2021 column

By MARSHA MERCER

I got my first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine this week and felt a surge of relief, gratitude and irrational exuberance.

Irrational because a first dose is just that. A second dose of the Pfizer vaccine is needed three weeks later for full effectiveness. Plus, we don’t know if someone fully vaccinated can spread the coronavirus.

I never expected to get misty over a shot, but I did. Months lost to waiting and worrying about COVID-19, the unpredictable, deadly disease that has upended all our lives, could be nearly over.

Millions of Americans are lining up every day and rolling up our sleeves to get something that literally could save our lives. We are so lucky.

Lucky all the pieces of the puzzle came together. Vaccines are available, and we trust them. We were able to sign up online, and we could get to a vaccination center at the day and time specified.

I pre-registered for a vaccination through the Alexandria Health Department one month and a day before I received the shot.

Yet not all Americans are lucky enough. People in rural areas who lack the Internet or transportation to a vaccination site can, and are, getting left behind. This must change.

At George Washington Middle School in Alexandria, kind and efficient medical staffers wearing masks and plastic shields took my temperature and asked the now-familiar screening questions about exposure to the coronavirus.

I received an orange slip of paper and stood in another short line in the gym until someone at one of the many tables waved me over with a green “READY” sign. After I got my shot, which I hardly felt, staff asked me to wait 15 minutes in case of allergic reaction. Like most people, I had no reaction at all.

“Your arm is going to be sore -- not right away. Probably tomorrow,” the nurse told me. “But that’s OK.” She was right. The soreness didn’t last.

The COVID-19 vaccination delivery system is finally working.

I also signed up online for my elderly dad who lives in Richmond. He got an appointment a couple of weeks later in January. The contact person said everyone on her call list was 88 to 99 years old.

I drove my dad to the center, and we were able to wait in the car until the shot came to him about 45 minutes after his appointed time. I was so grateful we didn’t have to use the wheelchair I’d borrowed – and grateful for the man who helped direct traffic and then went car to car, offering a prayer to each.

But vaccination delivery varies greatly depending on where you live. A friend’s mother has spent many hours on the phone, trying to book appointments for herself and her mother, who’s in her 90s. The experience left her in tears of frustration and anger.

More than 470,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, among them about 100,000 in the last month. Millions have lost their jobs and businesses. And yet, with the rollout of vaccinations, there’s hope.

The number of COVID-19 cases, deaths and hospitalizations nationally is dropping, though it’s still high.

President Joe Biden appears likely to meet his goal of 100 million shots in his first 100 days. About 1.5 million shots are being given daily, reported the White House, which is expanding doses and vaccination sites.

Experts say 70% to 90% of us need to get vaccinated to achieve herd immunity, when most of the population is immune either through having had the disease or vaccinations. More outreach is planned to Blacks and Hispanics, who are wary of the vaccines.

As more people get vaccinated and tell their friends and family, others are more likely to want vaccinations, surveys show.

“Perhaps more important than any message is the impact of seeing a neighbor, friend or family member get their shots without any adverse effects,” Kaiser Family Foundation President and CEO Drew Altman said, releasing a KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor survey Jan. 27.

About half those who want to get vaccinated as soon as possible know someone who has already gotten a dose.

I plan to get my second dose when I can. I urge you to roll up your sleeve, too. We can do this. We must.

©2021 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.

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A new president pledges unity -- Jan. 21, 2021

By MARSHA MERCER

As Joe Biden became president Wednesday, he pledged to work for unity and asked all Americans to join him.

“Politics doesn’t have to be a raging fire, destroying everything in its path. Every disagreement doesn’t have to be a cause for total war,” he said in his Inaugural Address on the West Front of the Capitol.

Few would disagree – in theory, anyway.

Biden’s call for Americans to treat each other with dignity and respect, to lower the temperature, stop shouting and stand for truth are a welcome change in presidential tone and approach.

But civility doesn’t mean standing still. Biden also wasted no time showing the new direction he wants to take the country.

“We’ll press forward with speed and urgency, for we have much to do in this winter of peril and significant possibilities,” he said. “Much to repair. Much to restore. Much to heal. Much to build, and much to gain.”

He signed a stack of executive orders to undo policies of his Republican predecessor -- on the coronavirus, immigration, the economic crisis and the environment. They were the first of many executive actions planned.

Even though conservatives championed President Donald Trump for using executive orders to reverse the course set by President Barack Obama, Biden’s use of executive power predictably prompted some conservatives to cry foul.

“Biden campaigned on `unity,’ but his first actions immediately reveal his true priority is the agenda of the far Left: to remake America,” the conservative Heritage Foundation said in a statement.

And there lies a real problem facing Biden and his new administration. When he  delivers on his campaign promises, he will make some Americans more comfortable and hopeful, feelings that have been in short supply the last four years, while others will be uncomfortable and angry.

To find the path of bipartisanship to enact his $1.9 trillion emergency relief  package and other legislation in the closely divided Congress, Biden will need the negotiating skills he honed during his career of legislative experience. He’ll also need to compromise at times, which likely will anger some in his own party.

But on Day One, the new president sounded the right symbolic notes:

n  ---The somber and lovely memorial of 400 lights at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool for 400,000 lives lost to the coronavirus

n  ---The optimistic, if scaled-back and locked-down, swearing-in ceremony with former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton showing bipartisan support

n  ---Performances by the incredible Lady Gaga and J-Lo; the poem by 22-year-old Amanda Gorman

n  ---The normal and sane first Biden press briefing at the White House.

All were breaths of fresh air.

After the mayhem and drama, our democratic system held. We had a peaceful transfer of power.

In his address, Biden exuded decency, calm and competence – and emphasized he and we should value truth.

“We must reject the culture in which facts themselves are manipulated and even manufactured,” he said.

Vice President Kamala Harris sends a message to “little girls and boys across the world” that “anything and everything is possible,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, said.

Biden asked every American to give him a chance and join in fighting our mutual foes – “anger, resentment, hatred, extremism, lawlessness, violence, disease, joblessness and hopelessness.”

Speaking directly to those who opposed him in the election, he said: “Hear me out as we move forward. Take a measure of me and my heart. If you still disagree, so be it. That’s democracy. That’s America.”

Peaceful dissent is one of America’s great strengths, he said.

Biden was right to insist on holding the inauguration outdoors, despite the threats of violence. He now needs to conquer an invisible foe, the coronavirus.

Requiring masks in all federal buildings and federal land and by federal employees and contractors is an important step. He challenged all Americans to wear masks for 100 days to slow the spread of COVID-19. It’s literally the least we can do.

He also wants to expand testing and speed vaccinations. The pitifully slow rollout of vaccines is a disgrace that undermines confidence in our government.  

When most of Americans are vaccinated, we’ll begin to go about our business, the economy will recover and people will feel good about the future. We might even unify.

©2021 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.

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