How can you tell that the government isn’t taking a crisis seriously? One likely sign is the demand that funding to address the crisis be taken from another source of funds, injecting delay and controversy into an urgent matter for no good reason.
And that’s exactly what it appears the Trump administration is doing with its efforts to fight the outbreak of a new strain of the coronavirus, known as Covid-19. Officials have asked Congress for $2.5 billion to respond to the outbreak, but according to a report from the Washington Post, only $1.25 billion of this money would be new spending. The rest would come from existing programs.
Among the most galling of the sources of funds the administration wants to draw from is the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps poor families heat their homes in the winter. Continue reading.