There is an agreement we should have between private sector and government. Many businesses are doing it anyway, but maybe we should formalize it: they pledge to keep as many jobs going as possible and rehire after the lockdown. Gov makes helping them do it the TOP priority.
No more cash grabs, no more liberal spending wish lists, no more foot-dragging and promises that never materialize, and no politicized, corrupt giveaway programs. Instead, a firm commitment to tax and regulatory relief on an unprecedented scale, driving a recovery like no other.
We have to preserve as many jobs as we can for the next month, and rehire those who were laid off as quickly as possible. Government should make a firm commitment to help RIGHT NOW, to buck up our confidence and give employers a better day to look forward to.
This is something only the private sector can do. Only businessmen and entrepreneurs, large and small, national and local, can keep jobs alive during these tough weeks and restore what was lost when the lockdown is over. The greatest challenge of our lifetimes awaits them.
Small businesses across the country are clearly struggling to keep jobs alive, lay off as few people as possible, find innovative ways to keep the doors open. They don't have huge cash reserves to absorb the lockdown hit. They need a little help and a lot of hope right now.
Instead, they have every reason to think statists will use the pandemic as an opportunity to make government larger, and the private sector smaller. Quite a few of them are OPENLY saying so. Struggling businesses need a firm commitment that we'll move in the opposite direction.
We just took the worst hit to our job market in history. It was running so hot that the engine exploded when the brakes were hit. It was towering so high that it had a long way to fall when its foundations were rocked.
That can't be fixed with unemployment benefits, food stamps, or make-work programs. Only the rebirth of shuttered businesses, the return of furloughed jobs, millions of signs being switched back to "Open For Business" will do.
We've had some good plans laid out, some positive steps taken. It should all be brought together into a single coherent plan and broadcast to every employer in America, a bipartisan pledge treated like a bigger deal than the New Deal. "The Big Deal" wouldn't be a bad name for it.
Make it bold, dramatic, unprecedented - so big it cannot be ignored, so humble that it can scarcely be believed, a restructuring of the State in favor of the private sector that rivals the big, ballyhooed, utterly failed statist programs of old. We really do need a new deal.
The big story around the world before the coronavirus, reflected in everything from Brexit to the 2016 U.S. election, was the public loss of confidence in corrupt and incompetent elites. The usual elite moves during a crisis would inspire more cynicism than confidence right now.
Everyone knows the elites are devoted to ideas that hurt American entrepreneurs and their employees, from madcap government spending to open borders. Everyone knows bailouts get stolen and abused. We know big centralized programs are blind and stupid.
What we need right now is a Big Deal that clearly sets those elite interests and idiotic political obsessions aside. The government gets out of the way and makes more room for hard work, honest competition, and risk-taking to be rewarded. We need to see that on the horizon.
We need to reverse the globalist insanity that began with plugging free economies into malevolent China and ended with the coronavirus. IT MUST END WITH THE CORONAVIRUS. No more, never again. Bring our jobs and supply chains home, right now. Reward those who get it done.
What employers - and frightened, despairing employees - need to hear right now is that next month America will have a job to do, the biggest job ever, and we'll be able to roll up our sleeves and do it. Make it a pledge every politician and employer can sign together. /end
Addendum: How can I put this diplomatically? The performance of government and "experts" at almost every level during the coronavirus crisis is going to make the public loss of trust in the elite even more profound. Our new deal must reflect that wholly reasonable loss of trust.
