[0] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/24/trump-cuts-u...

[1] https://newrepublic.com/article/147366/anti-intelligence

From what I can tell, that was a 2021 budget proposal (done before this all started) that hasn't been approved or taken effect.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-cut-cdc-budget/

Based on this chart (and the article you posted) he has proposed cuts to their non-infection disease related programs but congress has kept the funding intact.

https://envirodatagov.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Screen-...

See e.g. https://www.propublica.org/article/us-emergency-medical-stoc...

"He single handedly dismantled the CDC when he became president[0]"

Few quotes you might have overlooked:

"repeatedly attempting to slash funding..."

" proposed a 20% cut to the CDC’s emerging and zoonotic diseases program"

Congress did not let this happen and has actually INCREASED the CDC budget.

The actual enacted program budgets for the CDC in 2016 and 2017 were both under $7.2 billion, but for 2020 the budget Congress adopted for it is nearly $7.7 billion.

"dismantle the CDC"- Please, give me a break...

If the United States is now expected to have bureaucracies specific to China and other countries, one must wonder why we're expected to provide services to foreign countries while not actually having sovereignty over them.

If there's one thing the Trump administration has done right, it has been to slowly rid America of foreign entanglements. Thank goodness.

I think most people here are suggesting that we ought to, even as an isolationist state, if that is your preference, monitor and be prepared for pandemics even if they appear in other countries.

The question is why the US should have a unilateral office dedicated to pandemics in China when we have another multilateral one. We should have one or the other, for sure -- monitoring pandemics is important for national security -- but why should we have two?

Because a health problem in China, or anywhere in the world, presents a RISK to the the United Stated

Correct. This is why we are the primary fund-provider to WHO. We should be asking why that org failed us, not why we didn't have yet another org for the same purpose.

And after investigating the failure, we should consider whether or not continuing with that org makes sense, or if we should set up another organization and sever ties with the old one, in the interest of not duplicating effort.

This seems like basic risk management.

The only special knowledge the Pentagon might have had is that “oh, specifically the corona type of viruses is particularly nasty because of the long symptom free incubation time”[1].

But people like Bill Gates, in addition to those disease prevention orgs, were shouting about pandemic risk from the rooftops.

Could they have done more to encourage a robust countermeasure strategy? Sure. But so could tons of other orgs and they’re not special or particularly evil in this respect.

[1] I probably have the terminology wrong there and welcome corrections, but I think I have the substance right.

* In the end the US has responded, to the tune of losing half the GDP and tanking the stock market. This is true skin in the game and shows that the (true or hypothetical) oligarchs have been overridden.

* The POTUS is not a dictator and was never intended to have very much power. The fact that states and their governors have taken point illustrates this is working as designed.

* Of course this has been known for years, and people have been warning about it. But, SARS and H1N1 came and went without any serious consequences so I don't blame the system too much for not taking this epidemic more seriously.

There are people whose only job is precisely to take these things seriously

The CDC, FEMA exist for this very reason - to prevent and lessen the damage of diseases or natural disasters

The US pays for these organizations to exist for loments like these

Agreed, but who is losing their job? Not Barry Diller. As always, the average person suffers while the rich take a haircut.

> The POTUS is not a dictator and was never intended to have very much power. The fact that states and their governors have taken point illustrates this is working as designed.

You're confusing the federalist system with "dictator". It is literally the job of the federal government to coordinate on national issues. You don't ask Maryland to build tanks just to defend Maryland, do you? Why is a national pandemic just a states problem with piecemeal solutions? Why is every state bidding for resources individually? Why is every state pretty much on their own here?

> so I don't blame the system too much for not taking this epidemic more seriously.

This isn't the issue. There were many "in the system" that took this very seriously. There are entire parts of the government dedicated to this exact problem. The issue is that the people in charge, the current administration, outright ignored and played down medical facts due to ignorance, incompetence and politics.

People also talk about the US pandemic prevention team being disbanded a few years ago. What I haven't heard anyone talk about is how much work they did in other countries. I'd assume some of that involved monitoring for disease outbreaks across the world, but they probably were more essential in poor and less developed nations.

China, I suspect, insists on taking care of their own stuff for the most part and doesn't want the US in there monitoring disease outbreaks, similar to how the US doesn't want China operating in our country. I'd be interested in actual information about this, though.

The guy may be a bit biased towards China, but all of that should be verifiable information, so if there's bias it will come through via omissions, or cherry-picking, or playing up insignificant events.

Also, I'm not saying anything about the US monitoring Chinese disease outbreaks. The failings of the CCP were in fostering a system that punished and hid early warnings of a novel coronavirus. I'm also not saying that other institutions don't have similar issues.

There’s no plot against the president, this is just the result of someone inadequate for the role.

Yes they are lol.

"I wonder if the resistance to trying hydroxychloroquine is at least in part because some people secretly wish for the virus to continue killing people so they can blame Trump for it"

Case in point right here. What a ridiculous claim. Your mind is already made up so you'll believe what you want. That's just the reality of post-truth. Not what is being said but who is saying it and in what narrative of power dynamics are they saying it.

These "I'm independent but..." comments are absurd. I'm not sure what apologizing for one of the worst presidents of all time gets you, and he certainly doesn't need your sympathy and defense. He's the most powerful person in the world, so just remember the power dynamics at play here.

"I believe I used the words 'I wonder if...'."

Your claim was so absurdly offensive, it doesn't change because you add some qualifiers for plausible deniability. Trump just lies when it suits him. We've known this for 5+ years now and this is completely within his MO. Say one thing until it can't be defended any longer then just deny you said it or claim you were saying something else the whole time. This has been obvious throughout this whole coronavirus episode.

"Here we go again with the Foucault power dynamics stuff, seeing everyone as groups of competing interests rather than individuals with opinions"

Go and talk to anti-vaxxers or flat-earthers, or watch them being debated or interviewed. There simply just isn't any evidence that will convince them otherwise. This isn't a matter of "opinion" it's a matter of unwillingness to accept any information unless it's framed within certain narratives of "the government and scientists are lying" "you can't trust the establishment" "science doesn't know anything"

Also I'm not seeing people as groups of competing interests. Actually just as individuals with competing interests. Not sure where I grouped anyone aside from the POTUS and non-POTUS partition. Just saying, he doesn't need you to defend him.

It's popular to hate on the president but needlessly political to place the blame solely on his shoulders. And at the risk of posting flaimbait, note that Trump made a very early move to close the border to Chinese travel, and was met with condemnation of sinophobia from high ranking Democrats (like Schumer) and media.

It is the president the one who sets the tone and priority for these issues, and having been wisely advised, he obviously sat around, downplayed the issue, and yes, his response was absolute sinophobia given that a couple dozen additional measures would have have to be shown to display competency in this.

He is easily the most incompetent person that could lead this crisis.

That someone was Harry S. Truman, who succeeded Roosevelt during WW II. And was succeeded in turn by Eisenhower.

I randomly picked up https://www.amazon.com/Where-Buck-Stops-Personal-Writings/dp... in a used bookstore. I'm glad I did. It is Truman's take on every president up through Eisenhower. Truman was known for his blunt language, but even he asked that it not be published until after he and his wife died.

I don't agree with him on many things. But his take on leadership is very enlightening.

You are blinded by your hatred. Half the country has become totally unable to evaluate anything the president does objectively.

What proportion of world governments are xenophobic now for closing down borders?

>It is the president the one who sets the tone and priority for these issues, and having been wisely advised, he obviously sat around, downplayed the issue

And so did just about every other world government. Including your "model" "democratic socialist" European nations - hell, Sweden is still betting on herd immunity.

Rational thinking ceases when anyone brings up Trump. I'd also caution anyone evaluating this crisis response to recognize the unprecedented smear by the media. How many "US commandeers masks" articles have been corrected over the last few days now? Look it up, I bet you didn't hear about the quiet corrections. This happens all the damn time.

Trump is a shitty president but much of the hate he gets is pure partisan hysteria. Look at how quickly the tide turned against Chloroquine simply because he tweeted about it. Pure idiocy.

There's an old saying that people deserve their rulers.

Edit: and by the way, on the subject of rising claims of sinophobia: the CCP is not your friend. The world is paying now for their lies. All the little trickles of COVID symptomology that we are still just getting today should have been officially announced by China months ago while they were trying to cover up and downplay the virus to a much deeper degree than our president. There is a propaganda war waging right now across the internet with China attempting to set a narrative and by ignorantly screaming "sinophobia!" You are playing right into their narrative.

The prior version[2] used the word "pandemic" 139 times while the current version[3] mentions it only 18 times.

Considering financial institution compliance is hardly known for speedy updates that is an absolutely monumental shift in guidance in less than four years.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Financial_Institutions...

[2] https://ithandbook.ffiec.gov/media/391101/ffiec-itbooklet-bu...

[3] https://ithandbook.ffiec.gov/media/296178/ffiec_itbooklet_bu...