a24 EZ RE the washington post.friday, march 13 , 2020
letters to the editor[email protected]taking exceptionJoin the debate at washingtonpost.com/letters-to-the-editorContrary to the March 9 editorial “Avoiding
unnecessary suffering,” t he data as well as personal
experience confirm that assisted suicide puts a t risk
the lives of many vulnerable people who deserve to
be valued equally.
Although the editorial asserted that this ill-
c onceived public policy is intended to relieve
suffering, the data it referenced from Oregon
actually show that pain and suffering, or even
concern about it, never make it into the top five
reasons people opt for assisted suicide.
The top five reasons are disability-related con-
cerns — one reason research shows that assisted
suicide is inherently discriminatory toward indi-
viduals with disabilities and threatens their access
to health care.Assisted s uicide a lso places t hose f acing terminal
illness in needless peril. My husband, who died at
age 36 in December 2017 from the deadliest form of
terminal brain cancer, wrestled with moments of
depression shortly after his prognosis.
Had assisted suicide been legal where we lived at
that time, he said, he would have been tempted by
it, and we all would have lost out on so much,
including the birth of our second son. It turned out
his doctors were wrong, and his prognosis was off
by years.
Assisted suicide is a dangerous public policy that
Maryland should reject.
Kristen Hanson, New York
The writer is community relations advocate
for the Patients Rights Action Fund.Maryland should reject assisted suicide
R
USSIANS AND foreign observers have long
speculated about how Vladi mir Putin would
retain power when his term-limited man-
date as president ended in 2024. On Tues-
day, Mr. Putin abruptly provided an answer: Consti-
tutional amendments already in the works will now
include a provision allowing him to serve two more
terms. That could extend his time in office to 2036,
when he will be 83. In theory, he could rule Russia
for 36 years, more than a decade longer than Joseph
Stalin.
Mr. Putin described his maneuver as necessary for
Russia’s “internal stability.” I n fact, i t is a recipe for
stagnation, akin to the corrosive paralysis that
plagued Moscow during the late Soviet era. Even
Mr. Putin appears to recognize that, at least as a
theoretical matter: He s aid the limit on two terms for
president ought to be left i n the constitution to a pply
to future presidents. “A lternation o f power... is
necessary for the development of the country,” hesaid in a speech to the State Duma. But not as
necessary, e vidently, as preserving his own authority.
It’s not hard to see why. During his time in office,
Mr. Putin and his cronies have accumulated not only
extraordinary power but also vast riches, including
sprawling compounds and billions stashed in for-
eign banks. A change of power, even to a successor of
Mr. Putin’s choosing, might imperil those gains, or
even expose the ex-leader to accountability.
Like a lot of dictators, Mr. Putin has come to
believe that only he can make the correct strategic
decisions for the Russian state. “I see that the people,
or at least the majority of our society, are waiting for
my personal assessments and decisions on key
matters of the development of the Russian state,
both now and after 2024,” he said.
Whether that is true is questionable. Mr. Putin’s
approval ratings have been declining steadily in
domestic polls; Russians perceive that the country’s
economy has been stagnant in recent years, andthat it lags far behind the West technologically.
Many have grown weary of Mr. Putin’s foreign
adventures in places such as Syria and eastern
Ukraine, w hich h ave exposed t he country to punish-
ing sanctions. The last time the president executed
a dubious legal pirouette to remain in power —
shuttling from the post of prime minister to
president in 2012 — the result was the largest mass
demonstrations since Russia’s brief era of democra-
cy in the 1990s.
Mr. Putin can nevertheless be expected to ar-
range for victory in a planned April 22 referendum
on the constitutional changes. They are a model of
reactionary authoritarianism: In addition to abol-
ishing his term limit, the amendments limit mar-
riage to heterosexual unions and codify Russians’
“faith in God.” Mr. Putin said the revamped consti-
tution was designed for “a longer historical term, at
least 3 0-50 years.” Here’s b etting that n either it, nor
Mr. Putin’s rule, lasts as long as he expects.Mr. Putin, president for life?
The Russian ruler moves to abolish his term limit.
B
ARELY MENTIONED in President Trump’s
Oval Office address on Wednesday night
was the diagnostic testing fiasco. He said
only that testing capability is “expanding
rapidly day by day.” He should have addressed what
has become a major failure in how the United
States has responded to the coronavirus pandemic,
leaving the country far behind other nations in
testing for and controlling infection. With so few
tests, the United States has been flying blind into a
storm.
Why is this such a problem? We cannot expect a
vaccine or cure for covid-19 in the immediate
future. But widespread diagnostic testing could
help dramatically.
As Jeremy Samuel Faust, an emergency physi-
cian at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, wrote in a
Post op-ed, this is for two reasons. First, identifying
even mild cases of the infection that are now going
uncounted would yield a more accurate picture of
the l ethality o f the d isease. T his i n turn would likely
reassure the public and financial markets.
Second, Dr. Faust explained, “the discovery of
mild and symptom-free cases may lower the
number of serious cases over the course of the
outbreak, and might even save lives.” This is partly
because treatment (short of cure) can be effective,
and partly because isolation of asymptomatic
patients would slow the spread of infection. But
those patients aren’t going to self-quarantine if
they don’t know they’re sick.
South Korea’s experience supports this argu-
ment. Regulators there approved a new diagnostic
test by a private company in a week’s time. South
Korea is testing 20,000 people a day, and it now has
drive-through testing — and the infection rates are
not climbing sharply.
The United States’ record is sadly different. The
initial setback was a technical fault in the diagnostic
kits created and sent to state public health labs by
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in
February. While the CDC rushed to troubleshoot,
only about a dozen state labs could test, and all othersamples had to be sent to the CDC in Atlanta. Test
results took days. On top of this, the agency set very
restrictive criteria for who would be tested: only
individuals who showed respiratory symptoms and
had either recently traveled t o China or come in close
contact with an infected person. On Feb. 29, facing a
rising case count in the United States and a lack of
testing, the Food and Drug Administration abruptly
changed its rules to allow “high-complexity” l abora-
tories to use diagnostic tests they designed in-house.
This began t o expand testing and allow hospitals and
private firms to produce them — they are now themain hope of ramping up testing — although
another looming glitch is a shortage of chemicals.
Not all the testing problems in the United States
are political, but it certainly did not help that Vice
President Pence repeatedly over-promised the
availability of tests, touting millions when only
thousands have been conducted. “A nybody that
needs a test gets a test,” Mr. Trump declared on
March 6 at the CDC headquarters. “They’re there.
They h ave the t ests. And the tests are b eautiful.” For
the sake of the ill and the healthy, we hope the
reality will soon catch up to that idle boast.Flying blind
into a virus storm
The United States is way behind
in diagnostic testing.ABCDE
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Managing Editor Associate Editorial Page Editor
SCOTT VANCE
Deputy Managing Editor
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Deputy Managing Editor
Vice presidents:
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the Washington post
1301 K St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071 (202) 334-6000Amanda Ripley wrote about her troubles with
Google Maps in her March 10 Tuesday Opinion essay,
“Google Maps moved my home to a cemetery. It gets
worse.” I share Ms. Ripley’s pain. A couple of years
ago, Google moved my c ondominium building half a
block away and around the corner. I was able to
change my home address on Uber to the next-door
neighbor’s address, but my family has to tell all our
visitors to do the same. Getting deliveries often ends
up with calls from confused drivers. I’d really like
that magic email address to get this corrected. It’s
ridiculous that a company with so much reach and
power can be so unaccountable.
Mike Singer, WashingtonSince 2005, when Google Maps launched, my
house has been tied to an apartment building. My
house and that building have almost the same street
address, with this exception: One is a boulevard, the
other a drive. For 15 years, I have had hundreds of
deliveries: wedding flowers, appliances, contractors,
plumbers, takeout and so much more. Twice, I
experienced a robbery. Both times, the police went
first to the apartment building. This was not only
infuriating, but also could have led to an undesirable
outcome. I have given friends and deliverers correct
directions, but they are programmed to believe
Google Maps knows better.
Until Google Maps recognizes it is not the sun and
moon, I’ll continue to verbally correct Google Maps
to those who will listen.
Jane S. Dealy, Chevy ChaseMapping Google’s unaccountability
I was dismayed to read the March 4 Metro article
“Senators kill Dominion rate-review bill.” Sounds
like another win for the Dominion Energy empire.
This winter has been mild, and I used half the
electricity this February as I did in February of last
year. Was my bill half? Not by a long shot. How dare
Dominion claim the best rates for its customers.
Appears the best “rates” are for itself, to ensure the
least amount of oversight possible.
Paula Milchak, AlexandriaAnother win for Dominion
Robert J. Samuelson’s March 9 op-ed, “How much
can we tax the rich?,” asked how much we can ask
those who benefit most from this economy to help
pay for their good fortune in having their work
rewarded so handsomely. Mr. Samuelson’s
piece posed wealth taxes in terms of reducing the
almost $17 trillion current national debt held by the
public. The focus is on the p eople as sources of taxable
income, which is, of course, personal a nd divisive.
May I suggest t he fossil-energy industry as anoth-
er, less personal but far more deserving source of
taxation on wealth? This industry’s products and
processes are responsible for climate change, the
costs of which are already enormous and rising. It is
heavily subsidized, lightly taxed and politically inva-
sive. Any denial of causality for the calamity the
planet faces has been long refuted by even conserva-
tives. Ta xing this industry’s carbon-emitting prod-
ucts and profits i s long overdue.
Ralph Bennett, Silver SpringTax the fossil-fuel industry
The March 7 news article “House report faults
Boeing, FAA in crashes” covered preliminary find-
ings of the ongoing investigation by the House
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
regarding Boeing and the Federal Aviation Adminis-
tration’s decisions and actions that led to the fatal
crashes of the Ethiopian and Lion Air 737 Max 8
aircraft. Boeing developed a software fix, known as
the maneuvering characteristics augmentation sys-
tem, or MCAS, to address air-frame instability
resulting from moving the 737 Max engines in a
manner that changed the air-frame center of gravity
and lift. The 737 Max air-frame changes and the
MCAS should have been designated as critical
systems changes from the outset and warranted a
new aircraft certification, not an amendment to an
earlier 737 certification.
A new air-frame certification process for the
737 Max seems essential, not only to ensure that the
aircraft’s airworthiness, flight stability and critical
control systems are safe and reliable, but also so that
future generations of 737 aircraft will not have
similar issues and flight-safety risks. The record
indicates that Boeing plans to use versions of the
737 Max 8 for the planned 737 Max 9 and 10, for
longer-range and/or heavier payload flights. This
raises the possibility that three generations of
737 aircraft could go forward with a flawed design.
Frederick B. Wood, ArlingtonMaking the 737 Max safer
Regarding the March 11 front-page article
“Trump’s pitch for payroll-tax cut faces bipartisan
skepticism”:
President Trump may be salivating over the pros-
pect of new tax cuts (creating even larger budget
deficits) under the guise of stabilizing the economy
during the coronavirus emergency. But instead of
helping the rich get richer, we need measures aimed
at p eople w ho actually n eed h elp: middle- and lower-
income Americans.
This is a golden opportunity to (finally) require
paid s ick leave for employees of companies with m ore
than 50 workers, to care for themselves or spouses,
children and other relatives. A similar policy should
apply to larger companies that use contractors, who
often receive no benefits at all. If Congress wants to
reduce the payroll tax (temporarily, one hopes), have
it apply only to people earning less than the median
income (or whatever number is both effective and
fair). There’s no need to boost the weekly paychecks
of well-paid employees who usually don’t s pend every
last dollar they earn; providing more take-home pay
for lower-income workers is more important and w ill
provide more boost t o the economy.
L ower-paid workers face two types of risk related
to coronavirus. First is catching the disease or show-
ing symptoms that require self-quarantine. Second i s
the prospect of layoffs in business sectors — retail, for
example — where customers stop showing up, either
from fear of contagion or because of a drop in
consumer confidence.
Any crisis also creates opportunities. Let’s take this
opportunity to adopt some l ong-overdue policies and
benefits for t he Americans who need them most.
Graham Vink, ViennaA better economic boost
T
HE CORONAVIRUS pandemic poses eco-
nomic as well as public health risks. Presi-
dent Trump and Congress already are late in
responding; as late as Thursday, the admin-
istration and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)
were still haggling over terms of a modest relief
package, and lawmakers were still, almost unbeliev-
ably, talking about taking a recess. Then stock
markets tanked again, the Federal Reserve weighed
in with a promise to prop up the financial system, to
the tune of $1.5 trillion — and Senate Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced that his
chamber will stay in Washington next week to work
on a bill that comes out of the House.
There is at least a chance that Republicans and
Democrats can rise to the occasion. Our advice to
them: Go big before you go home.
For both humanitarian and macroeconomic rea-
sons, this situation calls for a substantial fiscal
response to augment the Fed’s actions, in spite of
understandable concerns about the already worri-
some federal deficit. The U.S. and global economiessimply cannot afford the sudden stop that might be
about to hit otherwise. Ideally, the package would
combine prompt, w ell-targeted c ash a ssistance t o the
hardest-hit households with some form of govern-
ment-backed financing f or the h ardest-hit industries.
The steps Mr. Trump announced, in vague terms,
on Wednesday night range from potentially useful to
misconceived. In the former category belong his
instructions to the S mall Business Administration
for expanded low-interest lending for existing re-
sources, to be bolstered by another $50 billion if
Congress approves, as well as postponing some tax
payments otherwise due April 15. Alas, Mr. Trump
seems fixated on eliminating payroll taxes, which
would deliver help to consumers — but slowly, in
small doses, and not focused most on those who
need it most.
The Democratic House plan does target a id where
it’s needed, via increased Medicaid grants to the
states, paid sick leave, extended eligibility for jobless
benefits, increases to food security programs and the
like. Ye t it does not go nearly far enough, failing toinclude potentially the most effective measure, a
cash tax rebate like the one delivered in July 2008 to
more than 70 million households at an average rate
of $950 each. And the bill may h ave contained a
poison pill for Republicans in the form of making the
sick leave benefit permanent. One possible compro-
mise with Mr. Trump might be to formulate such a
payment as a partial elimination of payroll taxes.
The good news is that the impending downturn
does not represent a crisis brought on by inadequate
regulation or speculative excess, as the 2008 Great
Recession did. When the coronavirus shock hit, the
U.S. economy was performing well; key sectors such
as banks and airlines were well-capitalized. If Con-
gress and the president act decisively — much more
boldly than they appear to be doing at present — the
United States’ private sector and its employees can
work through the financial stress and move on to
recovery. Like the coronavirus crisis itself, economic
pain may, at this point, be unavoidable; also like the
epidemic, though, the damage can, and must, be
contained.Go big before you go home, Congress
Washington must contain the economic as well as health risks of the coronavirus.
ABCDE
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