tion.
Reaching a deal requires the president to go beyond his
stated support for another round of stimulus checks and an-
other targeted bailout for the crippled airline industry.
Democrats are right to insist that a stimulus bill should
help those who need it most. There is no justification for
helping airlines without helping others in need. It doesn’t
make sense to send out stimulus checks to middle-class
households while withholding aid from children who don’t
have enough to eat.
Congress needs to pro-
vide funding for public health
authorities and health care
providers battling the pan-
demic.
Congress also needs to
provide aid for those who are
hungry, unemployed or fac-
ing a loss of housing. The un-
employment rate remains at
7.9 percent, and many work-
ers who lost jobs in the
spring are nearing the end of
their eligibility for weekly
benefits. Such targeted aid is
also the best use of taxpayer
dollars. Supplemental fed-
eral payments to unem-
ployed workers between
April and July kept families
from poverty and, as they
spent, buoyed the broader
economy, too. The distribu-
tion of $1,200 to most Ameri-
can adults, by contrast, was
less targeted and less effec-
tive. One study found that re-
cipients spent 40 percent of
the money, on average — and
households with more in-
come from other sources
spent a smaller share.
Aid for state and local
governments is also essen-
tial. Declines in tax revenue
so far have been smaller
than many governments pro-
jected. Job losses have been
concentrated among lower-
income workers whose tax bills were relatively modest,
while the rising stock market has increased receipts from
more affluent households. But the aid Congress provided in
the spring was a one-time deal, and state and local govern-
ments already have cut roughly 1.5 million workers in antici-
pation of reduced revenues in coming years.
Democrats and the Trump administration remain
within shouting distance of a deal that would put Senate Re-
publicans on the spot.
On Friday, the administration suggested it would back
as much as $1.8 trillion in spending — just a little less than
the $2.2 trillion in the last House proposal. There are still dif-
ferences regarding how the money would be spent. But the
quickest way for the White House to get across the finish
line is to add a little more.
As Jerome H. Powell, the Federal Reserve chairman,
said in a blunt speech this week, “the risks of overdoing it”
are small at the moment. The greater danger is not doing
enough.Economic growth is sputtering as the coronavirus continues
to spread. Workers laid off temporarily in the spring or sum-
mer are discovering that their jobs are gone forever. Small
businesses are guttering out like so many candles in a rain-
storm. State and local governments are cutting services.
Millions of children are hungry; millions of families can’t
pay their rent.
In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, House
Democrats, Senate Republicans and the White House
moved with alacrity, at least by Washington standards, to
pump out hundreds of bil-
lions of dollars in emergency
aid. The nation is in need of
an encore.
Democrats have made a
series of progressively
smaller proposals since May.
The latest would provide
$2.2 trillion, largely aimed at
those who need it most, in-
cluding health care
providers, unemployed
workers and local govern-
ments. Senate Republicans
want a significantly smaller
bottom line. And President
Trump? He can’t seem to
make up his mind.
The moment cries out
for a president who knows
how to make a deal.
Instead, over the last
week, Mr. Trump engaged in
manic bursts of tweeting,
first insisting he wanted a
stimulus deal, then pulling
the plug on negotiations,
then insisting he was ready
to talk, then insulting House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, then
insisting again that he
wanted to act.
The president’s confus-
ing behavior, moreover, was
just a condensed version of
the past six months. Ever
since House Democrats
made their opening bid in
May, Mr. Trump has yo-yoed
between insisting that he wants a deal and losing interest in
the hard work of negotiations.
The president failed to press for a deal in July, as the ini-
tial round of emergency aid ran out. He failed to press for a
deal in August, as the economic rebound predictably began
to slow. He failed to press for a deal in September, as evi-
dence accumulated that more aid was needed.
Mr. Trump’s refusal to treat the coronavirus as a serious
public health threat is not only a big reason another round of
aid is necessary. It also has complicated the negotiations. It
is easier to talk in person, but Mitch McConnell, the Senate
majority leader, has refused to visit the White House in re-
cent months, citing the administration’s failure to impose
basic safety measures. Ms. Pelosi said this week that she
would no longer allow Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin,
the president’s chief negotiator, to visit her office. Those
safety concerns have proved very prudent.
Americans now should hope that the president’s latest
position as of publication time is sincere — and that it is not
too late to rope legislators into an agreement before the elec-
Let’s Make a Deal Already
ILLUSTRATION BY THE NEW YORK TIMES; PHOTOGRAPH BY GETTY IMAGESEDITORIALA24 SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2020
YTO THE EDITOR:
Re “President Lashes Out at His
Aides With Calls to Indict Political
Rivals” (front page, Oct. 9):
The president’s decidedly ir-
rational behavior in recent days in
the midst of his coronavirus ordeal
is a cause for alarm and deserves a
strong response, even in the form of
an intervention, for the safety and
protection of the country.
A lack of transparency by the
president’s medical team since he
became sick with Covid-19 has
clouded the picture of his recovery,
reducing the nation’s medical com-
munity, which is deprived of vital
facts, to only speculate on key
aspects of his condition.
If the president’s medication
regimen, notably steroids, is affect-
ing his mental state, there is a
heightened cause for concern,
because even a pre-Covid Donald
Trump increasingly demonstrated
erratic behavior.
Clearly, Mr. Trump is not OK, and
it’s time for members of Congress
and high-level executive branch
people to step forward and urgently
weigh in on rescuing the country
from this unhinged president. On
Friday Speaker Nancy Pelosi un-
veiled her ideas for Congress to
constitutionally deal with the presi-
dent’s concerning performance.
ROGER HIRSCHBERG
BONDVILLE, VT.TO THE EDITOR:
If the cabinet ever needed concrete
evidence that President Trump has
completely lost touch with reality
and that the 25th Amendment
needs to be invoked immediately,
Mr. Trump provided it on Thursday
when he said, “I’m back because
I’m a perfect physical specimen and
I’m extremely young.”
He later released a video in
which he stated: “I’m a senior. I
know you don’t know that. Nobody
knows that.”
I know that the cabinet will not
exercise its clear responsibility in
this matter. This man is not men-
tally stable, in my humble nonpro-
fessional opinion, and these com-ments are far beyond amusing or
mildly disturbing.
BILL GOTTDENKER
MOUNTAINSIDE, N.J.TO THE EDITOR:
The president’s erratic and manic
behavior could reflect a side effect
from the dexamethasone he’s tak-
ing.
The F.D.A. patient package infor-
mation for oral dexamethasone
tablets states: “Psychic derange-
ments may appear when corticoste-
roids are used, ranging from eupho-
ria, insomnia, mood swings, person-
ality changes, and severe depres-
sion, to frank psychotic
manifestations. Also, existing emo-
tional instability or psychotic tend-
encies may be aggravated by corti-
costeroids.”
It’s clearly time to invoke the
25th Amendment for both Mr.
Trump’s protection and that of the
American people.
DANIEL FINK, BEVERLY HILLS, CALIF.
The writer is an internist.TO THE EDITOR:
Who stole my “America the Beauti-
ful”?
I’m 7,000 miles from home be-
cause of Covid-19. We were locked
down in April in New Zealand and
are still here.
I read The New York Times each
day to try to keep up with America.
Week by week, it has been getting
worse. But today, the combination
of headlines about President
Trump’s deranged rantings and
about the far-right extremists who
were allegedly going to kidnap Gov.
Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan
made my heart cry out.
Where has the America I love,
and that the world used to respect,
gone? How did we allow this to
happen? And what can we do to
stop it?
Vote Donald Trump out, for cer-
tain. Until then, stay safe, America.
My heart is there, and I’m watch-
ing, and praying, from afar.
DIANE COVINGTON-CARTER
PAKAWAU, NEW ZEALANDConcerns About Trump’s Erratic Behavior
LETTERSTO THE EDITOR:
Re “Thomas and Alito Raise
Doubts on Same-Sex Marriage
Ruling” (news article, Oct. 6):
Without a hint of irony, Justice
Clarence Thomas, addressing gay
marriage in an opinion joined by
Justice Samuel Alito, wrote that
“those with sincerely held religious
beliefs concerning marriage will
find it increasingly difficult to
participate in society.” The justices
ignore the history of marginaliza-
tion of L.G.B.T.Q. people in this
country in every area of life from
marriage equality to adoption to
health care benefits.
Their concern that those who
oppose gay marriage will be per-
ceived as bigots without acknowl-
edgment of the history of deadly
bias against those in the L.G.B.T.Q.
community is stunning. These
justices’ inability to comprehendthat those with religious beliefs can
practice for themselves without
taking away rights from other
individuals indicates a deficit of
both empathy as well as an inabili-
ty to appreciate the rights of others
outside their worldview.
ELAINE EDELMAN
EAST BRUNSWICK, N.J.TO THE EDITOR:
Dear Justices Thomas and Alito:
You are the ones stigmatizing
people of faith. Since when does
religious freedom apply only to a
subset of Christians? I am a reli-
gious Jew, but I don’t expect others
to be prohibited from eating
cheeseburgers or working on Jew-
ish holidays. Likewise, no one is
forcing Christians to have abor-
tions or get married to someone of
the same sex. They even have the
benefit of Christmas being a na-
tional holiday.
The Supreme Court is responsi-
ble for protecting the constitutional
rights of all Americans, even the
ones who do not share the personal
faith of its justices. Please don’t
abandon the rest of us.
JANET GORDON, SAN FRANCISCOGay Marriage, Religion and the Supreme Court
TO THE EDITOR:
Re “It’s All a Piece of Work for
Museums” (Arts, Sept. 19):
Lena Stringari, the Guggenheim’s
chief conservator, describes Maur-
izio Cattelan’s work “Comedian” as
“duct tape and a banana.” Duct tape
is no more part of the work than a
gilded frame is part of an Old Mas-
ter painting. The work is just the
banana.
Viewed more broadly, however,
as conceptual art, “Comedian”
might also be deemed to include
Cattelan’s still more ironic act of
depositing into his bank account the
money he got for the banana, which
sold for $120,000 last year at Art
Basel Miami, and perhaps any
accompanying laughter.
My point is not to suggest that
“Comedian” is not a work of art. It
is that Cattelan’s work is a trivial
work of art. The “ironic humor” it
allegedly embodies is so trite, and
the critique of art it arguably ex-
presses so tired at this point in the
history of art, that the Guggenheim
should let the “work” go brown and
spotty and put it in the compost.
Would works like Cattelan’s
banana and Yoko Ono’s green apple
be recognized as museum-worthy
had they been offered by an un-
known artist? What if the Museum
of Modern Art and the Guggenheim
engaged in blind evaluations of
proposed purchases? Would the sly
cleverness of “Comedian” have
been recognized without knowing it
was the work of an established
artist?
If you believe that, I’ve got a
bridge I’d like to sell you... but
only as a work of conceptual art.
MITCHELL ZIMMERMAN
PALO ALTO, CALIF.The Guggenheim’s Banana
TO THE EDITOR:
Re “Parents’ Little Helpers” (Sun-
day Styles, Oct. 4):
To be a Black mother is to be in a
constant state of alertness when it
comes to protecting your family
from the government. As a Black
woman, mother and lawyer, I am no
different in that regard.
Most Black mothers wouldn’t
publicly label themselves a “wine
mom” or admit to smoking pot. No
one remotely aware of the govern-
ment’s racist practice of separating
Black families for such behavior
through the so-called child welfare
system would.
You are correct that substance
use has been “romanticized” for
white parents. Your article proves
that it still is. Smoking pot and
drinking are seen as coping mecha-
nisms for white families and
grounds for separation for Black
families. Black parents who admit
to substance use are often labeled
“addicts” and sent to treatment
programs. Ninety percent of the
parents we defend for alleged child
neglect in New York City are Black,
Indigenous or people of color.
You’ve asked for Black parents to
share stories about parenting to-
day: Here’s your story.
TEHRA COLES, NEW YORK
The writer is litigation supervisor for
government affairs and policy at the
Center for Family Representation.Black Parents Can’t Indulge
S
OMEWHERE under the corn-
fields and backyard hoop courts
of Indiana is a small black box
holding the conscience of Vice
President Mike Pence. He buried it four
years ago, when a tape emerged of Don-
ald Trump boasting about sexually as-
saulting women.
Pence and his wife, Karen, whom he
reportedly calls “Mother,” had rushed
home to pray during the biggest cam-
paign crisis of 2016. Ever since an evan-
gelical conversion in college, Pence had
been a beacon of Hoosier holiness, using
his talk radio show and his political perch
to preach biblical values in the public
sphere.
But, of course, he buried them in a
heartland moment. And by 2017, Pence
would have this to say about Trump to re-
ligious conservatives: “This is some-
body who shares our views, shares our
values, shares our beliefs.”
As we saw in Wednesday night’s de-
bate, Pence is not just the great enabler
of Trump’s awfulness, but the man who
puts a godly sheen on it. In that sense,
he’s more dangerous, and arguably more
evil, than Trump.
You have to think that he knowsbetter,
that he knows the man he serves is rotten
to the core. But his sycophancy is not all
connivance and cunning. No — he’s sim-
ply playing his role in God’s plan.
It’s taking potshots at a three-legged
moose to note that if God planned to put
kids in cages, to destroy much of creation
with wildfire and flooding, to send more
than 210,000 Americans to an early
grave from a pandemic, such a plan
would call for some dissent with the mas-
ter architect.
Not from Pence. In the earthly realm,
nobody expects the vice president to
stand up to his president. Nor, even, to
not do his bidding in the dark arts of
Trumpism. But it’s the way he puts a
moral — and to Pence, religious — gloss
on this American nightmare that makes
his deep complicity so chilling.
His task on Wednesday was to lie and
dodge with civility and aw-shucks
earnestness. With his flat Midwestern
accent and his silver-haired gladhanded-
ness, Pence is the silk to Trump’s sandpa-
per. He has the mien of a man trying to
sell you dog food laced with Ambien. By
the grace of God, both you and your pet
will sleep soundly!
Trump is bulldozer blunt about vio-
lating norms, decency and the truth. He
may not honor election results if they
don’t go his way. He wants to put his po-
litical rivals in jail. He’s suggested that
household disinfectants may be good for
treating Covid-19. Pence is the one to say,
Gosh and gee willikers, he doesn’t really
mean this stuff. He’s cleanup on the aisle
of atrocities at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave-
nue.
Indiana gave us Kurt Vonnegut and
David Letterman, and was a cradle for
early African-American jazz recordings.
But for a time in the 1920s, no state had
more members of the Ku Klux Klan than
Indiana — nearly one in three native-
born white males. And this uniquely
American domestic terror group was
soaked in the rituals and piety of rural
conservative values.
Pence doesn’t seem like a hater or a
race-baiter, but he certainly makes his
boss, who is one, more palatable to those
who profess to live by godliness. When
Trump gave the neo-Nazis at Charlottes-
ville a pass, Pence was quick to the res-
cue, saying that under Trump, “We’re go-
ing to continue to see more unity in
America.”
When the world was appalled at the
cruelty of family separation at the bor-
der, Pence paid a visit, and said nothing
to see here, because “We spoke to cheer-
ful children who were watching televi-
sion, having snacks.”
And just before the pandemic took a
huge swing for the worse, Pence penned
an essay in The Wall Street Journal in
June saying no second wave was com-
ing, because “the progress we’ve made is
remarkable” and was “a cause for cele-
bration.”Since then, another 100,000 people
have died from Covid-19 in the United
States. And a White House that refused
to follow the basic medical advice ex-
pected of every other American has
produced more new cases of the corona-
virus over the last week than entire
countries in that same period.
Pence, as head of the White House
pandemic task force, should be crawling
under a rock in shame. Instead, he’s all
bromides and excuses. That “super-
spreader” event in the Rose Garden,
with all the hugs and only a handful ofpeople wearing masks? Well, it was out-
doors, Pence said. Tell that to the wed-
ding planners now going under because
they couldn’t have their own special
rules.
On health care, perhaps the biggest of
the Big Lies of Trumpism, Pence said,
“President Trump and I have a plan.” In
fact, they have never unveiled a plan and
are currently in court trying to dismantle
Obamacare and its protections for pre-
existing conditions. As with the pan-
demic, this is no mere policy difference,
but blatant disregard for human life by
an administration that professes to be
“pro-life.”
As important as it will be in the coming
months to purge the country of Trump’s
dehumanizing legacy — the hatred of
“others,” the normalizing of lying, the re-
jection of science and reality — it will be
equally important to confront the en-
ablers and collaborators.
And when historians go looking for an-
swers as to how this country could go so
bad so quickly, they will find all they need
in the words of the 45th president’s chief
enabler and collaborator.TIMOTHY EGAN
What Makes Pence’s Complicity So Chilling
The vice president will
be remembered as the
great enabler.