In this update, a multi-trillion federal relief package is enacted, Education Secretary Dan French testifies in House education committee, essential business determination guidance is issued, and unemployment insurance changes advance.
If it is deemed necessary to do budgetary work or matters that address the COVID-19 pandemic, that should be the limit of legislative action. The other stuff can wait. Vermont should postpone such other lawmaking until safe.
The big explosion last week in the House made for splashy news coverage, but the real story was far murkier than the headlines suggested. But if detailed machinations of politics intrigue you, then I wrote this for you.
I do not know why you were removed from your committee assignment, but you appear to have been attacked from someone behind the shield of the COVID-19 crisis — perhaps a safe haven for those who would tread on individual rights and personal liberty.
The least of our problems is a trade war with China. Vermont needs an actual economic plan that addresses the most serious problems we face — pensions, schools, over-regulation and an unwieldy bureaucracy.
The government can do a lot to alleviate the economic impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, but Vermonters can also help our businesses stay afloat during this crisis. Here are some ideas.
Governor Scott may issue press releases merely “encouraging” us to cease gathering, cease person-to-person business and to stay at home, but his actual declaration directs and mandates it. By the order, the governor has deprived us of some of our constitutional rights.
Dear Governor Scott, on behalf of the citizens of the great State of Vermont, we are asking you to please include federal firearm license dealers in the list of businesses considered essential during the Covid-19 crisis.
Yes, if a policy can save one life it should be considered. But if it also costs one life, it’s a wash. And if it costs two, it’s a bad policy. No politician should be blamed for considering both sides of this coin.
In the United States, if any group properly stewards the land it is the Amish, who have always distrusted technology as a destroyer of family ties and culture.
Permitting governments to seize almost unlimited power based on shaky extrapolations of infection rates will doom our republic.
The final chapter in the coronavirus pandemic story won’t be written for a distressingly long time, but it’s worth leaping ahead in time and looking back at what Americans and Vermonters will hopefully have learned.