Budowsky: If Joe Biden were president today

If former Vice President Joe Biden were president today, the American president would not have gone on worldwide television to tell the people to inject into their bodies substances that would have killed many of them, and poison control centers would not be getting urgent calls from citizens who tragically followed the ignorant medical guidance from President Donald Trump.

If Biden were president today, he would have used the full force and power of the presidency long ago to mobilize for an exponentially greater availability of testing. Our president would not be pushing to reopen the economy without sufficient testing that could well create an October surprise of a second wave of the deadly virus, which many experts believe would be more deadly than the first wave, that would force our economy to be shut down again and cause a second wave of human and economic tragedy shortly before the election.

On Jan. 27, 2020, Biden, who was so right about the war against COVID-19 when Trump was so wrong, wrote an op-ed for USA Today warning about Trump and calling for a national mobilization to unite America, bring in our leading medical experts and take the aggressive action that Trump did not take in January, February or the first half of March.

If Biden were president, in January he would have acted like a commander in chief leading a nation at war against a deadly enemy—while Trump acted like a television personality praising his ratings, attacking his opponents, and blaming others for his failure to act effectively from January until today.

The COVID-19 crisis of catastrophe demonstrates the best of Biden compared to the worst of Trump. Biden is the voice of experience, a champion of unity, a believer in science, a man who values knowledge, a manager who knows how to delegate, a supporter of social justice and a leader, unlike Trump, of genuine decency and compassion.

Today Biden, a lifetime champion of small business, expresses outrage that so many of the small businesses that comprise the heart of America were unable to receive support promised in legislation, because some of the largest banks in the world gave preferential treatment to some of their wealthiest clients who exploited loopholes in the law to pretend they are small business.

Biden is blasting some of those banks for this abuse, telling Politico that many of them are “only alive because of the American taxpayer” and demanding that loans be given to real small businesses on Main Street and not the wealthiest banks giving priority to their wealthiest clients.

Biden cares about senior citizens in ways that Trump does not, which is why so many seniors are supporting Biden, like so many of their grandchildren are doing.

Biden’s heroes are the doctors, nurses and other hospital employees which is why, if Biden were president, he would have fought like a lion and won for a national mobilization to get them the medical equipment they were pleading for — while Trump ignored them — throughout January, February and March.

If Biden were president, fewer Americans would have been infected, fewer Americans would have died, fewer jobs would have been lost, and the economy would not be suffering nearly as much as it is today. Biden, as he wrote in January, was aware of the magnitude of the danger and urgency for a national mobilization while Sleepy Donald lagged months behind and conducted ludicrous news conferences that alarmed even many Republicans in Congress.

Let’s end today with a personal note.

I am a born and bred New Yorker. When my brothers and sisters all over New York opened their windows across the city one night, and sang Frank Sinatra’s great song “New York, New York” to honor and stand with those doctors and nurses as their shift ended, I cheered them with a fist pumping passion that I have not felt since Osama Bin Laden met his maker in hell.

Biden understands this. Trump does not.

Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and former Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.), who was chief deputy majority whip of the House of Representatives. He holds an LLM in international financial law from the London School of Economics.