It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see that this is shaping up to be a very difficult winter with Covid.
With strict lockdowns already coming back in Europe, it’s more than reasonable to expect that a more responsible U.S. administration will follow suit.
And, with that, the old Achilles’ heel of our employment/insurance relationship will be front and center once again. At the same time, the Supreme Court will be hearing (or will have heard) yet another case on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act.
Only in the United States could one party’s determined response to a pandemic be to use the courts to strip away health insurance — yet here we are.
As more and more people begin to fall out of the current “holding pattern,” the new Congress’s first two jobs will be to pass massive fiscal stimulus and (likely) to re-legislate health care.
Whether or not we are spared the drama of a constitutional crisis over government of and by the people, failure to immediately deliver massive economic and healthcare support should and likely would lead to a crisis of legitimacy for the idea of government for the people.
Colin Steele 