Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden speaks in Wilmington, Delaware, July 14, 2020 (Patrick Semansky/AP)

Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden calls again for responsible leadership to deal with the Coronavirus pandemic, as the US passes 5 million confirmed cases.

The statement came as Donald Trump’s executive orders, rejecting a compromise for a relief package and bypassing the Constitution, fell apart within 24 hours.

US deaths rose on Sunday to 162,938, with 495 fatalities in 24 hours. Confirmed cases are 5,044,864, an increase of 46,935.

“Boggles The Mind and Breaks The Heart”

Biden posted a statement about the marker of 5 million cases.

It’s a number that boggles the mind and breaks the heart. Five million is more than the entire population of Alabama – or of more than half the states in our union, for that matter.

Each time the number clicks up, it represents a life altered, a family stricken with anxiety, a community on edge. And for the families of the more than 160,000 souls who have died because of this virus, it is a pain that can never be undone.

The former Vice President called for determination and an effective approach, “We must not give up. We must follow the science and the advice of medical experts — starting with wearing a mask. That is how we will beat this virus.”

But he concluded:

We continue to hear little more from President Trump than excuses and lies in an effort to cover for his repeated failures of leadership – failures that worsened the pandemic here at home, and in turn deepened our economic crisis….

We are where we are today for one simple, infuriating reason: Trump waved the white flag and gave up. He didn’t want to deal with the pandemic, so he stopped trying. He didn’t do his job.

The former Vice President concluded,

“Unconstitutional Slop”

Trump’s orders were issued at his golf club on Saturday after the White House rejected a $2 trillion compromise with Democratic legislators, refusing assistance to states, an extension of $600/week in unemployment benefits, and aid to the US Postal Service including assurance of a secure election with mail-in voting.

But the declarations — over reduced benefits, protection against evictions from Federal housing, assistance with student loans, and suspension of payroll tax — sank in confusion on Sunday as the Administration retreated from any commitments.

Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, combining political and legal criticism, said, “The pen-and-phone theory of executive lawmaking is unconstitutional slop.” Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York, whose state has moved from epicenter to successful container of the virus, said the orders were “laughable” as “just a chapter in the book of Washington Covid mismanagement”.

Cuomo noted that Trump’s command for a reduced $400/week in benefits to more than 20 million unemployed Americans is conditional on states — many in budget crisis as they try to cope with the pandemic — putting up the first $100.

He said, as the Administration vetoed the $985 billion for states and cities in the House Democrats’ rescue package:

The concept of saying to states, you pay 25%t of the insurance, is just laughable. It’s just an impossibility. So none of this is real on the federal side.

“Not Workable”

Trump’s chief economics adviser Larry Kudlow gave a garbled answer, in a Sunday TV interview, about how the benefit would work amid more than 30 million Americans put out of work by the outbreak. While still putting the onus on states for the benefits, he tried to create a number of $800/week.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that states could waive the $100 fee and payments could start “immediately”, but Kudlow said they could take a few weeks.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi summarized that the orders are “not workable”:

What [Kudlow] said really shows the weakness and the meagerness of what the President proposed.

First of all, he’s saying the states have the money. No they don’t, they have expenses from the coronavirus. They have lost revenue, because of that they are firing health care workers, first responders, teachers, sanitation, transportation workers because they don’t have the money.

Something’s wrong. Either the President doesn’t know what he’s talking about – clearly his aides don’t know what he is talking about – or something’s very wrong here about meeting the needs of the American people at this time.

Trump advisors also stepped away from any “moratorium” on evictions from Federal housing. They said instead that the order provides guidance to homeowners and tenants.

Other critics noted that Trump’s suspension of payroll tax, a step opposed for months by Republican as well as Democratic legislators, would deprive Social Security of its main source of revenue.

Trump advisor Peter Navarro tried to chide Pelosi but struggled to explain why Trump was spending the entire weekend at his golf course, bringing the total to almost 300 days during his Presidency: “It doesn’t help when Speaker Pelosi goes out … with her scarves flying and beats the heck out of us….[Trump is] the hardest working President in history”.

On Friday, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin rejected the $2 trillion compromise offered by Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, between their proposal for $3.4 trillion in assistance and the White House plan — with the reduced benefits, no aid for states, and no support of the US Postal Service — of $1 trillion.

Mnuchin said yesterday, “We don’t have to get everything done at once. What we should do is get things done for the American public now, come back for another bill afterward.”

Doubts Raised on School Reopenings

Doubts on full school reopenings, demanded by Trump as he seeks a second term, have been raised by the revelation that nine staff and students have tested positive at a Georgia high school that made national headlines.

North Paudling High School principal Gabe Carmona wrote that six students and three staff members returned positive tests.

Student Hannah Watters highlighted the lack of social distancing at the school in a photo that went viral on Twitter:

Watters was suspended for circulating the picture, but has now been reinstated. Invoking the words of Georgia’s civil rights icon John Lewis, who died last month, she said her action was “good and necessary trouble”.

Despite Trump’s demand for full in-class instruction, the White House blocked assistance for schools in the Pelosi-Schumer compromise proposal.