America’s backwards coronavirus strategy

THE SENATE’S status as “the world’s greatest deliberative body”, as President James Buchanan allegedly described it, has been exaggerated for a while. Legislation is accomplished not through considered debate, but rushed, secretive crafting of law by senior party leaders on the eve of some cataclysmic deadline. In the past decade this brinkmanship has led to one struggle over “sequestration”, two debt-ceiling crises and three shutdowns of the federal government, but little in the way of substantive lawmaking. The same dynamic will shape the latest gargantuan stimulus package needed to cushion the fallout from the epidemic of covid-19. But this time, the consequences of brinkmanship and delay could be even more severe.