Stevenson’s army, March 19

-Senators are working to craft a huge $1-2 Trillion package of individual and company relief. Republicans are willing to give cash to people; Democrats are willing to give companies money, though with strings. An unnamed GOP Senator suggested calling the money “freedom payments” rather than “bailouts.” The administration’s $1 trillion plan is only the starting point.
– There is infighting, however, including trade hawk Peter Navarro’s ideas for using the crisis to reduce reliance on foreign medical suppliers.
– There’s also confusion in the coronavirus fight because Jared Kushner is running a “shadow task force” on the problem.
–Mitre Corp. has a good paper listing how to respond to the pandemic.
– 3 doctors forecast a roller coaster of peaks and troughs of extreme social distancing for another 18 months or more.

– Should the US military do more? SAIS prof Mark Cancian suggests ways. Charlie Dunlap [MGEN, USAF , retired] says no.
-Kurt Campbell says China is moving into global leadership as a result of the pandemic. [NYT has a similar article.]
– Former GOP official Bob Zoellick blames Trump tariffs for some medical shortages. And USTR made some limited cutbacks there.

My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I plan to republish here. If you want to get it directly, To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).