Stevenson’s army, March 22

We’re still waiting for the bipartisan stimulus bill, and hoping for its quick passage by the Senate, but things could still go off the rails. After all, the lobbyists have been busy, as WSJ reports. As I said the other day, the Senate will use a House-passed bill, lifting taxes on medical devices, as the vehicle for the stimulus, since revenue measures must “originate” in the House.
Several writers, Jennifer Senior of NYT and Margaret Sullivan of WaPo have urged an end to live broadcasts of presidential news conferences on the coronavirus because they have become campaign rallies filled with misinformation. It is worth noting that FDR had only 30 fireside chats in his 12 years in office, 2.5 per year.
NYT reports new threats to the US in Africa from al Shabab.
US-Chinese relations continue to deteriorate, most recently with the expulsion of journalists and false claims about the coronavirus.  WSJ reports that the evacuation of US diplomats for health concerns has left American poorly staffed to deal with China.

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. 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).