Joe Biden’s “Plan” to Reopen America is Nothing But Hot Air

With an op-ed in The New York Times on Sunday, presumptive Democratic nominee for president Joe Biden unveiled his “plan to reopen America” in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The op-ed, which seems perfectly calculated to both attack President Trump and draw attention away from the sexual allegations against Biden from former staffer Tara Reade, is long on verbiage and short on specifics. You don’t have to read too much of the piece to realize that Biden has about as much expertise in this area as your average MSNBC pundit – which is to say none at all. But that little fact doesn’t keep him from blathering on for more than a thousand words about what he would do if he were president.

Which, of course, he is not.

“The plan has to start with responding effectively to the immediate medical crisis and ultimately lead to the widespread availability and administration of a vaccine. But we can’t stay home and just wait for the vaccine to arrive. As others have noted, we need to build a bridge from here to there. Here’s what our national strategy should look like,” Biden writes.

“First, we have to get the number of new cases of the disease down significantly. That means social distancing has to continue and the people on the front lines have to get the supplies and equipment they need. President Trump needs to use his full powers under the Defense Production Act to fight the disease with every tool at our disposal. He needs to get the federal response organized and stop making excuses. For more Americans to go back to their jobs, the president needs to do better at his job,” he continues.

The op-ed continues in this fashion for far longer than your average reader could possibly keep their eyes from glazing over. Over and over again, Biden merely parrots advice that can be found in literally any news article about the coronavirus, failing spectacularly to add anything interesting or new to the discussion.

Biden, of course, benefits from the same privilege that all of Trump’s critics do: They don’t actually have to make good on their “plans.” All they have to do is sit home, dream up an ideal scenario, and then type it up. It’s pretty damn easy to pound “we need more testing” into your keyboard. It’s not quite that simple to actually make it happen.