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Biden’s Testing Strategy Sets Up a Clear Contrast With Trump on the Coronavirus
While the president has left testing responsibilities to the states, his Democratic rival would harness the power of the federal government to drive testing down to the workplace.
Joseph R. Biden Jr. has proposed harnessing the broad powers of the federal government to step up coronavirus testing, with a public-private board overseeing test manufacturing and distribution, federal safety regulators enforcing testing at work and at least 100,000 contact tracers tracking down people exposed to the virus.
The presumptive Democratic nominee’s plan, laid out in a little-noticed Medium post, stands in stark contrast to President Trump’s leave-it-to-the-states strategy, detailed in an 81-page document released over the weekend. And it presents voters in November with a classic philosophical choice over the role they want Washington to play during the worst public health crisis in a century.
With more than 100,000 Americans already dead from the coronavirus and at least 1.7 million infected, testing has emerged as a major campaign issue. Polls show that most people want better access to testing and believe that it is the job of the federal government. Like Mr. Biden, Democrats running for Congress have seized on testing as a prime example of what they view as Mr. Trump’s incompetent response to the crisis.
In Michigan, Senator Gary Peters, an incumbent Democrat, tells viewers in a TV ad that “our workplaces need to be safe” and “that means more testing.” In Colorado, an ad for Senator Cory Gardner, an incumbent Republican, begins with footage of a news anchor saying, “Coronavirus tests are coming to Colorado from South Korea because of Senator Cory Gardner.”
In Maine, Sara Gideon, a Democrat running to unseat Senator Susan Collins, is airing an ad in which she says that “the federal government needs to expand testing, which is critical to keeping us safe.” In Washington, Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a news conference on Tuesday to attack the Trump plan as insufficient.
“Mr. President, take responsibility,” Ms. Pelosi declared, adding, “That’s what the president of the United States is supposed to do.”
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