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Comment by jandrewrogers | Hacker News Reader

In the US, the State Governors are explicitly in charge of this, not the Federal government which has minimal authority in such matters. It is misleading to describe this as "taking up the slack", given that the US government is specifically structured such that it is supposed to work this way.

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I do not believe that is accurate. I would say the Federal Government can have maximum authority, under certain circumstances, if it is competent enough to know when to do so. The Federal Government, specifically the Executive Branch, has the authority to declare a nationwide state of emergency. Doing so gives broad (and somewhat undefined) powers to the President and Federal Government.

See, for example, The International Emergency Economic Powers Act: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Emergency_Econ...

Edit, to add: I don’t think the IEEPA applies here, but there are a number of Congressional Acts that give the President and Federal Government tremendous power to regulate State goings-on. This was just the first one I could think of.

You are not wrong with respect to healthcare but leadership comes from the top, more so when this is not a State specific problem. Just listen to the Governor of NY plead for help. State's can chose to ignore the president but if the want help from the Feds (FEMA etc) then your point is moot.

The feds have explicitly stated they are willing to help, and are sending resources to the states?

The leadership, the 'feds' (FEMA) and the states are three separate entities.

Sorry, I'll rephrase. Trump has explicitly stated he is willing to give money to the states to deal with the problem. And has sent resources (like the navy ships, dod medical stockpiles, and emergency hospitals)

No, he says that he's done things but many of these things (like the navy ships) are far from being launched. Much of what Trump says is not true and a disturbing amount of that is actively harmful.

Money to states: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/03/06/8129648...

Dod medical stockpiles: https://www.defense.gov/Explore/News/Article/Article/2115200...

emergency hospitals: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8144037/National-Gu...

Navy ships: https://thehill.com/policy/defense/489020-navy-hospital-ship...

You are just spreading lies. Monday is not today, but it is quite close, and the ships were undergoing repairs, as trump said.

Monday was two days ago. If you can understand that this is a fast moving situation, maybe it would be best to give people the benefit of the doubt when they give out information you believe to be outdated?

The article I posted says this coming Monday? Trump said the ship would be deployed but that it was undergoing repairs. It's being deployed monday. How is it a lie to say the ship is being deployed?

Will you give me the benefit of the doubt and read the article? What lie did Trump tell? At no point did he claim the ships were already present at their destinations.

Oh... I misread you then. I thought you were saying that this was new information since Monday.

It certainly helps when they're working from the same playbook though.

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