To address Covid-19 and future challenges, there’s no substitute for strong federal leadership, writes Rahm Emanuel
By Rahm Emanuel March 26, 2020 3:05 pm ET Warren Buffett once noted that “only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.” When it comes to emergency management and public health, the tide is out, and the federal government has been caught with its pants down. For decades, we’ve failed to invest sufficiently in the nation’s public health system, but the crisis we face today will not be one-of-a-kind.
AFTER THE PANDEMIC Leading figures from a range of fields look ahead to the lasting impact of today’s crisis Though mayors and governors can do a lot, national crises and challenges ultimately need national solutions. States shouldn’t be bidding against one another for masks and ventilators as they are today—the federal government should be the clearing house. State bureaucracies should not be forced to keep an eye on diseases spreading from China or other parts of the world—that should be up to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Security Council.
In Chicago, we made community college free without any help from Washington, but that wasn’t because we didn’t want to work with the federal Department of Education. They just had nothing to offer. We would have gladly accepted the federal Department of Transportation’s help in expanding O’Hare, our largest airport, but we couldn’t wait for the federal bureaucracy to get its act together.
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