'BradCast' 3/24/2020 (Guest: Financial journalist David Dayen of The American Prospect)
On today's 'BradCast': India announced a 21-day lockdown, "a total ban on venturing out" of the house for all 1.3 billion residents, to slow the spread of COVID-19 in the one of the world's most densely populated countries. In New York State, the number of confirmed infections is now doubling every three days. NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo expressed growing frustration with the Trump Administration's meager pandemic response, including offering only 400 ventilators despite the state needing as many as 30,000. Donald Trump attacked Cuomo and lied to the public about U.S. automakers manufacturing ventilators "right now" \u2013 they aren't, and can't begin manufacturing for many weeks. Trump said he wants to "re-open" the economy and end 'stay at home' directives by Easter (April 12), no matter how many Americans he helps kill in the bargain. Trump's "problem", in this case, is not dead Americans -- it's a tanking economy that he fears may harm his reelection chances. Congress is said to be nearing an agreement on a $2 trillion "Phase III" relief bill in response to the Coronavirus pandemic. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, frustrated with Senate GOP intransigence, unveiled broad legislation that primarily benefits individuals, not corporations, and shores up the healthcare system, among other provisions. The American Prospect's Executive Editor, longtime financial journalist DAVID DAYEN, explains the proposed bills, how the bailout programs might be structured to ensure they help actual Americans rather than corporate interests, and how the economic damage wrought by the current pandemic is likely to be even worse than the 2008 financial disaster. Plus Desi Doyen has our latest 'Green News Report'...