It appears as though the worst of COVID-19 is behind us. Across the 50 states, restaurants, shops, and government offices are reopening, and even the most restrictive states are giving the green light to resume life as we knew it B.C. (before COVID).
Thanks in large part to a robust vaccination effort and growing natural immunity, daily deaths in the United States are down to about 300 (and dropping fast). Even if COVID-19 still spreads somewhat via the remaining unvaccinated population, it looks like the deadly disease is becoming something of a “flu plus.”
Now, policy at federal, state, and local levels must reflect this dramatic shift and acknowledge the disease’s demise across the country. This will require rethinking everything from newly created entitlements to liability rules. COVID-19 may be nearly gone, but we cannot allow “emergency” measures and programs to stick around forever.
Ronald Reagan famously noted in 1964, “A government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth.” This oft-quoted remark has certainly rung true in recent years. The Department of Homeland Security is consuming $50 billion in taxpayer funding per year even though al Qaeda is “being hollowed to its core.”
And now that the coronavirus is being hollowed to its core, people are wondering which costly government policies will stick around. One of the most expensive measures that may stay on the books is the expanded child tax credit, which first made its debut in President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill. The new tax credit allows families to receive up to $3,600 per child, compared to the previous maximum of $2,000 per child.
And in a dramatic departure from the status quo, the tax credit is now refundable. In other words, families can claim the credit even if they have no offsetting tax liability. In one fell swoop, a policy designed to whittle down tax bills has become a shiny, new entitlement program. Policymakers are now flirting with making these changes permanent instead of the bolstered credit only being in place for a single tax year.
Making the stimulus-in-disguise permanent would cost $1.6 trillion over the next 10 years on top of the astounding $28 trillion in debt taxpayers are already on the hook for. Temporary measures designed to help needy families deal with the pandemic need not break the bank — as long as they are temporary. Making relief measures permanent would lead to unsustainably high debt, which would come at the expense of job growth.
The government must address more than its sorry spending habits to move past the pandemic. A labyrinth of workplace safety and liability rules is making it needlessly complicated for businesses to invite back workers and consumers. For example, recently issued Occupational Safety and Health Administration rules require hospitals, nursing homes, and assisted living facilities to maintain plans to keep people 6 feet apart. Fully vaccinated people get a reprieve from the rules, but only in areas where there is “no reasonable expectation” that they will be exposed to the coronavirus.
The fear is that this overly broad language will prompt hospitals to enforce these rules on fully vaccinated people. If these temporary rules are made permanent, more than 10 million workers can be stuck with COVID-era restrictions years down the road. And it is possible that state regulatory agencies such as California’s OSHA will take restrictions even further than their federal counterpart.
Similarly, lawmakers have mulled imposing federal liability standards to help businesses, workers, and consumers navigate legal issues that might arise from coronavirus exposure. Setting a one-size-fits-all standard may seem tempting, but such rules could be hard to change even once COVID-19 is well in our rearview mirror. A far better approach would be to allow states to experiment and quickly change their liability rules in response to changing conditions.
Whether at the federal, state, or local level, COVID-era rules and programs must change to reflect the new reality of a waning virus. Now is not the time for more “eternal” government policies.
Ross Marchand is a senior fellow for the Taxpayers Protection Alliance.
