President Trump met with lawmakers Tuesday afternoon to push a payroll tax cut as a part of a coronavirus economic stimulus package, but emerged from the meeting with no consensus. This is good news, and hopefully, it means Trump’s foolhardy and short-sighted proposal will never see the light of day.

While the novel coronavirus is certainly causing economic disruption, Trump’s vision of a $40 billion per month temporary payroll tax cut is a blunt, crude tool ill-suited as a public policy response for this situation. Trump just wants to juice up the stock market before Election Day, rather than pursue serious policymaking that can actually help the root cause of the economic disruption: the spread of the COVID-19 virus.