Time To Let The Handful Of Smart Members Of Congress Set The Agenda-- Meet Katie Porter

Only one of these people has the brains to lead

There's no foolproof test, but it's a lot easier to name the most corrupt members of Congress-- think Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Greg Meeks (New Dem-NY), Ken Calvert (R-CA), Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), Vern Buchanan (R-FL)-- than the stupidest... or smartest. Most of the really, really dumb ones don't last that long in Congress-- exception being Alaska dimwit Don Young-- but Rand Paul is on everyone's "most stupid" list, as are 3 who are retiring this year, Sean Duffy (R-WI), Tom Graves (R-GA) and Rob Woodall (R-GA), as well as Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Devin Nunes (R-CA), Anthony Brindisi (Blue Dog-NY), Virginia Foxx (R-NC), Joe Wilson (R-SC), David Schweiker (R-AZ), Scott DesJarlais (R-TN), Vicky Hartzler (R-MO), Gil Cisneros (New Dem-CA) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ). Before Trump plucked him out of Congress to make him his chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) was almost universally considered the dumbest person in the House. Presumably, now he'll be the dumbest person in Northern Ireland.

But when it comes to smarts, it's much easier. First of all, the vast majority of members of Congress are certifably morons. "Despite the many advanced degrees from prestigious universities, and despite the fact that many in Congress are millionaires, the average IQ of U.S. Representatives is 101. The average IQ of U.S. Senators, is surprisingly, even lower at 98. And, it has been proven beyond any reasonable doubt that Democrats in Congress are less stupid than Republicans.

During the last election cycle, we urged Blue America members to help elect Katie Porter, in part because she was one of the smartest people running for Congress. She won and has proven us-- time and time-- correct in our assessment. While most of the freshmen have shown themselves to be just what they looked like when they were running-- dumb as bricks-- Porter has not disappointed. She's widely considered one of the best questioners in committee and she is always coming up with solid, innovative ideas. Before being elected, the rural Iowa-born brainiac, taught law at UC Irvine, having graduated from both Yale (undergrad, where her thesis was The Effects of Corporate Farming on Rural Community) and Harvard Law, from which she graduated magna cum laude in 2001.

Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) are also widely considered two of Congress' only truly brilliant members. This morning Ro told me that "Katie is brilliant-- a towering intellect. What more is there that needs to be said!" At the same time, Jamie said, "As Elizabeth Warren’s prize pupil, Katie is the most devastating questioner we have in the House to expose corporate ripoffs and government lethargy, and everyone is learning from her tactical brilliance and clarity of expression. We’re thrilled to have her on the Oversight Committee now, and even though she’s our most junior Member sitting way down at the bottom of the list, the last shall clearly be first in our investigations. Katie has also become an outspoken and eloquent force for single parents."

In a Congress filled with lawyers, Matt Cartwright (D-PA) is acknowledged to be one of the sharpest attorneys elected to government. This morning he told us that "When a single mom gets home from work, late at night, because it’s her second job, her feet hurting and her back sore from just pushing herself all day, when she looks in on her teenage kid, just to make sure he made it home safe through the neighborhood they have to live in, when she sorts through the mail in the kitchen and sees the letter from the collection agency and the reminder about how the rent is going up next month, when she stops in the bathroom to take her heart meds and sees she’s down to her last week before she has to get the one refilled, and it’s the expensive one, and when she sets the alarm and lies down for another short night, there’s this one thing that she can’t get out of her head. Today she saw a video clip of a young Congresswoman from California questioning this smug, self-satisfied rich Wall Street banker about how regular people in this country can’t possibly make ends meet on what they’re paid, let alone get ahead. She saw that young Congresswoman just take that banker apart on national television. And, as she finally closes her eyes for the night, she smiles. Katie Porter makes me proud to be a Democrat."

On Friday, Porter was on CNN with Chris Cuomo explaining her plan to implement remote congressional voting during the pandemic. "I am calling on Congress tonight, on leaders of both parties, to adopt a remote voting procedure to ensure that if we're not able to travel, if this public health crisis worsens...we're still able to take votes... We're asking the American public to adopt public health measures and it's really important... that Congress adopt public health measures itself. Congress itself has been flatfooted during this crisis in terms of how we deal with things."

"You've seen the House floor," she continued. "It's a scrum of people. 435 members and 150 staff in close quarters using the same voting machines. We're asking American businesses, schools, non-profits, local governments to be flexible and to obey public health guidelines.

"Congress should be no exception. We should be willing here to be flexible and adopt a remote voting procedure that can be invoked if necessary. I don't think there is any excuse for us to disobey the public health guidelines and to refuse to use technology to adapt to this public health emergency when at the same time that businesses and communities do exactly that."

Pelosi has wanted to do this for weeks but denies it publicly because she doesn't want to somehow appear "weak" while McConnell keeps the Senate in session. Most people working on Capitol Hill who I've spoken with agree with Porter and say it would be OK to look bad to a shrinking number of pandemic-deniers and stay alive while older senators start dying off. Last week Tomas Pueyo answered an important question:How Can Politicians Contribute to Social Distancing?. The question politicians are asking themselves today is not whether they should do something, but rather what’s the appropriate action to take. There are several stages to control an epidemic, starting with anticipation and ending with eradication. But it’s too late for most options today. With this level of cases, the two only options politicians have in front of them are containment and mitigation.

Containment

Containment is making sure all the cases are identified, controlled, and isolated. It’s what Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan or Taiwan are doing so well: They very quickly limit people coming in, identify the sick, immediately isolate them, use heavy protective gear to protect their health workers, track all their contacts, quarantine them… This works extremely well when you’re prepared and you do it early on, and don’t need to grind your economy to a halt to make it happen.

I’ve already touted Taiwan’s approach. But China’s is good too. The lengths at which it went to contain the virus are mind-boggling. For example, they had up to 1,800 teams of 5 people each tracking every infected person, everybody they got interacted with, then everybody those people interacted with, and isolating the bunch. That’s how they were able to contain the virus across a billion-people country.

This is not what Western countries have done. And now it’s too late. The recent US announcement that most travel from Europe was banned is a containment measure for a country that has, as of today, 3 times the cases that Hubei had when it shut down, growing exponentially. How can we know if it’s enough? It turns out, we can know by looking at the Wuhan travel ban.

...If the transmission rate goes down by 25% (through Social Distancing), it flattens the curve and delays the peak by a whole 14 weeks. Lower the transition rate by 50%, and you can’t see the epidemic even starting within a quarter.

The US administration’s ban on European travel is good: It has probably bought us a few hours, maybe a day or two. But not more. It is not enough. It’s containment when what’s needed is mitigation.

Once there are hundreds or thousands of cases growing in the population, preventing more from coming, tracking the existing ones and isolating their contacts isn’t enough anymore. The next level is mitigation.

Mitigation

Mitigation requires heavy social distancing. People need to stop hanging out to drop the transmission rate (R), from the R=~2–3 that the virus follows without measures, to below 1, so that it eventually dies out.

These measures require closing companies, shops, mass transit, schools, enforcing lockdowns… The worse your situation, the worse the social distancing. The earlier you impose heavy measures, the less time you need to keep them, the easier it is to identify brewing cases, and the fewer people get infected.

This is what Wuhan had to do. This is what Italy was forced to accept. Because when the virus is rampant, the only measure is to lock down all the infected areas to stop spreading it at once.

With thousands of official cases-- and tens of thousands of true ones-- this is what countries like Iran, France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland or the US need to do.

But they’re not doing it.

Some business are working from home, which is fantastic.

Some mass events are being stopped.

Some affected areas are in quarantining themselves.

All these measures will slow down the virus. They will lower the transmission rate from 2.5 to 2.2, maybe 2. But they aren’t enough to get us below 1 for a sustained period of time to stop the epidemic. And if we can’t do that, we need to get it as close to 1 for as long as possible, to flatten the curve.

So the question becomes: What are the tradeoffs we could be making to lower the R? This is the menu that Italy has put in front of all of us:

• Nobody can enter or exit lockdown areas, unless there are proven family or work reasons.
• Movement inside the areas is to be avoided, unless they are justified for urgent personal or work reasons and can’t be postponed.
• People with symptoms (respiratory infection and fever) are “highly recommended” to remain home.
• Standard time off for healthcare workers is suspended
• Closure of all educational establishments (schools, universities…), gyms, museums, ski stations, cultural and social centers, swimming pools, and theaters.
• Bars and restaurants have limited opening times from 6am to 6pm, with at least one meter (~3 feet) distance between people.
• All pubs and clubs must close.
• All commercial activity must keep a distance of one meter between customers. Those that can’t make it happen must close. Temples can remain open as long as they can guarantee this distance.
• Family and friends hospital visits are limited.
• Work meetings must be postponed. Work from home must be encouraged.
• All sports events and competitions, public or private, are canceled. Important events can be held under closed doors.

Then two days later, they added: No, in fact, you need to close all businesses that aren’t crucial. So now we’re closing all commercial activities, offices, cafes and shops. Only transportation, pharmacies, groceries will remain open.”

One approach is to gradually increase measures. Unfortunately, that gives precious time for the virus to spread. If you want to be safe, do it Wuhan style. People might complain now, but they’ll thank you later.

Which members of Congress have the brains and the balls to do the right thing-- even when it is also the difficult and even unpopular thing? Remember, 83% of the members of Congress are actual morons, and one of them-- Mitch McConnell-- can keep anything and everything from moving forward at all, let alone in a timely manner.