Florida and New York have comparable population sizes and densities . However, their governors—Ron DeSantis (R., Florida) and Andrew Cuomo (D., New York)—have taken starkly different approaches to the coronavirus pandemic. Ron DeSantis ( Naples Daily News ) Florida's DeSantis has implemented few COVID-related restrictions, with a local CBS affiliate reporting that "there is no statewide mask mandate. There are no restrictions on restaurants, and the governor says restaurants will stay open." In an acknowledgment that COVID-19 primarily affects senior citizens, DeSantis dispatched the National Guard to nursing homes and banned visits until September. Even today, indoor visitation at nursing homes is limited to family members and caregivers. Conversely, New York's Cuomo has opted for centralized control, dictates, and regulations, basing his decisions on regional hospitalization statistics, test positivity rates, and other metrics. Indoor dining in New York City
In the past several days, congressional Democrats and Republicans compiled a 5,593-page spending bill that is “so unwieldy that it kept crashing Congress’s computers.” Unfortunately, it is likely that the bill—which provides COVID-19 relief and funds the federal government through 2021—will pass without any member of Congress having read it in full. Among other things, the $900 billion of coronavirus-related funds extends $325 billion for small business loans, boosts state unemployment benefits by $300 a week, allows for 50 weeks of unemployment benefits instead of 26, and offers a $600 check to Americans who made less than $75,000 in the previous year (and another $600 for each of their children). Separately, the $1.4 trillion in government funding provides everything from foreign aid money to plans for presidential libraries . The Washington Post , hardly a bugle for austerity, disapprovingly reports , “The proposal includes numerous provisions -- from Smithsonian American W