There’s a fundamental difference in the two approaches. Democrats are treating not just the public-health crisis but the economic crisis, as well as complex policy challenges, that require deep understanding and careful management. The Trump administration, perhaps not surprisingly, is not.

The administration’s proposal is literally a half-page of legislative text, which suggests boosting the funding for forgivable small business loans from the $349 billion that was allocated in the Cares Act, as phase three was called, up to $600 billion. That’s all.

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), on the other hand, released a statement calling for the following:

$250 billion in assistance to small businesses, half of which would be “channeled through community-based financial institutions that serve farmers, family, women, minority and veteran-owned small businesses and nonprofits in rural, tribal, suburban and urban communities.”

$100 billion sent to hospitals and health centers, including boosting production of coronavirus testing and personal protective equipment.

$150 billion for state and local governments to help them handle the predicament they will face as the public health and economic crises swallow their budgets.

A 15 percent increase in food-stamp benefits to help people who have lost their incomes.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden, who became the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee on Wednesday, has released a lengthy “Make It Work” checklist focused on implementation, so that the aid that has already been allocated actually gets to the people it’s supposed to help.

As always happens in these situations, numerous outside groups are trying to influence the process.

I got an advance look at a detailed proposal being released Wednesday by the Center for American Progress, the Democratic think tank, which argues that the next round should be “at least as large as the $2.2 trillion allocated in the CARES Act.” Here’s some of what they’re recommending:

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A clear national public health plan, including a 45-day stay-at-home order, beefed up testing for the virus, contact tracing of those who are infected, and increased production of personal protective equipment.

Aid and legal protections for essential workers, including hazard pay.

An increase in aid to states: “Congress should immediately allocate funding at least three times as large as the roughly $250 billion in state and local aid in the previous bills, with triggers that automatically extends and/or expands this aid based on public health and economic conditions.”

Another round of direct payments to families, with further rounds if the recession persists.

Strengthening the unemployment insurance system, which we’ve already seen is being crushed by the strain of processing so many claims so suddenly.

Steps to ensure that the $349 billion in small business loans is getting out efficiently and fairly to those who need it.

Providing health insurance during this emergency for anyone who currently can’t access it.

Increasing food stamp benefits by 15 percent and providing aid for schools, child care, and housing.

The basic premise of the Center for American Progress plan is that all this is necessary because, despite the large price tag of the Cares Act, it left huge gaps in the country’s ability to weather this crisis. And the fact that organizations such as the CAP are investing time and effort to identify those gaps and figure out how to fill them shows how seriously Democrats are taking this challenge.

Yet Republicans are almost reluctantly being dragged along to save the economy, as you can tell by the administration’s perfunctory proposal for phase four. Was the first round of loans for small businesses not enough? Okay, we’ll throw in another pile of money. But we’re not all that concerned about the implementation problems, at least not enough to be bothered to come up with some kind of legislative proposal to address them.

And the similar issues with things like unemployment insurance? Ugh, all that administrative making-government-operate-properly stuff is so boring.

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It’ll all work out fine, Republicans seem to be saying. And whatever you do, don’t you dare suggest that we need more transparency and accountability in how this money is going to be spent. Trust us, we’ll take care of it.

You can argue that the proposals Democrats are making include many things they already wanted, which is true. It’s not as though Republicans aren’t doing the same thing; conservative states are taking the opportunity of the pandemic to ban abortions.

The difference is that banning abortions doesn’t actually help our current crisis, while reinforcing the safety net does. And liberals and Democrats are also obviously thinking much more comprehensively about how to make sure that the rescue the parties have already agreed to actually works.

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There’s some self-interest there, too. If Biden becomes president next January, the job of cleaning up this mess will be left to him, just as Barack Obama had to clean up the mess of the George W. Bush years. So it’s in Democrats’ interests to invest the time, thought and money right now to make that task as manageable as possible.

Which also happens to be what’s best for the country. So perhaps instead of doing as little as possible in phase four, we could try doing as much as we can.

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