Fixing Blame -- How Long Is Your Grace Period?

The easy answer to the question above is -- day one, any problem becomes your problem. When President Obama took over as the nation's economy was tanking in 2009, the economy was his problem. Damn the causes of the problem, he "had the stick" as helicopter pilots would say and he was in control. Any fixes had to be done on his watch. 

Now there is a grace period for people who take charge of an organization and then things are found out or happen that they had no direct involvement in the making of. Quick story on that ... from personal experience. I took command of an infantry company on a Friday and that Monday morning we had a "no-notice" inspector general inspection. Up in the attic of our company's barracks, one of the inspectors found the mother lode of pyrotechnics that could be used for field training. These were flares, smoke grenades, hand grenade and artillery simulators. The previous company commander had stashed them there for -- future training. BUT, they were supposed to have been turned back in after previous training exercises. My company, my problem, not my fault. In fact, I had told the company executive officer to get rid of them/turn them in when I found out they existed -- just before taking command. 

Which brings me to the coronavirus test kits and national PPE stockpile. The test kits for COVID-19 could not be made in advance of the disease, because it -- the disease -- did not exist. Thus, any test kit failures by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) happened on the current administration's watch. There can be no blame on the previous administration.

Then there is the personal protective equipment (PPE) in the national stockpile. Let's make the assumption that it was inadequate and what the Trump administration inherited was not up to snuff. At what point did the stockpile become a problem for the current administration? That would be Day 1 of the administration. When did it become an issue that "should have been fixed" by the current administration?

This then is the question. I'll give the administration six months to a year to identify the situation/problem and put plans in place to address the problem. But, you don't get two and even three years to say, "we inherited the problem" and did nothing to fix it and blame it on the previous administration. Baby, at 2-3 years, you own it!

This is why you get paid the big bucks and as President Harry Truman would say, "The buck stops here." For some people anyway.