America is getting coal for Christmas.
It's a Covid Christmas and a Build Back bummer that will carry us through New Year's and into 2022. The Omicron variant, as Dr. Anthony Fauci explained, has 50 different variants attached to it, which is unprecedented as seen by the scientific community leading to high transmissability that outpaces Delta.
In true American fashion, we rapidly developed better vaccines by the best scientists in the world and now there are 30 nations with higher overall vaccination rates than the United States. And we've basically arrived at the point that Governor Jerod Polis (D-CO) advocates for, which is that it is on you if you get sick and die.
For the common good, that's exactly the wrong tact to take because it doesn't account for the debilitating of our healthcare system and the mental toll it has taken on healthcare workers, in which 40 percent will probably leave the profession in two years.
As Mr. Todd stated, as Covid goes, so does the Biden presidency, which is true and Republicans, frankly, are willing to risk American lives to subvert the effort to get people vaccinated, and we're not taking about private sector mandates. We're talking about all the misinformation that they're putting out there and legislating against keeping people as safe as possible.
If over 40 percent of the population does not get vaccinated eventually, we will be the country producing other variants of the disease spreading to other nations.
Understandably, us included, everyone is tired of being tired so in the meantime, Dr. Fauci did give some concise advice of how to be prudent about your health:
1. If you test positive, isolate yourself for 7 to 10 days from the outset of symptoms.
2. If you're vaccinated and are exposed to the virus, wait 3 to 5 days then get a test.
3. For a holiday gathering, get tested before you attend.
If the surge in cases, hospitalizations and deaths weren't enough, the pandemic is also the main cause for the supply chain issues we're experiencing that has been leading to the inflation of costs... for everything.
To provide relief to those costs such as child care (daycare), prescription drugs and the child tax credit, Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) said NO. And his 'no' vote tanks the entire Biden agenda, which the panel emphatically agreed was a devastating huge blow to the Democrats and their base. Right before Christmas, Mr. Manchin pissed off 81 million people who voted for Joe Biden and his agenda.
Also part of the Build Back Better legislation were its measures to address climate change, which if we to make those investments now, it would save us money down the proverbial road in avoiding the destruction and clean that follow severe weather events.
Instead, coal for Christmas. Senator Manchin wasn't going to be on board with legislation that seeks to phase out coal as an energy source because coal is the Manchin family business in West Virginia. Now before you say, what?! Mr. Manchin has all of his ties to the business in a blind trust and is totally legitimate, as far as we know. However, it's not a deaf, dumb and blind trust and you understand cause and effect. More climate legislation means less coal means less money for Mr. Manchin. (No college degree needed on that one.)
To Donna Edwards' point, one senator has essentially stopped the legislation, but Jon Podhoretz put it in the correct context explaining the Senator Manchin had been saying since March that he wouldn't go higher than $1.5 trillion, which has lead to this massive political miscalculation. One cannot disagree because the Democrats are left with nothing but a stalled agenda going into the midterms. And by the way, voting rights legislation depends on creating a 'carve out' of the filibuster rule in the Senate which Mr. Manchin isn't in favor of.
So yeah, indeed, coal.
Panel: Amna Nawaz, PBS; Donna Edwards, The Washington Post; Philip Rucker, The Washington Post; Jon Podhoretz, Commentary
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