Republicans Finally Cave on Funds for Widespread Testing

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This is, as usual these days, beyond belief:

The Trump administration and congressional leaders closed in Sunday on a $400 billion-plus deal to renew funding for a small business loan program that ran out of money under crushing demand, aiming to pass the agreement into law within days.

….The agreement also would include $75 billion for hospitals and $25 billion for testing, which have been major Democratic demands. Some of the money in the small business program would be directed specifically to rural and minority businesses, according to people familiar with the plan who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe it.

What possible reason could there be for $25 billion in testing to be a “Democratic” demand? The single most unanimous agreement among experts is that we need to vastly increase testing and contact tracing before we start to loosen lockdowns and get back to (sort of) normal life. There’s literally not a single reason this should be a partisan issue.

But it is. For some reason Republicans resisted it for more than a week before caving in. What the hell is wrong with these people?

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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