As usual, Republican glibertarian asshole Rand Paul has decided that being the lone vote against anything that would actually prove the federal government should help people in a time of national crisis by voting against a coronavirus emergency funding package in the Senate yesterday will somehow endear him to the people here in Kentucky.
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul voted against an emergency response coronavirus bill Thursday afternoon after his proposed amendment to the bill was turned down.
The bill had already received more than 60 affirmative votes, which was more than it needed to pass, when Paul voted against it. The bill passed 96-1.
"Earlier today on the Senate floor, I said that while I support an all-hands-on-deck response to the coronavirus, we should cut out waste and take money from less urgent spending, such as what we are wasting overseas, to put into that response effort," Paul said in a statement after his vote. "We don’t have to borrow more money. We just have to start setting our own priorities."
We can't afford coronavirus testing because GOP tax cuts, which Rand Paul voted for, knowing they would cost the federal government trillions in revenue. I'm sure that will help.
The U.S. Senate voted earlier Thursday to table an amendment from Paul after the junior senator from Kentucky threatened to hold up the legislation if his amendment did not receive a vote.
The House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to approve $8.3 billion in emergency aid Wednesday to combat the novel coronavirus, which has caused 11 deaths in the United States so far.
Before a scheduled Thursday afternoon vote on the bill, Paul put forth the amendment, which proposed cuts to State Department Cultural Exchange programs and reduces funding for the United States Agency for International Development, among other things.
The amendment died screaming, but Paul continues to remain in office. If Amy McGrath can't beat Mitch in November, I sincerely hope she goes for Paul's seat in 2022.
Meanwhile in DC, the Trump regime's response continues to be bafflingly inadequate and incompetent to the point of venality.
There will be a notable omission when Vice President Mike Pence visits Washington state Thursday as part of the Trump administration's coronavirus response: health Secretary Alex Azar.
The White House on Wednesday also benched Azar from a coronavirus task force press briefing, the latest sign of diminished standing for an official who was the face of the U.S. response to the disease just a week ago.
Four of Azar’s deputies — including Medicare chief Seema Verma and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Steve Hahn, who were both added to the task force after Pence took over the federal response — joined the vice president and other officials at the White House on Wednesday.
Azar's absence didn't go unnoticed by allies worried about his standing in the administration and the way he's catching more flak for missteps. Azar was front and center Thursday at a Capitol Hill briefing with House members, during which he took heat from some lawmakers over transparency and whether his department is adequately prepared for the stealthy disease.
Asked why Azar didn’t attend Wednesday's televised briefing, a Pence spokesperson said that Azar left for his office after the task force meeting, and officials wanted to make room on stage for Ben Carson, the Housing and Urban Development secretary and also a task force member. A spokesperson for Azar said that members of the task force will be “rotating through as necessary” now that the group is doing daily briefings.
Azar is being kept on until he can take the maximum amount of blame for the failed response, and everyone knows it. It won't be long until the epidemic phase kicks in, end of the month at best. April is going to be a nightmare.
And again, Trump is in charge.
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