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Mike Pence was on Fox News Tuesday prior to the president*s bizarre virtual town hall. (Why was he yelling about windmills again?) Pence was asked about the possibility of actually using the Defense Production Act to produce the medical supplies needed to fight the pandemic. Pences answer was even more evidence that the Republicans would rather have Americans sicken and die rather than give up their continually failing economic gospel.

"American industry is stepping forward as never before," Pence replied.

From the start, the administration* has treated the DPA as though it were some sort of Damoclean weapon by which it can force compliance from American industries. "Watch out, Ford. Make them ventilators or the DPAll gitcha! This is because, for politicians like Pence, a product of a Republican Party that married itself to supply-side snake oil and disdain for self-government, it is inconceivable to imagine that the federal governments demanding that industries respond to a worldwide crisis cannot be more effective and efficient than waiting for those corporations to engage their civic consciences to do so. And they will adhere to that faith over your grandmothers dead body.

And then there's the administrations insistence that the states take the lead in fighting the pandemic, despite the fact that the governors are screaming their throats raw for help. Markets over government. Leave it to the states. Its the basic gospel of the cult.

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Mike Pence Showcases the Cultish Republican Opposition to Using Government for Anything - Esquire

Societies gripped by cataclysmic wars, depressions or pandemics can become acutely sensitive to power and privilege.

Weeks before the coronavirus virus crushed the U.S. stock market, Republican Senator Richard Burr apparently used information he gleaned from his role as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee about the ferocity of the coming pandemic to unload 33 stocks held by him and his spouse, estimated at between $628,033 and $1.72 million, in some industries likely to be hardest hit by the global outbreak.

While publicly parroting President Donald Trumps happy talk at the time, Burr confided to several of his political funders that the disease would be comparable to the deadly 1918 flu pandemic.

Then the market tanked, along with the retirement savings of millions of Americans.

Even some pundits on Fox News are now calling for Burrs resignation.

When society faces a common threat, exploiting a special advantage is morally repugnant. Call it Burring. However tolerable Burring may be in normal times, it isnt now.

In normal times, corporations get special favors from Washington in exchange for generous campaign contributions, and no one bats an eye. Recall the Trump tax cut, which delivered $1.9 trillion to big corporations and the wealthy.

Yet the coronavirus should have altered business as usual. The most recent Senate Republican relief package, giving airlines $58 billion and billions more to other industries, is pure Burring.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tried lamely to distinguish it from the notorious bank bailouts of 2008. We are not talking about a taxpayer-funded cushion for companies that made mistakes. We are talking about loans, which must be repaid, for American employers whom the government itself is temporarily crushing for the sake of public health.

But the airlines are big enough to get their own loans from banks at rock-bottom interest rates. Their planes and landing slots are more than adequate collateral.

Why do airlines deserve to be bailed out? Over the last decade, they spent 96 percent of their free cash flow, including billions in tax savings from the Trump tax cut, to buy back shares of their own stock. This boosted executive bonuses and pleased wealthy investors but did nothing to strengthen the airlines for the long term. Meanwhile, the four biggest carriers gained so much market power they jacked up prices on popular routes and slashed services (remember legroom and free bag checks?).

United CEO Oscar Munoz did his own Burring last week, warning that if Congress doesnt bailout the airline by the end of March, United will start firing its employees. But even if bailed out, what are the odds United would keep paying all its workers if the pandemic forced it to stop flying? The bailout would be for shareholders and executives, not employees.

While generous toward airlines and other industries, the Republican bill is absurdly stingy toward people, stipulating a one-time payment of up to $1,200 for every adult and $500 per child. Some 64 million households with incomes below $50,000 would get as little as $600. This will do almost nothing to help job-losers pay their mortgages, rents and other bills for the duration of the crisis, expected to be at least the next three months.

The Republican coronavirus bill is about as Burring as legislation can beexposing the underlying structure of power in America as clearly as Burrs stock trades. In this national crisis, its just as morally repulsive.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell arrives for a meeting with a select group of Senate Republicans, Senate Democrats and Trump administration officials on Capitol Hill on March 20 in Washington, D.C. Drew Angerer/Getty

Take a look at how big corporations are treating their hourly workers in this pandemic and you see more Burring.

Walmart, the largest employer in America, doesnt give its employees paid sick leave, and limits its 500,000 part-time workers to 48 hours paid time off per year. This Burring policy is now threatening countless lives. (On one survey, 88 percent of Walmart employees report sometimes coming to work when sick.)

None of the giants of the fast-food industryMcDonalds, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Duncan Donuts, Wendys, Taco Bell, Subwaygives their workers paid sick leave, either.

Amazon, one of the richest corporations in the world, which paid almost no taxes last year, is offering unpaid time off for workers who are sick and just 2 weeks paid leave for workers who test positive for the virus. Meanwhile, it demands that its employees put in mandatory overtime.

And heres the most Burring thing of all: These corporations have made sure they and other companies with more than 500 employees are exempt from the requirement in the House coronavirus bill that employers provide paid sick leave.

At a time when almost everyone feels burdened and fearful, the use of power and privilege to exploit the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of others is morally intolerable.

We are all in this together, or should be. Whatever form it takes, Burring must be stopped.

Robert Reichs latest book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Change It, will be out in March.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own.

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Robert Reich: Corporations Are Exploiting the Coronavirus Crisis. And Republicans Are Helping Them | Opinion - Getaka.co.in

On Monday evening, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick went on Fox News with Tucker Carlson and issued a call for the American economy to ramp back up in the very near-term, even if it means exposing vulnerable members of society, namely senior citizens, to the deadly coronavirus.

I just think there are lots of grandparents out there in this country like me that what we all care about and what we all love more than anything are those children, said Patrick, who turns 70 next week.

My message is that: Lets get back to work, he continued. Lets get back to living. Lets be smart about it, and those of us who are 70-plus, well take care of ourselves, but dont sacrifice the country. Dont do that. Dont ruin this great American dream, Patrick said.

The right-wing conservative, who enjoys a publicly funded salary and health insurance, was roundly condemned for his clarion call to sacrifice the old (despite the fact that the virus has proven to be serious for people of all ages) for the sake of the stock market. But Patrick was merely saying out loud and in stark terms what conservatives, business moguls, and Wall Street financiers have been whispering from the start: Theres a point in the very-near future where the markets animal spirits must be uncaged, death toll be damned.

At a press conference earlier that day, President Donald Trump said that he may soon lift the federal guidance he issued just last week and urge businesses to reopen. America will again and soon be open for businessvery soon, Trump said. We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself. Hes grown tired of the dire warnings from his public health and epidemiology experts. If it were up to the doctors, theyd say, Lets keep it shut down, lets shut down the entire world ... and lets keep it shut for a couple of years, Trump said. We cant do that. On Tuesday, he said he hoped to have packed churches by Easterless than three weeks from now.

Meanwhile, the scope of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States is only just beginning to emerge as testing slowly ramps up. The number of COVID-19 cases in New York Citycurrently more than 25,000is now doubling every three days, despite shelter-at-home orders throughout the state. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo shot back at Patrick in his daily address on Tuesday: Your mothers not expendable and my mothers not expendable, he said. Were not going to put a dollar figure on human life.

Although Patrick may now be the face of Texas coronavirus response, thats only because the guy who is actually at the helmGovernor Greg Abbotthas, also in typical fashion, dithered and delayed. In a state of nearly 30 million people, only about 10,000 tests have been administered. More than 700 coronavirus cases have been confirmed, and that number is expected to skyrocket in the coming days and weeks. On Tuesday, Abbott urged Trump to issue a major disaster declaration for Texas, as hes done for New York, California, and Washington state. I have determined that [COVID-19] is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the state and affected local Governments, Abbott wrote.

Yet hes thus far balked at callsincluding from the Texas Hospital Associationto enact proactive measures, namely a statewide stay-at-home order. Much like he did amid cries to close schools, bars, and restaurants (to which he eventually caved), Abbott has embraced a hypocritical deference to local governments and left it up to them to make difficult political choices. What we may be right for places like the large urban areas may not be right at this particular point of time for the more than 200 counties that have zero cases of COVID-19, he said.

The leaders of Texas five largest countiesHarris, Bexar, Travis, Dallas, and Tarranthave now issued stay-at-home orders, as have a handful of smaller rural counties. However, the lack of uniformity has allowed other counties, such as Collinpart of the Metroplex and home to a million peopleto refuse to close businesses. Its creating the very sort of patchwork of differing local measures (such as paid sick leave) that Abbott and the rest of the Texas Republican Party have demonized for years.

And though Republicans are bemoaning Democrats for trying to play politics with a crisis, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton took it upon himself to use the governors executive order for hospitals to suspend all medically unnecessary procedures to declare a statewide ban on abortions. (No matter that just 3 percent of abortions in Texas take place in hospitals.) The move will surely be challenged in courts, but its nice political theater for the base.

Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., Republican senator and Trump cheerleader John Cornyn has permanently installed his custom cowboy boots in his mouth. Late last week, in response to a reporters question about the president calling COVID-19 the Chinese Virus, Cornyn went out of his way to issue a racist and false defense: China was to blame, he said without hesitation, because its people eat bats and snakes and dogs.

The specter of a widespread pandemic has revealed Texas leading Republicans as the incompetent, incorrigible reactionaries that theyve always been. Oddly enough, Senator Ted Cruz has become the relatively rational one of the bunch. The only headlines hes made in recent weeks have been for being a model citizen who self-quarantined after potential exposure to the coronavirus. Strange times, indeed.

Find all of our coronavirus coverage here.

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Texas Republicans Pandemic Performance Is True to Form - The Texas Observer

In 2016, Longwell opposed Trump in the Republican primaries but recognized the potency of his fear-and-anger platform. How could she not? It was as if he were working from Bermans playbook. During the campaign, Longwell happened to be the incoming board chair of the Log Cabin Republicans; she was the first woman to hold the post since the group was founded, in the late seventies, to advocate for gay and lesbian Republicans. The board felt intense pressure to endorse Trump, despite his selection of Mike Pence, an openly homophobic evangelical Christian, as his running mate. Longwell told me that she basically lay on the tracks to stop the group from backing Trump. Mostly, though, she watched the election unfold with dismay.

For me, the world changed in 2016, Longwell said. That summer, her first son was born. My wifes water broke the night of Melanias speech at the Convention, and a few nights later, after their sons birth, she watched on television at the hospital as Trump accepted the Republican nomination. I remember just how bad he made me feel, she said. Thats what I remember. I remember holding a new baby and feeling like this cant be whats happening. On Election Night, she was at a party in Washington, texting with another anti-Trump operative, Tim Miller, the former spokesperson for Jeb Bushs short-lived Presidential campaign. Hes going to win, Miller wrote to her. As the news sank in, she went outside and bummed a cigarette, although she no longer smoked.

Many people who opposed Trump in 2016 have their version of this story: the Election Night disbelief and shock, the litany of outrages that followed. But, unlike many others in Republican Washington, Longwell did not make her accommodations, political and moral, with the new President. When, on his second weekend in office, Trump issued an executive order banning entry into the U.S. for citizens of seven majority-Muslim nations, Longwell decided that Trump really was a danger to the country. I started thinking about: What can I do? she recalled. How can I get involved?

In the fall of 2017, Longwell was invited to a session of the Meeting of the Concerned, a semi-secret group of disaffected Republicans that had started gathering every other Tuesday in a basement conference room near Capitol Hill. The Never Trumpers were hardly a real movement, less an organized cabal than a cable-news-savvy alliance. Among them were longtime Party operatives, such as Steve Schmidt and Rick Wilson, who became regulars on liberal-leaning TV shows, and public intellectuals, such as Eliot Cohen, a former Bush Administration official who now teaches at Johns Hopkins University, and Max Boot, of the Council on Foreign Relations, who stopped writing for the Wall Street Journals increasingly pro-Trump editorial page and went to the Washington Post. With the exception of Senator John McCain, most Republican elected officials already either supported Trump or kept their mouths shut about him. Inside the Administration, some had qualms about the President, but they soon were fired or marginalized, or quit. The official Party apparatus had been taken over by the President, and Republican lobbyists, consultants, political operatives, congressional staffers, right-wing media commentators, and government job seekers quickly identified where their interests lay.

Jerry Taylor, who helped found the Meeting of the Concerned and the Niskanen Center, the think tank that hosts it, told me about the first time Longwell showed up. Sarah didnt know anyone in the group, he said. She had never really travelled in those circles before. Many of the attendees were well-known denizens of Washingtons TV greenrooms, who bonded over their disillusionment with the Party and saw the election of Donald Trump as just the thin blue line between us and the abyss, as Taylor put it. Longwell wanted more than this talky self-styled resistance. She told me, Everybody was sitting around having a conversation that I had heard lots of versions of at that point, which is: What happened to the Republican Party? When Bill Kristol, a Republican pundit and the founder of The Weekly Standard, spoke up, Longwell recalled, she interrupted him: Why dont we do something about it? And he was kind of, like, Well, what would we do? And I was, like, I dont know, but youre famous. Youre Bill Kristol.

Kristol has been a leader of the hawkish neoconservative wing of the Party since arriving in Washington, as a member of the Reagan Administration. In 2016, he made a well-publicized attempt to recruit a last-ditch independent candidate to run against Trump. Having failed to find anyone of stature, Kristol settled on an obscure former C.I.A. officer and congressional staffer named Evan McMullin, whose candidacy never rose above the level of obscurity. After their initial meeting, Kristol and Longwell went out for coffee, and she urged him to take action again. They started brainstorming regularly at the Madison Hotel.

Then Mueller happened, Longwell said, and the idea for their group, Republicans for the Rule of Law, was born. Trumps firing of the F.B.I. director James Comey, in the spring of 2017, had set off the first major crisis of his Presidency, leading to the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel. Longwell and Kristol decided that their group would try to insure that Trump did not fire Mueller or block the investigation; to do this they would pressure Republican officials in the capital. I did think someone needed to fight the fight within the Republican Party, that you cant just give up even though its a long shot against a Republican President, Kristol told me. Sarah agreed.

In February, 2018, as Trump was publicly attacking Mueller, Longwell set up Defending Democracy Together, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit that could accept donations without having to disclose donors. Defending Democracy Together became the umbrella organization for Republicans for the Rule of Law and other like-minded projects that sought to combat Trumps policies. Longwell and Kristol worked his contacts and raised substantial sums of money, including from liberal donors such as Pierre Omidyar, the tech billionaire who funds the left-wing Web site the Intercept.

Starting that March, whenever Trump threatened Mueller or opened a new front in his fight against the Russia hoax, the group ran TV ads defending the investigation, many of them featuring quickly produced clips of news footage or Trumps latest tweet, with urgent pleas to members of Congress to stop the President. All told, before the Mueller investigation was over, Republicans for the Rule of Law had run more than a hundred ads, aimed at a narrow but important segment of persuadable Republicans in key states, seeking to convince Party leaders that even Trumps base would not go along with his firing of the special counsel. In the hope of getting directly to the President, Longwell also ran the ads in Washington on Fox News, which Trump watches addictively.

In 2018, at a session of the Meeting of the Concerned, Longwell met George Conway, the husband of Trumps White House counsellor Kellyanne Conway. A prominent conservative attorney, he had accepted, then declined, a senior position in Trumps Justice Department. Earlier that year, Conway had started tweeting his dismay about Trump, thus setting off a marital-political drama worthy of a reality-TV Presidency. Like Longwell, Conway was invited into the capitals Never Trump circle, but he, too, decided that the meetings were often frustrating exercises in therapy. He craved action. (Look, theres a lot of benefit just to catharsis, Jerry Taylor joked to me, especially given that the alternative is to become an alcoholic, which is easy to do in this town now.)

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The Trials of a Never Trump Republican - The New Yorker

After all, it would be hard to justify giving any administration that kind of power to reward its friends and punish those it considers enemies. Its almost inconceivable that anyone would propose giving such authority to the Trump administration.

Remember, weve had more than three years to watch this administration in action. Weve seen Trump refuse to disclose anything about his financial interests, amid abundant evidence that he is profiting at the publics expense. Trumps trade war has been notable for the way in which favored companies somehow manage to get tariff exemptions while others are denied. And as you read this, Trump is refusing to use his authority to require production of essential medical gear.

So it would be totally out of character for this administration to allocate huge sums fairly and in the public interest.

Cronyism aside, theres also the issue of competence. Why would you give vast discretionary power to a team that utterly botched the response to the coronavirus because Trump didnt want to hear bad news? Why would you place economic recovery efforts in the hands of people who were assuring us just weeks ago that the virus was contained and the economy was holding up nicely?

Finally, weve just had a definitive test of the underlying premise of the McConnell slush fund that if you give corporations money without strings attached they will use it for the benefit of workers and the economy as a whole. In 2017 Republicans rammed through a huge corporate tax cut, which they assured us would lead to higher wages and surging business investment.

Neither of these things happened; instead, corporations basically used the money to buy back their own stock. Why would this time be any different?

As I write this, Republicans are ranting that Democrats are sabotaging the economy by refusing to pass McConnells bill which is a bit rich for those who remember the G.O.P.s scorched-earth opposition to everything Barack Obama proposed. But in any case, if McConnell really wants action, he could get it easily either by dropping his demand for a Trump-controlled slush fund or by passing the stimulus bill House Democrats are likely to offer very soon.

And maybe that will happen within a few days. As I said, were now living on Covid time. But right now Republicans seem dead set on exploiting a crisis their own president helped create by his refusal to take the pandemic seriously.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. Wed like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And heres our email: letters@nytimes.com.

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Republicans Add Insult to Illness - The New York Times

Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz said on Monday that Sen. Richard Burr has received unfairly favorable treatment in retaining his powerful position when compared to former Rep. Katie Hill, who resigned after having an inappropriate affair with a staffer.

Burr, a North Carolina Republican who is the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, was revealed last week to have sold up to $1.7 million in stocks last month just days ahead of the sharp market decline stemming from the novel coronavirus pandemic. He has asked the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate and has not stepped away from any of his roles.

.@KatieHill4CA gets run out of Congress for screwing a campaign staffer absent any complaint, Gaetz tweeted. @SenatorBurr stays as Intelligence Chairman after screwing all Americans by falsely reassuring us w opeds on #COVID while he dumped his stock portfolio early. This is not fair.

A week before his stock sell-off, Burr co-wrote an op-ed, titled Coronavirus prevention steps the U.S. government is taking to protect you, asserting that the US was better prepared than ever before to face emerging public health threats, like the coronavirus. Burr said Friday that he did not base his sales on any information he received as chairman of the Intelligence Committee and requested that an ethics investigation be opened into the trades.

A source familiar with the matter told CNN that the committee did not receive briefings on the virus the week of Burrs stock sales.

Burr refused to answer CNNs questions earlier on Monday about the controversial stock sales. When asked whether he could see that there would be an optics problem with the chairman of the intelligence committee making such sales, Burr replied, Ill leave that up the Ethics Committee.

Gaetzs tweet said that treament was not fair compared to the backlash Hill faced.

In October, the one-term California Democrat resigned from Congress days after she admitted to having an inappropriate relationship with a campaign staffer before coming into office.

The House Committee on Ethics had previously announced that it was opening an investigation into allegations Hill engaged in an improper relationship with a congressional staffer in possible violation of House rules banning relationships between members and their staff. The probe was announced after a conservative blog had released intimate photos of Hill, alleging she and her husband had a separate relationship with an unnamed female campaign staffer.

When the Ethics Committee announced its investigation, Gaetz defended Hill, writing in a tweet, Who among us would look perfect if every ex leaked every photo/text? Katie isnt being investigated by Ethics or maligned because she hurt anyone it is because she is different.

Hill was the first openly bisexual member of Congress from California.

Hill said that Kenny Heslep, her estranged husband of nine years, was trying to humiliate her by sharing the photographs after the couple filed for divorce. She expressed feelings of frustration over a double standard in her final speech on the House floor as a member of Congress.

I am leaving now because of a double standard, Hill said. I am leaving because I no longer want to be used as a bargaining chip. I am leaving because I didnt want to be peddled by papers and blogs and websites, used by shameless operatives for the dirtiest gutter politics that Ive ever seen.

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Republican congressman thinks Burr is getting a better deal than ex-lawmaker who resigned: 'This is not fair' - KRDO

Martha McSallyMartha Elizabeth McSallyPolitics and the pandemic Republicans are rightly worried NRSC outraises DSCC in February Florida Republican becomes first lawmaker to test positive for coronavirus MORE complained it was "inexcusable" the president was so "unprepared" for the virus epidemic: "Real leadership means taking action before there's a crisis."

No, the Arizona Republican then a Congresswoman wasn't talking about President TrumpDonald John TrumpBlame game heats up as Senate motion fails Trump approves disaster declaration for coronavirus in California Why studying persistent post-traumatic headaches in soldiers matter MORE's tragic failure to respond early to the Coronavirus pandemic: It was 2014, and she was assailing Barack Obama on the Ebola scare.

On the infinitely more serious current crisis, McSally now a Senator gushes about Trump's "decisive" leadership.

The politics of Coronavirus, which isshutting down much of the country, throwing the economy into a tailspin and threatening the health of perhaps millions of Americans, will play out in the weeks and months ahead. The downside is with Trump and Republicans.

This may be especially troublesome for a half dozen embattled incumbent Republican senators who savaged Obama for his handling of the Ebola health scare six years ago. Today, they are rallying behind the president.

That's not easy.

Few presidents have botched a crisis the way Trump did for almost two months. The administration already had downgraded resources for addressing a pandemic, an issue of little interest to Trump until it finally dawned on himthat the United States faces the most severe health crisis since the Influenza of 1918 which killed 675,000 Americans.

As enumerated by David Leonhardt for the New York Times, Trump repeatedly and recklessly dismissed this pandemic as a nothingburger. On Jan. 22, he declared it was "totally under control." Over the next few weeks he insisted only a handful of Americans would be affected by the virus, that when spring arrives it miraculously goes away, that it was a fiction of fake news and a Democratic hoax," like impeachment.

Only two weeks ago, he falsely claimed there was sufficient testing for everyone.

Eleven days ago finally he gave an address to a nervous country. The speech, apparently crafted by his often-clueless son-in-law Jared KushnerJared Corey KushnerPolitics and the pandemic Republicans are rightly worried In the Saudi-Russian oil price war, the US blinks first Coronavirus could keep Trump in the White House MORE, lacked a sense of crisis and made misrepresentations which had to be corrected.

As our American Nero calculated the political impact on his reelection, here's what transpired: The first reported case in the U.S. was on Jan. 20 in two months, this has soared to more than 26,000 cases with 340 deaths. These numbers are expected to climb sharply over the next few months. Worldwide, the total now over 316,000 cases.

Let's contrast that with the Republican uproar over the Ebola scare in 2014. That was chiefly an African plague affecting 28,000 people, a fraction of the toll Coronavirus already has taken. In the United States there were a grand total of 11 people infected and four deaths.

Yet in mid-October of that year, I was in North Carolina covering a Senate race at an event dominated by Republican Thom TillisThomas (Thom) Roland TillisPolitics and the pandemic Republicans are rightly worried Brady PAC endorses Biden, plans to spend million in 2020 McConnell cancels Senate break over coronavirus MORE's denunciation of Obama's dangerous dereliction on the Ebola crisis, putting he claimed a political hack in charge of meeting the challenge.The so-called hack was Ron Klain, a business executive and former Supreme Court clerk as well as political counselor; he's widely credited with successfully marshaling a multi-billion effort to stem the epidemic.

Six years later, Tillis is singing a different tune for an infinitely more serious matter; running for reelection, he praises Trump's "decisive leadership," and calls for the countrys leaders "to set aside our partisan differences."

Tillis and McSally aren't the only two-faced politicians on this score.In 2014, Iowa Republican Senate candidate Joni ErnstJoni Kay ErnstPolitics and the pandemic Republicans are rightly worried Ernst calls for public presidential campaign funds to go to masks, protective equipment GOP lukewarm on talk of airline bailout MORE was outraged at Obama being "apathetic" and merely "reactive" and questioned whether he really cared about the safety of the American people. She has been silent on Trump's dawdling and denying and wants a bi-partisan partnership.Georgia Republican Sen. David Purdue six years ago bemoaned a "lack of leadership." Now he says Vice President Pence, who is in charge of the administration's policies, is doing a "fantastic job."

Republicans enjoy a 53-47 Senate advantage, and the conventional wisdom is they'll lose no more than a net of one or two seats and retain control. Those odds changed a few weeks ago when Montana's popular Democratic Governor, Steve BullockSteve BullockPolitics and the pandemic Republicans are rightly worried The Hill's Campaign Report: Biden moves to unify party before general election Poll shows Daines, Bullock neck and neck in Montana Senate race MORE, after resisting for a year, jumped in the Senate race to face a colorless Republican incumbent.

Now the terrible pandemic crisis will complicate the election prospects for the likes of Tillis, McSally and Ernst, maybe others.

Their only hope on this issue is voters have a short memory.

Al Hunt is the former executive editor of Bloomberg News. He previously served as reporter, bureau chief and Washington editor for the Wall Street Journal. For almost a quarter century he wrote a column on politics for The Wall Street Journal, then the International New York Times and Bloomberg View. Follow him on Twitter@AlHuntDC.

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Politics and the pandemic Republicans are rightly worried | TheHill - The Hill

The Maine Republican Party will move ahead with a petition drive to try to block a ranked form of voting as much of the state shuts down due to coronavirus.

Mainers are scheduled to use ranked-choice voting in a presidential election for the first time in November.

The voting system allows people to pick second-choice candidates, and redistributes votes in a run-off style ranked round.

Republican opponents of the voting method have been gathering signatures to try to force a peoples veto vote about the law that allows ranked-choice presidential elections. They need 63,000 signatures by June to get the veto on the ballot. If its on the ballot, Maine wont use ranked choice for the presidential election this year.

Signature gatherers had been turning up at public events, such as Election Day polls, but Maine Republican Chair Demi Kouzounas said they will now bring petitions direct to potential signers. They will take necessary precautions in doing so, she said.

We are doing drive-thru stop-and-sign events in areas where people can stop and sign while following social distancing guidelines, pens are single-use, hand sanitizer being used, everything is outside, etc., Maine Republican executive director Jason Savage said. Tactical shift.

For most people, COVID-19 results in only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. People with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover, according to the World Health Organization.

Maines the only state in the U.S. with ranked-choice voting. Petitioners are about half way to their signature goal, the Maine Republican Party said.

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Maine Republicans to continue petition drive to block ranked-choice voting - Press Herald

His aides had never been told Mr. Paul might have been exposed to the virus or had been tested for it, according to a person familiar with the situation, and some began to fear that they could have contracted it and spread it to their friends and family before the office began working remotely, days after Mr. Paul attended the fund-raiser. Mr. Paul attended the fund-raiser on a Saturday and arrived in Washington the next Monday evening. His office closed to work remotely three days later.

Senior officials in Mr. Pauls Washington office told their staffs that none of them were at risk, the person said. But the aides remained livid that they were informed of Mr. Pauls exposure only minutes before their office publicly announced his positive test results.

Despite the panic prompted by Mr. Pauls announcement, on Monday, debate on the Senate floor proceeded mostly as usual albeit in more fiery terms with lawmakers filing into the chamber to vote and sitting in their desks next to one another. But the specter of the coronavirus weighed heavily over the proceedings.

As Mr. Durbin concluded a speech with his call for remote voting, Senator Jim Risch, Republican of Idaho, approached him. Both men kept their arms crossed, and Mr. Durbin slowly backed away step by step as they spoke, creating more and more distance between them.

Mr. Pauls announcement appeared to have won over some converts for the idea of remote voting. Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, who had previously shrugged off the suggestion, took to Twitter to offer his support for the idea.

We should make this change before the Senate leaves town, Mr. Graham wrote.

There is no indication that House or Senate leaders are moving toward doing so. A report released Monday night by Representative Jim McGovern, Democrat of Massachusetts and the chairman of the House Rules Committee, underscored the hurdles both technical and legal such a move would create, and instead recommended using existing practices, like adopting legislation by unanimous consent.

For now, senators are maintaining their routine albeit from a substantial distance, and under considerably more stress.

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Rand Pauls Positive Coronavirus Test Sets the (Still Meeting) Senate on Edge - The New York Times

In just over 24 hours, some 12,000 people shared a post from the Kenosha County Democratic party slamming the coronavirus vote by Wisconsins Republican congressional delegation.

The emergency measure which includes free testing for COVID-19, paid emergency leave and other emergency appropriations easily passed both houses of Congress and was signed into law by President Donald Trump on March 18, 2020.

But it passed without much help from Wisconsin.

The Kenosha Democrats seized on that fact in a March 19, 2020, Facebook post. The post explained the bill, commented on gerrymandering and noted the GOP no votes from purple Wisconsin went beyond the breakdown from even the deepest red of the red states.

It was accompanied by a graphic with pictures of U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson and U.S. Reps. Mike Gallagher, Glenn Grothman, Jim Sensenbrenner and Bryan Steil that said this: "WI is the ONLY state where all Republicans voted against protecting its citizens."

This post was flagged as part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

Lets check it out.

The votes

The bill passed 363-40 in the U.S. House and 90-8 in the U.S. Senate.

Indeed, all five Republicans in the Wisconsin delegation cast a no vote, according to roll calls published by ProPublica. All four state Democrats voted for the bill.

And, yes, that clean sweep of Republican votes was unique around the country.

In Oklahoma both Republican senators voted against the bill, but two of three Republican representatives supported it. Iowas lone Republican representative voted no, but both Republican senators there supported the bill.

The summary

That leaves us to look at the characterization that Wisconsin Republicans "voted against protecting (the states) citizens"?

Like anything in politics, its more complicated than that. In various statements issued after the votes, the states Republican lawmakers didnt object to the concept of providing help amid the pandemic, but they took issue with numerous specifics in the bill and how the process was handled.

Sensenbrenner objected to spending money on a bill that he said stretched 100 pages and was presented with less than 30 minutes to review.

"We do not know the full cost of this legislation," he said in a statement. "I am not a fan of passing bills to find out what is in them."

Steil told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel he voted against the bill because it "places a heavy government mandate on Wisconsin small businesses that are already suffering negative consequences from coronavirus."

Gallagher echoed those comments in a statement, saying he feared the bill would hurt small businesses.

"This bill, while well-intentioned, contains a number of unclear provisions that could force small businesses in Northeast Wisconsin to lay off workers or cause them to close their doors altogether," Gallagher said. "Let me be clear: H.R. 6201 contained a number of good provisions like free testing that weve already successfully fought for. But I have serious questions as to whether the best way to support those needing paid and sick leave is through tax credits to small businesses instead of direct payments to those affected."

Lori Hawkins, chair of the Kenosha County Democratic Party, defended the description in the Facebook post. She said the bill guided both testing and treatment to help control the spread of the disease.

"A 'no' vote by our elected officials was a vote against protecting their constituents from this highly contagious disease which has already been deadly to residents in Wisconsin," she said in an email.

Our ruling

A viral Facebook post said Wisconsin "is the only state where all Republicans voted against protecting its citizens."

It is indeed the only state where all Republicans opposed the bill, which has now become law.

But its a bit of an exaggeration to summarize their decisions as a vote "against protecting (Wisconsin) citizens." And of course this is expected to be just the first of many bills addressing the coronavirus fallout.

We rate this claim Mostly True.

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Yes, Wisconsin is the only state where all Republicans opposed coronavirus bill - PolitiFact