McConnell and Ryan Fiddle While Rome Burns

During the Comedy of Errors that is the Republican National Convention, the most outrageous and ironic incident happened on the second day. The theme for Tuesday was "Make America Work Again". Yet, among the evening's speakers were Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan.

Rather than acting to make America work again, McConnell and Ryan are the poster boys for the complete paralysis of our federal government. During one of the most serious public health crises in decades, the two are responsible for total governmental inaction. Compounding their irresponsibility, they put Congress on a seven-week vacation until after Labor Day.

The Zika virus is slowly and inexorably spreading through the US. According to the CDC, 2,905 locally-acquired cases have been reported in US territories (Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, American Samoa). Although no locally-acquired cases have yet been reported in the 50 states, fully 1,305 travel-related cases have been confirmed. Nine such cases have been reported in Wisconsin. Zika is here. It is spreading. It causes awful birth defects. Yet, the GOP leadership in Congress has done nothing but play cynical political games with our health.

As so often, President Obama has done his job. Last February, he requested $1.9 billion in emergency funding for vaccine research, mosquito control, healthcare, and education efforts. Yet, the GOP majority in both houses has still not authorized one cent to fight this awful disease.

The Senate passed a bipartisan bill last May, authorizing $1.1 billion to fight the virus. Tammy Baldwin voted for this bill. Ron Johnson did not.

A different House bill passed, mostly on partisan lines. Jim Sensenbrenner voted for this bill which provided no new funding and limited the money for Zika to only a third of what the Obama Administration had requested. And in an obvious pay-out to lobbyists, the bill sneaked-in a relaxation of limits on toxic pesticides.

Without allowing input from Democrats, House and Senate Republicans got together to add even more poison pills to the final bill. More than half a billion dollars was cut from the Affordable Care Act (of course). Despite Zika being sexually-transmitted and causing birth defects, the funds were prohibited from going to women's clinics (of course). The new version needed a new Senate vote. With all of the noxious additions, the Senate Democratic minority (including our own Tammy Baldwin) voted down the GOP-self-negotiated bill.

Senate Minority Leader, Harry Reid said of the GOP bill, "It's a disgrace. It's a mockery of how Congress should treat an emergency." When Senate Democrats asked to actually have some input and compromise on the poison pills that the GOP negotiated among themselves, Senate Republican McConnell cynically replied, "The time for a debate about the content of it is over. "

The Republican bill is so toxic and overloaded with a Tea Party wish-list that President Obama has threatened to veto the badly-needed funds if it reaches his desk.

While he should be in Washington dealing with this emergency, McConnell had better things to do. He was giving a Tuesday speech at the Trump love-in in Cleveland. He had the unmitigated gall to blame Democrats for the impasse, saying in his mush-mouth accent, "As we sit here tonight, a terrifying mosquito-borne illness threatens expectant mothers and their babies along our southern coast. Just last week, Clinton Democrats in the Senate blocked a bill aimed at eradication before it can spread." 

Huge bipartisan majorities of Americans believe that the government should provide funds to research Zika, fight its spread, and to provide reproductive choices to those afflicted. However, the GOP majority in Congress does nothing but go on extended vacation. Republican mismanagement of the Zika crisis has proven that they can't be trusted to run anything. They stall, add far-right poison pills to a critical bill, and play politics with the health of America.