House Dems to take up Covid bill Tuesday, WaPo not expected to calculate how many died during the delay

Doug P. | 4:10 PM on March 06, 2021

At the insistence of Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, clerks spent many hours reading the text of the CARES Act (which narrowly passed in the Senate today on a party-line vote) out loud in the chamber. “Journalism” being what it is, the Washington Post calculated roughly how many people passed away from Covid-19 during the time the bill was being read aloud:
https://twitter.com/pbump/status/1367596823947464713

They finished earlier than expected. Final estimated toll: 880.https://t.co/4dCZXsvn7H

— Philip Bump (@pbump) March 5, 2021

Now that the bill has passed the Senate, that isn’t stopping the Democrat House leadership from taking a little time before working on the bill:

Hoyer: “On Tuesday, the House will consider the Senate's amended version of the American Rescue Plan, so that we can send this bill to President Biden for his signature early next week.”

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) March 6, 2021

However, nobody’s holding their breath waiting for a similar spin from the Post about the Dems’ delay:

WaPo ran an opinion piece on the number of Americans who died from COVID within the 17 hours Republicans made the Senate read the bill. Hoyer now announces Democrats will finish the bill after their long weekend in 3 days. https://t.co/zqTeH2bYmX

— Ben Williamson (@_WilliamsonBen) March 6, 2021

According to friends at WaPo, @SenRonJohnson asking for the bill to be read (all in one evening) potentially caused the death of 1,400 people.

The House taking a long weekend and waiting to move the bill until next Tuesday? Silence.

H/t @_WilliamsonBen pic.twitter.com/P7JACJ2XzU

— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) March 6, 2021