What Happened to That ‘Emergency’ Covid Money?

The White House is importuning Congress for $31.4 billion to buy more Covid-19 treatments, tests and vaccines. Yet asked last week whether President Biden wanted Democratic leaders in Congress to include the Covid money in a budget-reconciliation bill, administration officials demurred.

Two days later, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin unveiled a $739 billion reconciliation deal dripping with climate grease. Somehow the Covid money, which the administration has insisted for months is urgently needed, didn’t make the cut. Is subsidizing Teslas a higher Democratic priority than protecting the vulnerable?