Biden Covid spending rejected

 Washington Post:

A congressional deal for billions of dollars in additional coronavirus funding appeared all but dead Thursday after Senate Republicans accused the White House of being dishonest about the nation's pandemic funding needs.

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, who brought the Senate to the brink of a bipartisan $10 billion coronavirus funding deal in March, said the Biden administration had provided "patently false" information about its inability to buy additional vaccines, treatments and supplies. He cited a newly announced White House plan to repurpose some existing funds to cover the country's most pressing vaccine and treatment needs.

"Washington operates on a relationship of trust between the respective parties," Romney said at a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing Thursday, noting the White House had repeatedly claimed it had exhausted coronavirus funding and could not redirect other spending. "I hope that there's an appreciation that for the administration to say they could not purchase these things and then, after several months, divert some funds and then purchase them is unacceptable and makes our ability to work together . . . very much shaken to the core."

Biden officials said last week they had no choice but to repurpose about $10 billion from other coronavirus priorities, such as testing, to purchase more vaccine and treatments, since Congress had not been able to reach agreement.

In interviews Thursday, three administration officials insisted that the White House had been transparent about its needs and spending and that Republicans had continually found new reasons to object to the efforts to secure additional coronavirus funds.
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The following week, Romney, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and other lawmakers announced a tentative agreement for $10 billion in new funding, but the deal collapsed as Democrats raised questions about the removal of international aid from the package and lawmakers from both parties objected to a separate plan to lift pandemic restrictions at the border.
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"This has been the most well-orchestrated event that I've seen in the 28 years that I've been here," Burr said. "This was designed to pressure Republicans to open a checkbook, sign the check and let the administration fill in the balance."

The Republicans' comments resonated beyond Capitol Hill to Wall Street, where analysts expressed doubt the administration would be able to secure 60 votes for a funding package that would pass the Senate without Romney and Burr, both of whom had spent weeks trying to help secure prior compromises.

"New COVID Funding Probably Dead," financial-services firm Raymond James wrote in a note to investors on Thursday. "We are very skeptical more COVID money will be made available and believe the Administration will now need to move more quickly toward a system where COVID vaccines, treatments, and testing are provided through the traditional supply chain and purchasing apparatus in the U.S. health system."
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The Biden team appears not to be able to work well with others to reach common objectives.  As a recent Covid survivor who was fully vaccinated and boosted it is hard to say they have a solution at this point.  BTW, my doctor was able to secure monoclonal antibodies for treatment which did off pretty quick results.