Half a Million Dead by April?

Plus, Biden announces his health team  [The Fisc](   By Yuval Rosenberg and Michael Rainey Congress Looks to Punt Funding Bill Into Next Week With just a few days to go before significant parts of the federal government are forced to shut down, lawmakers are contemplating a short-term bill to give themselves a little more time to work out a full-year funding package, as well as an agreement on Covid-19 relief. The stopgap funding measure, known as a continuing resolution, would keep the government open until December 18, a week beyond the current December 11 deadline. Although there were hopes that talks on the full-year funding bill would conclude this week, they have hit a rough patch, The Washington Post [reported]( Monday, with negotiators unable to agree on more than a dozen issues, including funding for President Trump’s border wall with Mexico. “I am disappointed that we have not yet reached agreement on government funding,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) [tweeted]( Monday. “The House will vote on Wednesday on a one-week CR to keep government open while negotiations continue.” Closing In on a Covid Relief Bill Congressional leaders are still hoping to attach a Covid relief package to the annual government funding bill, with the goal of passing both before lawmakers leave town for the holidays. Negotiators are using the $908 billion coronavirus relief package offered by a bipartisan group of lawmakers last week as a starting point and may release a detailed summary of their bill as soon as Monday night, with legislative text coming later in the week. The details are still in flux, but reports indicate that the relief package would include hundreds of billions for the unemployed, state and local governments, and small businesses. Smaller amounts would be allocated for rental assistance, schools, child care and other issues. The unemployment provision would provide $300 per week in federal benefits for 16 weeks, but would not be retroactive. Self-employed and gig workers would be included in the program. No $1,200 checks: One thing the framework does not include is more direct aid for individuals, and that’s sparking some opposition to the bill. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said last week that he would not support a bill that fails to provide another round of checks. “[D]uring the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, when over half of our workers are living paycheck to paycheck, when one out of four workers are either unemployed or make less than $20,000 a year, when 92 million Americans are uninsured or under-insured, when tens of millions of people face eviction and when hunger in America is exploding, it is unacceptable that the Manchin-Romney proposal does not even do what the CARES Act did and provide, at the very least, a $1,200 direct payment to working class Americans and $500 for their kids,” Sanders said in a [statement](. On the other side of the aisle, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) also said he would not support a bill lacking direct aid — and has lobbied President Trump to veto it. “I said, ‘I think it's vital that any relief include direct payments, and I'm not gonna vote for it if it doesn't,’” Hawley [told Politico]( Monday, recounting his conversation with Trump. “And I also urged him to veto any bill that did not have direct payments in it.” The president, however, has reportedly signaled that he would sign a relief bill, even without another round of direct support. “President Trump has indicated that he would sign a $908 billion package — there’s only one $908 billion package out there and it’s ours,” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) said Sunday. A “tricky path:” Despite the recent progress, there are still some serious issues to resolve. Republicans are pushing for liability shields for businesses that many progressives oppose, while Democrats want more money for state and local governments than some conservatives are willing to provide. This means the Covid relief package “has really a tricky path,” as Politico put it Monday. “I think we’ll get there,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), who is backing the bipartisan compromise bill, said Sunday, adding, “I think we may have to go through a few more days of drama.” Biden Unveils Health Team, With Becerra as HHS Secretary President-elect Joe Biden on Monday announced nominations for top members of his health care team, the officials who will be responsible for leading the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, distributing vaccines and implementing the new administration’s plans to strengthen the Affordable Care Act. Biden’s picks include: Xavier Becerra as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Becerra, 62, served 12 terms in Congress and has been California’s attorney general since 2017. In that role, has been a leading defender of the Affordable Care Act, bringing legal challenges to Trump administration efforts to weaken and invalidate the law, including a case now before the Supreme Court. If confirmed by the Senate, Becerra would be the first Latino to lead the department. He had been rumored to be a candidate to be Biden’s attorney general. There are already questions about Becerra’s qualifications for the job, given that he has little health policy experience and hasn’t run a bureaucracy as large as HHS, which has more than 80,000 employees. Becerra “has a thinner management resume than previous HHS secretaries like former governors Tommy Thompson, Mike Leavitt and Kathleen Sebelius,” Politico [notes](. “Meanwhile, Sylvia Mathews Burwell and Alex Azar had spent considerable time as high-level administration officials and in senior roles at large organizations before they were tapped to run HHS.” But Biden faced pressure to include more Latinos in his Cabinet, and the president-elect reportedly placed significant importance on Becerra’s track record of fighting to support Obamacare and expand access to health care. Some health policy experts lauded the choice. “You need a leader, manager,” Andy Slavitt, who led the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under Obama, [told]( The Washington Post. “He’s just a great fit. Right temperament.” Larry Levitt, executive vice president of health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, [said]( that Becerra “has been perhaps the biggest thorn in President Trump's side on the ACA, reproductive health, and immigrant rights. If confirmed, he will have an opportunity to overturn much of what Trump has done.” He added: “It's been more under the radar, but Xavier Becerra has also aggressively gone after anti-competitive practices in the hospital industry that keep prices high.” Becerra will face questions from Republicans about qualifications and his past support for Medicare for All. “I will meet with Xavier Becerra to ask how his political donations from insurance companies and his support for abortions and Medicare for All makes him qualified to serve as the Secretary of Health and Human Services,” Indiana Senator Mike Braun (R-IN), who sits on the Senate health committee, said, according to [Bloomberg News](. Vivek Murthy as surgeon general. Murthy held the same job under President Barack Obama. Rochelle Walensky, an infectious disease expert at Massachusetts General Hospital and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Walensky has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration’s pandemic response. “In the Biden administration, the CDC will take on a much larger and public role,” Politico [reports]( “with plans to revive regular media briefings and give a central role to career officials who have been pushed aside by President Donald Trump. Biden and his advisers have emphasized that they want to prioritize scientists over politics in responding to the pandemic.” Anthony Fauci will stay on in his role as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases but also serve as Biden’s chief medical adviser on the coronavirus. Jeff Zients to be coordinator of the Covid-19 response and counselor to the president. Zients is a former management consultant and business executive who is serving as Biden transition co-chair. He served as acting director of the Office of Management and Budget and National Economic Council director under Obama but is best known for helping to fix the “Cash for Clunkers” program and the HealthCare.gov website after its problem-plagued rollout. Marcella Nunez-Smith, an associate professor at the Yale School of Medicine, as Covid-19 Equity Task Force chair, a new job in which the transition team says she will advise Biden on efforts to reduce “disparities in response, care, and treatment, including racial and ethnic disparities.” “This trusted and accomplished team of leaders will bring the highest level of integrity, scientific rigor, and crisis-management experience to one of the toughest challenges America has ever faced — getting the pandemic under control so that the American people can get back to work, back to their lives, and back to their loved ones,” Biden said in a statement. Biden has not yet named his picks to head the Food and Drug Administration or the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Numbers of the Day 539,000: A new [report]( from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington projects that, even with a vaccine being rolled out, the coronavirus death toll — already over 282,000 — could rise to nearly 540,000 by April, with daily deaths peaking at 3,000 a day next month. The report says that is the most likely of six scenarios it modeled. “If universal mask coverage (95%) were attained in the next week, our model projects 66,000 fewer cumulative deaths” by April 1, the report says. Vaccines would prevent 9,000 deaths over that time period. More than 2,000 Americans have died due to Covid on five of the first six days this month, with more Americans dying on a number of those days topping the 2,403 Americans killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor 79 years ago today. $5,850: Millions of Americans who lost their jobs in the coronavirus crisis are running out of money, reports Heather Long of The Washington Post, and the unpaid bills are piling up. “Nearly 12 million renters will owe an average of $5,850 in back rent and utilities by January,” Long [wrote]( Monday. “Last month 9 million renters said they were behind on rent … The numbers were especially high for families with children, with 21 percent falling behind on rent, and among families of color.” Quote of the Day “This is not just the worst public health event. This is the worst event that this country will face, not just from a public health side.” – Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, on [NBC's “Meet the Press”]( on Sunday. News - [Trump Officials Declined Pfizer’s Offer for More Vaccine Doses]( – New York Times - [Top CEOs Expect Sales Boost Next Year; Urge Congress to Deliver Aid]( – Washington Post - [A Trump Veto of Defense Bill Could Cut Lawmakers’ Holiday Break Short]( – Roll Call - [Outdated U.S. Vaccine Data Risks Squeezing State Use Plans]( – Bloomberg - [A Bleak Outlook for Millions Facing Cutoff of US Jobless Aid]( – Associated Press - [Millions of Americans Are Heading Into the Holidays Unemployed and Over $5,000 Behind on Rent]( – Washington Post - [Millions of Hungry Americans Turn to Food Banks for 1st Time]( – Associated Press - [White House Vaccine Chief Praises Biden's Plan to Ask Americans to Wear Masks for First 100 Days]( – CNN - [Biden Eyes Infrastructure Package to Help Economic, Climate Goals]( – The Hill - [Democrats Plan Return to Earmarks to Ease Way on Votes]( – Bloomberg - [A Gamble Pays Off in ‘Spectacular Success’: How the Leading Coronavirus Vaccines Made It to the Finish Line]( – Washington Post - ['Fauci Effect' Drives Record Number of Medical School Applications]( – NPR Views and Analysis - [We’ve Worked Hard to Achieve a COVID-19 Compromise Package. We Can’t Afford Inaction]( – Sens. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) and Susan Collins (R-ME), Washington Post - [It’s Time to Scare People About Covid]( – Elisabeth Rosenthal, New York Times - [Covid-19 Hospitalization Rates Are Dropping. That’s Terrible News.](  – Ashish K. Jha, Washington Post - [Make Sure State Aid Lasts as Long as It’s Needed]( – Peter R. Orszag, Bloomberg - [Joe Biden’s ‘Groundhog Day’ Moment]( – Helaine Olen, Washington Post - [Want Vaccines Fast? Suspend Intellectual Property Rights]( – Achal Prabhala, Arjun Jayadev and Dean Baker, New York Times - [Get Ready for the Great U.S. Inflation Mirage of 2021]( – Reade Pickert and Vince Golle, Bloomberg - [Will 1% Yield Force the Fed Into Curve Control?]( – Brian Chappatta, Bloomberg - [Kneecapping the Biden White House]( – Gordon Adams, The Hill - [Trump Needed the ‘Boneheads’ More Than He Knew]( – Julius Krein, New York Times - [The Infrastructure Spending Challenge]( – Kenneth Rogoff, Project Syndicate - [What Joe Biden Could Do to Bring Down Drug Costs]( – Dylan Scott, Vox Copyright © 2020 The Fiscal Times, All rights reserved. You are receiving this newsletter because you subscribed at our website, [thefiscaltimes.com]( or through Facebook. The Fiscal Times, 399 Park Avenue, 14th Floor, New York, NY 10022, United States Want to change how you receive these emails? [Update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe](