. @KaminskiMK @JimVandeHei @mikeallen @R_Allbritton The 10-Senator @GOP pandemic alternative bill is NOT serious. It is has no epidemiologic or economic logic, would water down needed relief, slow our recovery, aid the spread of the virus. It's about power in and of itself. 1/

What excites you is the concept of bipartisanship. Why? It’s not just because President Biden has talked unity, but it allows you to fall back on old tropes of political journalism, which simply rely on taking the points on both sides, and call compromise a victory. 2/

It needs no analysis of the merits of the arguments, it focuses on the game of politics. In normal times, political reporting as a kind of sportscasting may work as a model. Google “bipartisanship fetish” & you’ll find analyses going back decades that warn of this approach. 3/

In the middle of a pandemic, it’s deeply problematic, in fact, counter-productive and irresponsible. Why? Because the "what" matters, not just "who wins" the day. 3/

The bill proposed by these senators is deeply cynical, it's long division not policy. It takes a number and divides its by 1/3. It is clear we need more than $1.9 trillion dollars right now. 4/