Pandemic Response Report (6/15/2021)

What’s Important  

Democrats Refuse to Investigate COVID-19 Origins: Republican Whip and Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis Ranking Member Steve Scalise (R-La.) has repeatedly called on Democrats to investigate the origins of COVID-19, but Democrat leaders have refused.

OMB Won’t Say if Biden Budget Funds Research at the Wuhan Lab: At last week’s House Budget Committee hearing, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Acting Director Shalanda Young would not commit to saying President Biden’s budget request would not include funding for the research at the Wuhan lab.

World Leaders Care More About American IP than Biden: Ahead of the Group of Seven summit in Great Britain, President Biden’s support for waiving international patent protections for COVID-19 vaccines drew criticism from the European Union.

Relief Radar

Bidenflation Hurting Those Hit Hardest by Democrat Lockdowns: The rapid rise in inflation since President Biden took office shows the clear consequences of massive deficit spending and the fallout from advancing an extreme left-wing agenda. The Labor Department recently announced that the consumer-price index increased by 5 percent since last May, the largest increase in nearly 13 years. The cost of food, gas, lumber, housing, used cars, and more are all up. This is a clear signal that the Biden Administration is overheating the economy.

The families hardest hit by Democrat COVID-19 lockdowns are now the ones hardest hit by the Biden Administration’s economic policies. Real average hourly earnings decreased by 3.7% since 2020. As costs go up and wages go down, the buying power for the average American decreases. The way out of this crisis is not to tax and spend trillions more, as President Biden proposes to do. 

Crisis Corner

OMB Won’t Say if Biden Budget Funds Research at the Wuhan Lab: At last week’s House Budget Committee hearing, OMB Acting Director Shalanda Young would not commit to saying President Biden’s budget request would not include funding for the research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). Mounting evidence shows COVID-19 originated from the lab and Republicans are investigating whether U.S. taxpayer dollars were at all affiliated with controversial research at the WIV.

Biden Blunders

World Leaders Care More About American IP than Biden: Ahead of the Group of Seven summit in Great Britain, President Biden’s support for waiving international patent protections for COVID-19 vaccines drew criticism from the European Union. Giving away the intellectual property of vaccine developers would not boost vaccine production for possibly years but would undermine U.S. innovation and weaken our ability to respond to future pandemics, and help Communist China. President Biden should abandon this plan to strip innovators of their constitutionally protected patents so that the United States continues to be the world leader in live-saving medical breakthroughs.

Feds Don’t Return to Work: President Biden is stalling the COVID-19 recovery by refusing to mandate federal employees return to the workplace. The federal government must set an example for the American people and return to pre-pandemic normal. This is yet another benefit available to federal workers but not American workers. Grocery store clerks, waiters and waitresses, gas station operators, and many more are all required to work in person, but federal employees aren’t. It’s past time for the federal government to lead by example.

This Week in SSOCC

Democrats Refuse to Investigate COVID-19 Origins: Republican Whip and Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis Ranking Member Steve Scalise has repeatedly called on Democrats to investigate the origins of COVID-19, but Democrat leaders have refused. Recently, Scalise and over 200 members of the Republican Conference called on Speaker Pelosi to direct her committee chairs to join House Republicans in investigating the origins of COVID-19. Scalise and Oversight Committee Ranking Member James Comer (R-Ky.) also called on Chairs Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) to investigate the virus’ origins and hold Communist China accountable. Why do Democrats continue to shield Communist China from any accountability for unleashing COVID-19 on the world?