We saw this coming last week when congressional Republicans unveiled the bill, but now it's officially dead.
House and Senate Republicans, having passed their own Zika bills, went to conference to negotiate a final package. That package included provisions that would cut funding from Obamacare and Planned Parenthood, all but guaranteeing that it would not pass the Senate and earning a presidential veto.
What we didn't know at the time is it also included this provision:
Democrats opposed the bill, which they complained was negotiated between Senate and House Republicans with little input from them and was loaded with "poison pill" riders that cut health programs, restricted funding for birth control services from Planned Parenthood, weakened clean water laws and blocked a ban on displaying the Confederate flag at U.S. military cemeteries.
Republicans are now accusing Democrats of being the ones who are blocking funds to fight the Zika virus, but we all know that was the point, don't we?
This bill was so full of garbage we can only conclude it was designed to fail. In other words, Republicans are deliberately playing political gotcha! while having done nothing about the Zika virus which has already infected hundreds of pregnant women in the U.S.
Speaking of which, the Florida health department just confirmed the first baby to be born with Zika-related birth defects in the state.
Let's not forget the Olympic games in the mosquito and shit-filled waters of Rio are just around the corner.