We need Covid relief now. What's the hold up?

Fred Klonsky art.

Bernie Sanders says Senate Democrats have the votes to pass another COVID-19 relief package now. 

In an appearance on ABC's “This Week,” he was asked if he believes Democrats have enough votes as bipartisan support for a relief bill appears to dwindle. 

“Yes, I believe that we do because it's hard for me to imagine any Democrat, no matter what state he or she may come from, who doesn't understand the need to go forward right now in an aggressive way to protect the working families of this country,” Sanders said.

Robert Reich agrees:

 "The new president can achieve huge and vital reform and relief without the party of Trump – and they know it." 

So if Democrats can...why aren't they doing it? People need relief now! Schools need to open safely with lots of federal support now! We need vaccines in peoples' arms now! Republicans are stalling and trying to negotiate a relief package that's half the size of the current relief bill. The question is, why appease them if you don't have to?

I'm remembering back to the first half of President Obama's first term when the Democrats wasted their majorities in both houses of Congress by abandoning or deeply altering most of their promised reform initiatives in the name of "bipartisanship" and to keep from alienating a Republican Party that only wanted to sabotage his every move. Is this déjà vu all over again?

The new bipartisan way.... pic.twitter.com/67INAlhvMX

— Mike Klonsky (@mikeklonsky) February 1, 2021