Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks to reporters about the possibility of a partial government shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2018. Congress and President Donald Trump continue to bicker over his demand that lawmakers fund a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, pushing the government to the brink of a partial shutdown at midnight Friday. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Fox News reporter Chad Pergram told Harris Faulkner, “There is verbal open brawling on the U.S. Senate Floor right now…It’s been about 25 years since I’ve seen it devolve this badly, where you actually have senators from both sides yelling at one another.” Apparently, that was an accurate description.

On Monday morning, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told Senators:

I’d like to see Senate Democrats tell New York City doctors and nurses who are literally overrun as we speak that they are filibustering hospital funding and more masks because they want to argue with the airlines over their carbon footprint.

…

We were this close, this close. Then yesterday morning the Speaker of the House flew back from San Francisco and suddenly the Senate’s serious bipartisan process turned into this left-wing episode of supermarket sweep! Unrelated issues left and right. I’ll tell you what will lower our carbon footprint is if the entire economy continues to crumble.

Fox News contributor Guy Benson tweeted that he’d been in touch with a senior GOP aide who had told him that “Schumer and Pelosi were now pushing the following demands amid pandemic-fueled economic collapse.”

1) Unprecedented collective bargaining powers for unions

2) Increased fuel emissions standards for airlines

3) Expansion of wind and solar tax credits

The source writes, “not only are these completely unrelated to the coronavirus epidemic, they could prevent companies from participating in the loan programs altogether—directly causing unnecessary layoffs.”

Schumer and Pelosi (and it appears to be Pelosi who is driving the bus) are delaying aid to Americans who sorely need it, to push through these completely unrelated initiatives. With good reason, Republicans are referring to these demands as the Democrats’ ideological wish list.

The bill requires 60 votes to pass. Currently, five Republican senators are in quarantine, which increases the Democrats’ leverage. Even if those senators were present, the GOP would still require two Democrats or independents to cross the aisle.

Pergram says he doubts the bill will pass today.

Pelosi does not care about the people this bill would affect. She played games earlier this month with another coronavirus stimulus bill.

The week before Super Tuesday, during her regular weekly press conference, she told reporters, “Lives are at stake. This is not a time for name-calling or playing politics.”

Shortly after it had ended she was criticizing President Trump over his administration’s response to the coronavirus crisis as anemic, opaque, too late and often chaotic.

All the while, Pelosi was holding back a House bill to provide funding to fight it.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy spoke to Fox News’ Laura Ingraham the following Monday (March 2) and said, “Look how much politics they want to play. The dirty little secret. We have the coronavirus. We need to fund this. You know what Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker, did? She withheld the bill last week. You know why? So the DCCC could run ads against seven Republicans.”

Ingraham asked, “How many people ran ads on the coronavirus, fundraising appeals?”

“I don’t know how many ran, but they actually took the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, spent money, went into these seven Republican seats to campaign against them about the coronavirus when she’s the Speaker of the House. Instead of putting America first, she put her politics first and kept the bill from coming to the floor,” McCarthy explained.

To Nancy Pelosi, this is all just one big game. And, by golly, she’s going to make this crisis work for her.

Below are the items in the bill (excluding the new demands from the Democrats).

Here is what @SenSchumer and @SpeakerPelosi are blocking:

$1,200-PP, $2,400-Couple, $500-Child
$250 Billion-Unemployment Insurance
$350 B-Small Business Loan Program
$100 B-Hospitals
$11 B-Vaccines
$4.5 B-CDC
$20 B-Veterans Healthcare
$12 B-K12 Education
$5 B-FEMA
$10 B-Airports pic.twitter.com/MTuUh0ESXt

— Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) March 23, 2020