COVID CASES SWAMP CHILDREN’S HOSPITALS — Children’s hospitals across several hard-hit states are buckling under a steep rise in Covid-19 cases among kids — a situation that health experts fear will only worsen as schools reopen, POLITICO’s Dan Goldberg and Alice Miranda Ollstein report.
Nearly 1,600 children are already hospitalized by the disease, according to the CDC’s most recent count. That’s a new seven-day record and a 27 percent jump from the prior week that comes as children’s hospitals also contend with unusually high levels of the respiratory virus respiratory syncytial virus. In Tennessee, the state’s health commissioner is warning that its children’s hospitals will be full by the end of the week. Louisiana reached that point more than a week ago. And Arkansas’ only children’s hospital has just two ICU beds remaining. “We have kids in the emergency department on gurneys,” said Mark Wietecha, CEO of the Children’s Hospital Association. But the escalating crisis is having little political impact, even in the southeastern states where Delta is surging. Most GOP governors and state officials insist they’ll stick by policies enacted earlier this year banning vaccine mandates, mask requirements and other public health tools for fighting the pandemic. “There’s no need to require masks in schools at this time,” South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said, accusing the media and scientists of “exaggerating, engaging in hyperbole and unnecessarily alarming people” about the threat to kids. DEM TENSIONS RISE OVER SPENDING PACKAGE PLAN — Speaker Nancy Pelosi has made herself clear: There’ll be no infrastructure vote without a $3.5 trillion spending package waiting in the wings. But that rigid position isn’t sitting well with some moderates in her caucus , who are already bristling over the delay of a bipartisan bill that Democrats see as key to keeping control of the House, POLITICO’s Sarah Ferris and Heather Caygle report. At least six centrist Democrats say they’re willing to block the party’s budget blueprint and stall work on the reconciliation effort — though none are yet willing to commit to that publicly. Their concerns heightened this week after swing-district Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.) announced his retirement, plunging Democrats’ majority further in jeopardy. Yet Pelosi is showing no sign of backing down. That’s in part because bringing up the infrastructure bill early would trigger mass opposition from the House’s progressive wing, who are putting their faith in leadership to ensure a reconciliation bill stuffed with their priorities gets through as well. On a call Wednesday, Pelosi characterized the two-pronged strategy as “the consensus of the caucus.” Nevertheless, Democratic leaders are eager to speed work on both fronts. House committees have a Sept. 15 deadline to hammer out their parts of the $3.5 trillion package, with some believing the chamber could pass both bills by the end of the month. To watch today: President Joe Biden is slated to make a drug-pricing speech later this morning, as congressional Democrats begin to hammer out the policy specifics of their reconciliation package. Biden has endorsed a range of drug-pricing policies that could generate major savings as part of an eventual bill. But the central provision that he's supported — permitting Medicare to negotiate the cost of medicines — has yet to win consensus within the party. | 
