| | | | |  | | By Brakkton Booker, Megan Messerly and Alice Miranda Ollstein | With help from Rishika Dugyala and Teresa Wiltz
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Members of the Ohio National Guard administer COVID-19 tests at a drive through testing site in January in Akron, Ohio. | Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images | What up Recast fam! President Joe Biden unveils his nearly $6 trillion budget blueprint, which calls for some $773 billion for the Pentagon – some $30 billion more than Congress approved for the current fiscal year. And the reverberations continue from that Oscars slap. First, though, we focus on the potential widening of racial disparities in the ongoing war on Covid. The Biden administration has been sounding the alarm for weeks, imploring Congress to renew billions in Covid pandemic relief. Without it, the administration, public health officials and some lawmakers argue, hard-fought gains mitigating the virus' adverse impacts will be lost and, in some cases, reversed. Those who will suffer the most: the uninsured. This group of tens of millions of Americans is disproportionately nonwhite and they also tend to hold down jobs, rely on public transportation and have living situations that put them at higher risk of catching Covid. This population is on the verge of losing free access to life-saving Covid interventions like vaccines and antiviral pills – unless clinics and pharmacies that were providing those services decide to eat that cost, pass those charges on to the patients, or turn away people altogether. POLITICO's Alice Miranda Ollstein and Megan Messerly have been reporting on this. They teamed up with The Recast to break down what this all means: The coffers are dry The Biden administration has touted that it's providing tests, vaccines and treatments – including monoclonal antibodies that help to prevent those who contract Covid from getting seriously ill – free to the public. This was done to level the playing field in a country where access to health care is, in most cases, tied to employment and sometimes is correlated with a patient's race.
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SAN ANSELMO, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 04: In this photo illustration, free iHealth COVID-19 antigen rapid tests from the federal government sit on a U.S. Postal Service envelope after being delivered on February 04, 2022 in San Anselmo, California. The Biden administration has secured one billion at home COVID-19 tests and will deliver four per household for free to anyone who requests them. The tests can be ordered on the U.S. Postal Service website and will arrive 7-14 days after. (Photo Illustration by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) | Photo Illustration by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images | But to make it free, regardless of insurance status, the funds have to come from somewhere. For those who do not have insurance, the funds come from the Uninsured Program, which a week ago announced it has stopped accepting claims for testing and treatment . It even added that "submitted claims will be paid subject to availability of funds." A week from now, on April 5, the same program will halt accepting claims for vaccinations. "The life-saving therapies, like oral antivirals and the monoclonal antibodies, we've already had to decrease what we're sending out," said Dr. Cameron Webb, a senior policy adviser for Covid-19 equity for the White House Covid response team. That is going to hurt the communities that bear the brunt and carry the heaviest burden of the pandemic and have the highest rates of chronic illness, he added. "There's a disproportionately larger number of Black and brown folks who are uninsured," Webb said.
|  | Who is most affected? Black Americans were dying at alarming rates – roughly three times the rate of white Americans – in the early days of the pandemic. Now, the Covid death rate for white people is actually higher than the rates for Black, Latino and Asian American folks — and roughly even with the mortality rate for American Indian and Alaska Native people. When it comes to vaccination rates, statistics compiled by the Kaiser Family Foundation earlier this month found that over time racial disparities have narrowed. Black and Latino Americans initially were less likely than white people to get the jab when the vaccine rollout began. But in a period between Jan. 31 and March 7, "Asian, Hispanic and Black people had larger increases in vaccination rates compared to White people," KFF reported, adding Hispanics had the largest percentage increase over that period.
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| Now, failing to replenish the funds for these key Covid-fighting tools threatens to undo that progress toward more equitable outcomes, public health officials warn. "I'm concerned that we'll go back to the status quo, which we know carries with it great disparities and suffering," Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.), the leader of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and an emergency physician, told POLITICO. "And the hardest-to-reach communities will be the first to suffer and the most to suffer from the lack of funds." How did we get here? Congressional lawmakers remain at a weeks-long impasse over the pandemic funding. A $15 billion funding measure that would have helped combat Covid-19 in the U.S. and around the world was scrapped from the larger government spending and Ukraine aid package that passed this month after some House Democrats objected to paying for it by cutting pandemic aid to their states. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has vowed to bring the measure back up for a vote in the House once they work out the funding source, and it should narrowly pass if Democrats remain unified. But then it faces an uncertain future in the Senate, where Republicans — who recently voted to declare the pandemic over — remain skeptical about providing new funding.
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WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 05: Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) talks to reporters following a vote at the U.S. Capitol on October 05, 2021 in Washington, DC. Senate Majority Leader Schumer said he will bring a vote on a debt limit increase later this week setting up a contentious debate that could lead to the U.S. defaulting on its debt if an increase is not agreed to. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) | Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images | "There's a doubt that they need this money with a lot of us," said Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) told POLITICO this month . "I've said this for weeks, a real accounting of the money [already spent on Covid] that the American people deserve and then go from there. If there's no money left, and it's not hidden somewhere, and if they show a need, then you got, maybe, a persuasive case." Announcement of a fourth shot expected soon The standoff comes as the Food and Drug Administration authorized Tuesday a fourth shot of Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech for people 50 and older. This comes as the Omicron subvariant BA.2 is driving up cases in Europe and is already the dominant strain in the U.S., accounting for 54 percent of cases nationally. Whether the government can buy enough shots for that population and provide them free of charge now depends on Congress. "I hope that we can reach an agreement with our Republican colleagues very soon," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday. "Because nobody wants to find themselves in a situation where cases suddenly start rising again and we aren't ready to respond quickly." As always, we'll be watching … All the best,
The Recast Team
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| Power dynamics are changing. With The Recast, you'll get a twice-weekly breakdown of how race and identity are the DNA of American politics and policy. Was this forwarded to you by a friend? Subscribe to the newsletter here.
| | | A BLACK PROGRESSIVE ROAD MAP FOR 2022
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LAS VEGAS, NV - JANUARY 21: Black Lives Matter Co-Founder Alicia Garza speaks during the Women's March "Power to the Polls" voter registration tour launch at Sam Boyd Stadium on January 21, 2018, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Demonstrators across the nation gathered over the weekend, one year after the historic Women's March on Washington, D.C., to protest President Donald Trump's administration and to raise awareness for women's issues. (Photo by Sam Morris/Getty Images) | Sam Morris/Getty Images | In an exclusive with The Recast, the Black to the Future Action Fund, a progressive nonprofit working to increase Black representation in politics, talked about its upcoming report, Roadmap 2022, which outlines three key priorities it says are crucial to winning Black voters: voting rights, combating white supremacy, pandemic relief funding and economic funding. "Frankly, when it comes to that agenda, the Biden-Harris administration has not been successful," Alicia Garza, co-founder of Black Lives Matter who now heads the Black Futures Lab, told The Recast. She points to her organization's most recent polling that shows 56 percent of Black respondents say they are dissatisfied with the direction of the economy. It also found 40 percent of Black respondents say they are behind on their rent or mortgage. Among Black adults, 83 percent support the monthly Child Tax Credit, a pandemic-era program that expired in December. Here's what the road map is calling for: Continued Covid Relief
- Distribute $2,000 monthly stimulus checks to help basic needs
- Guarantee free vaccination, testing and treatment for all persons in the United States, despite citizenship and/or incarceration status
- Expand emergency health care coverage through a public plan
On Voting Rights
- Enact voting rights legislation that makes Election Day a federal holiday
- Restore voting rights to all persons upon their release from prison
- Ensure a minimum of three weeks of early voting
On Combating White Supremacy
- Declare white supremacy a national security threat
- Require robust data collection that can track and report on how widespread the issue is in the United States
"It's great that Juneteenth is now a national holiday, but that does not put roofs over people's heads and that does not put money in people's pockets," Garza said. She added: | 
| With Black communities not seeing enough progress on these key issues, Garza said, it will be difficult to ensure this voting bloc will show up in November to keep the president's party in control of Congress. But she adds, there's still time to change course.
| | | #OSCARSSOWHITE? Will Smith's smacking of comedian Chris Rock during the live broadcast of the Oscars Sunday night came moments before he won for best actor – and after Rock told a less-than-funny joke about Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. It was the "slap heard around the world," launching countless memes and sparking debates: Was that smack a display of toxic masculinity? Or a dutiful husband protecting his wife? (Smith apologized via his Instagram on Monday.) We hit up April Reign , an activist who launched the hashtag #Oscarssowhite in 2015 to shine a light on the Academy's dearth of diversity. (That viral campaign resulted in the Academy committing to doubling the number of women and people of color in its voting ranks.) Today, she's the co-founder of #SheWillRise, aka @SistaScotus, an initiative pushing for the placement of a Black woman on the Supreme Court.
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HOLLYWOOD - FEBRUARY 20: A display case is seen full of Oscar statues February 20, 2004 in Hollywood, California. These are the Oscar statuettes that will be handed out on February 29 at the 76th Academy Awards ceremony and will be on display at the Hollywood & Highland entertainment complex. (Photo by Carlo Allegri/Getty Images) | Carlo Allegri/Getty Images | This interview has been edited for length and clarity. THE RECAST: Do you think there's been progress since you started #OscarsSoWhite? REIGN: There's definitely been progress. I think it is not enough and long overdue. But even [Sunday] night, you know, there was a slap that was heard around the world. And that overshadows the fact that we have had, in back-to-back years, women winning the best director award [Jane Campion this year for "Coda" and Chloé Zhao for "Nomadland" in 2021], that we had the first deaf man [Troy Kotsur for "Coda"] to win an acting Oscar, that we had an openly queer woman [of color] win the best supporting actress award [Ariana DeBose for "West Side Story"]. The conversation that I'm having now: "Is it about the Oscars anymore?" I think what's most important is to ask the question, "Who is telling the story and whose story is being told?" THE RECAST: What are your thoughts on Will Smith? REIGN: I just think that there is so much nuance that it can't be explained in a quick sound bite. But I think there's also a lot of context that people don't have. People don't know fully how to process this, because they are unfamiliar with seeing a Black man publicly defend the honor and integrity of a Black woman. We saw that with [New Jersey Democratic Senator] Cory Booker [defending] Judge Kentanji Brown Jackson. People didn't know how to react. But it was needed in that moment.
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Presenter Chris Rock, left, reacts after Will Smith slapped him onstage at the Oscars, Sunday, March 27, 2022, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello) | AP Photo/Chris Pizzello | THE RECAST: Let's talk about your work around Judge Jackson. What prompted you to launch @SistaScotus? REIGN: In the summer of 2020, Kim Tignor, one of the founders of #SheWillRise reached out to me and two other Black women and said, "Let's do something." We could not wait until someone retired – we have been working on this for almost two years now. We created a petition for people to sign. We are collaborating with other organizations. We have a judicial tracker. Judge Jackson is going to be the first Black woman Supreme Court Justice, but there are other Black women in the federal judiciary pipeline, whose nominations in some cases have been stalled for months. It's important to keep the pressure on. So those women might one day be a Supreme Court justice nominee as well.
| | | ICYMI @ POLITICO To Recuse or not to Recuse? – Recent revelations that Ginni Thomas sent texts to then-President Donald Trump's chief of staff imploring the administration to overturn the 2020 election are raising lots of questions. Chief among them: Should her husband, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas recuse himself from future cases involving 2020 election disputes? POLITICO's Josh Gerstein examines why this is an uphill challenge . Progressive TikTok Army – Readers of The Recast know we love our TikToks. Now meet Gen Z's social media influencers mobilizing their massive followings to impact progressive political activism. A must-read POLITICO Magazine piece from Ian Ward.
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POLITICO illustration / Screenshots from @genzforchange/TikTok | Genesis of Florida's "Don't Say Gay" bill – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, signed the controversial bill into law on Monday. Today, POLITICO's Andrew Atterbury and Gary Fineout trace the origins of the bill.
| | | THE RECAST RECOMMENDS We're still a little shook from that Oscars debacle, so you won't be getting any hot takes from us here. (Does the world really need another hot take?) Still, we couldn't agree more with NPR TV critic Eric Deggans' view on things. The Royals just completed a tour of the Caribbean, where they were met with a host of nations announcing plans to defect from the Commonwealth. A new book by Caroline Elkins, "Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire," provides context to that movement. In this New Yorker photo essay, Asian American women take a self-defense class in the wake of yet another horrific anti-Asian attack. We're sending mellow vibes your way, courtesy of singer/songwriter Madi Diaz.
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| TikTok of the day: Revenge of the cat.
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