Authorities cite COVID-19 to justify extensions of student loan payment pause, immigrant expulsion order. COVID-19 is still around, but The Pandemic—a threat so pervasive and severe it requires a wide-scale reorganizing of society—is over. That's long been Republicans' position, and lately even President Joe Biden has agreed. And yet… both sides are still using The Pandemic to excuse extraordinary political measures.
For Democrats especially but also Republicans, the COVID-19 pandemic is over except when it's politically convenient to say that it's not. It's over except when it comes to justifying programs they like and don't otherwise have the support or authority to enact.
