I guess there was a word count limit.

I am struck by the truncated indictment represented in GOP’s new midterm attack: Blaming Biden for formula shortage by Paul J. Weber.  Now whether there is a real shortage and whether the GOP is unfairly using that shortage as a political cudgel are perfectly valid points of discussion.

What struck me was this formulation.

Republicans aiming to retake control of Congress have already sharpened a message centering around blaming Democrats for high inflation, expensive gas, migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border and violent crime in some cities.

High inflation, expensive gas, an explosion in illegal migrants, and a rapid increase in violent crime.  All serious and all in the political mix.

But it seems a truncated indictment.  Where is all the suffering from the response to Covid-19?  The vaccine mandates, the mask mandates, the vaccine passports, the lock-downs, etc.?  All useless and avoidable and all with profound negative affects on individuals.  Why are they not in the indictment recognized by Weber?

Will infant formula get added to the indictment?  Quite possibly.  But we have also had (and still have) some pretty significant shortages of critical medications in the past 18 months.  Why aren't those in the indictment?  We know there are other supply chain shortages including both high-end chips and basic commodities which are already showing up in bare shelves or constrained production.  Why aren't those in the list?  

There is an ongoing set of contentious debates about both the value and dangers associated with K-12  education (CRT and teachers grooming young children) as well as higher education (student debt) which are manifesting in overthrows of school boards and declines in university education.  Why not those issues?

I suspect that there are others out there that could be added such as property crime, labor shortages, and the reduced labor force participation rate, the rapidly rising rate of drug overdoses, etc.  

It seems like Weber's full indictment ought to look more like

Republicans aiming to retake control of Congress have already sharpened a message centering around blaming Democrats for high inflation; expensive gas; migrants freely crossing the U.S.-Mexico border; rapidly rising violent crime in cities; formula shortages for infants; chip shortages for vehicle production; bare shelves in grocery stores for ordinary items; medication shortages for various prescriptions; logistics breakdowns (crowded ports and rails); 110,000 drug overdose deaths and rising; the fallout from mandated masking, school closures, lockdowns, vaccine mandates, and vaccine passports; school boards imposing CRT against parental wishes and sheltering sexual groomers; ever ballooning student debt with low prospects of paying off those debts; rising concerns about civil disturbance and rule of law, etc.

I guess there was a word count limit.