Paul Ryan's and Mitch McConnell's Congress is getting ready for the longest August recess in something like 60 years, one that's going to swallow up half of July and the first week of September. What are the Republicans doing with this very short week? Playing politics, what else? That includes refusing to work with Democrats to come up with a responsible Zika prevention bill. Meanwhile,

Public health experts have warned that the mosquitoes carrying Zika will populate over the summer and exacerbate the spread of the virus, which can cause birth defects.

Republicans continue to insist on funding that prevents money from going to birth control by blocking Planned Parenthood from getting any of the funds and on weakening Clean Water Act regulations with suspended pesticide rules. Oh, and underfunding it by stealing money from other public health programs. Like Ebola. You know, the thing they were so terrified by during the last election and which also could run out of funding by October since the government has been forced to borrow from it to pay for Zika while waiting for Congress to provide the money.

The party that also has so much respect for "life" is also not going to do a damned thing about gun violence. Not even after a month of horrors, because Paul Ryan's "hands have been tied by conservatives, including the House Freedom Caucus, whose opposition to an anti-terrorism package with modest gun provisions derailed the bill last week." Those would be the "modest" gun provisions approved by the NRA. But Ryan is going to take the time to have an abortion fight this week, blocking a state—California—from requiring all health policies to include abortion coverage. Because state's rights only extends so far.

What else? Spending fights, where back on the Senate side "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is deploying one of his favorite parliamentary tactics: forcing repeated votes on failed measures that are likely to fall short again, triggering another round of headlines and blame for Senate Democrats blocking those measures." Democrats are united behind blocking these bills because McConnell refuses to agree to keep poison pills—like defunding Planned Parenthood—out of them.

This means another last minute spending fight to keep government open when they return for the short September work period. At least one Republican is making government shutdown threats over, of all things, Hillary Clinton not being charged. In other words, business as usual for the GOP.