As the House was debating passage of the $1.7 trillion Build Back Better Act on Thursday evening, Chris Hayes highlighted the extra scrutiny that domestic spending bills receive, even as the size of the nation’s military budget is rarely if ever questioned.

The MSNBC host brought up how the Senate had also advanced the annual defense policy bill, with a price tag of more than $700 billion per year, with barely any notice -- even though it was more than four times the cost of the latest version of the BBB Act.

He then welcomed Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who is threatening to hold up passage of the bill, and briefly continued his rant.

It's "always been the case," said Hayes, that the money for domestic programs was graded with Congressional Budget Office scores, and was "real money that has to be accounted for...it's got to be paid for," but defense spending somehow "just doesn't count." 

"It’s just in a different category, existentially," said Hayes about military spending, adding that "it must be maddening" to watch defense bills pass with so little scrutiny. "However much, trillions, trillions, trillions here, trillion there."

His point is one that should be adopted on a more bipartisan basis. The US national debt has skyrocketed to nearly $29 trillion and all government spending -- whether it be for the military, infrastructure improvements to highways and bridges, or domestic social programs -- should be graded by the CBO or a similar process, scrutinized for effectiveness and constitutionality, and openly debated by our elected representatives. 

Dr. Anthony Fauci had a busy night at Jonathan Karl’s book launch party, dodging photographers trying to snap his picture maskless.

Fauci was among the attendees for an event at Washington, DC’s Cafe Milano to celebrate the publication of Karl’s bombshell–laden book Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show. According to Washington Post columnist Sally Quinn, there were throngs of shutterbugs hoping to capture an unmasked doc in the wild DC night life habitat.

Quinn told Politico Playbook about the “paparazzi” who were surrounding Fauci trying to get that “gotcha moment” of the Covid czar without a mask on. The event required all guests to show proof of vaccination for admittance.

“He was being safe,” Quinn said in Fauci's defense. “He knew everyone was vaccinated. If it was someone we knew, he would trust them, and if it was somebody else, he didn’t.”

Fauci is fully vaccinated (including getting a booster shot) and was at an event where all attendees had to be  vaccinated. Even the CDC guidelines that some have panned as overly cautious don't demand face masks for gatherings with vaccinated people. 

The paparazzi's quest to snap a photo of a maskless Fauci -- and the social media gloating that would undoubtedly ensue if they had succeeded -- was ridiculous. It's time for the "gotcha!" games to stop.

Fauci did nothing wrong at that event, and even had a chance to do a good deed, helping provide medical care to man at the party who suddenly collapsed. The doctor did don a mask while he attended to that stricken guest.