Months of Democrats and President Biden kissing Joe Manchin’s West Virginia white ass ended, predictably, with Joe Manchin doing what Joe Manchin was no doubt going to do all along.
“Sen. Manchin’s announcement that he intends to discontinue good-faith negotiations with his Senate colleagues and the White House is terribly disappointing,” Virginia Democratic Congressman Donald McEachin said after Manchin announced on Sunday, on Fox News, of course, of course, that he could not reduce himself to voting for Biden’s Build Back Better Act, a $1.7 trillion bill that would have made significant investments to combat the ongoing climate crisis and extended the Child Tax Credit program that has lifted millions of children out of poverty.
Manchin, laughably, noted concerns over rising consumer prices, the national debt and the Omicron variant as reasons for his decision, as if any of those have anything to do with him not wanting to vote for legislation that would strike at the bottom lines of his line of donors from the fossil-fuel industry.
The self-styled “centrist” Democrat reportedly is hardline on the Child Tax Credits because he assumes that parents misuse the funds to buy illegal drugs, which, hey, he’s the one insulting people from his home state here, not me.
It’s long since past time that Biden and Democratic leaders in D.C. stop kowtowing to this ogre.
Let him go over to the dark side, even if it means a few months of Mitch McConnell back as Senate Majority Leader, with the long view in mind.
The 2022 midterms are already trending pretty poorly for Democrats, with the uneven economic recovery from the pandemic under threat from the upcoming fourth wave from Omicron, which, yes, is obviously going to do whatever it’s going to be able to do because Republicans and their propaganda wing still have 30 percent of the population convinced that horse tranquilizers are safer and more effective than COVID vaccines.
It’s almost as if this is the GOP midterm strategy: to kneecap Biden and Democrats by letting COVID rip through the population, even if it will be their base that bears the brunt of both the human and economic toll in the process.
The strategy of Biden and Democrats has been to try to keep Manchin in the fold by watering down legislation and executive edicts to a point that they basically have nothing to show for their first year back in power.
Manchin just liberated them from having to continue playing that stupid game, if only they allow themselves that.
It’s not sounding like they like freedom all that much.
“We are at an inflection point,” McEachin said. “Without decisive action to curb the climate crisis, we will face irreversible environmental deterioration, more extreme weather events, and an uncertain future for our planet. I urge Sen. Manchin to return to the negotiation table and help us deliver for the American people. There is much work to do, and we cannot afford any further inaction.”
Yes, indeed, some Democrats want Manchin back at the negotiating table – some, but not all.
“No one should think that we are going to be satisfied with an even smaller package that leaves people behind or refuses to tackle critical issues like climate change. That is why it is now incumbent on President Biden to keep his promise to us and to the American people by using the ultimate tool in his toolbox: the tool of executive actions in every arena immediately,” said Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
That’s the way to go. Let Manchin try to do Manchin without a dance partner, and in the meantime, try to get some tangible things done – cancelling student debt, targeting fossil-fuel producers to address climate change.
I think the midterms may already be lost for Democrats, but this is the only chance to open the window even a sliver.
Story by Chris Graham
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