The Book Of Manchin

Joe Biden will consider a framework for a bipartisan infrastructure deal on Thursday, after a group of lawmakers (five Democrats and five Republicans) managed to agree on the scaffolding for some $559 billion in new spending after days spent negotiating with White House aides.

The price tag is, of course, well short of Biden’s original plan, but since negotiations with Senator Shelley Moore Capito fell through, the infrastructure push has proceeded along two tracks. Apparently, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi will support any bipartisan deal that receives Biden’s blessing while resorting to budget resolutions to push through the remainder of the White House’s fiscal agenda, which totals some $4 trillion in all.

The bipartisan plan would raise revenue without higher taxes on the middle class (a non-starter for Biden) and without reversing the Trump tax cuts for businesses (a GOP red line).

The new spending is part of a $1.2 trillion, eight-year package, but there’s still palpable consternation on both sides. Republicans are lukewarm, at best, on additional federal spending after last year’s bonanza and Progressives aren’t enamored with the idea of adopting a patchwork approach when Democrats control both chambers.

As Bloomberg put it Thursday, success on the bipartisan infrastructure deal “will hinge on whether Progressive Democrats in the House and Senate are assured that their priorities are met in a separate, more expansive package that would use reconciliation to clear the Senate without needing GOP votes.”

The New York Times echoed that in their coverage, writing that, “Progressive Democrats in the House and the Senate, along with liberal activists, have complained publicly in recent weeks that Biden’s negotiations with Republicans toward a bipartisan deal risked stranding much of the agenda he campaigned on.”

Even the staunchest Republicans among you can probably sympathize. Not with Biden’s agenda, of course, but with some Democrats’ complaints about the process. When you control both chambers plus the White House, you’d expect the president to take a hard line and wield the leverage at his disposal.

And yet, Biden’s reluctance to openly countenance an end to the filibuster means Joe Manchin and, to a lesser extent, Kyrsten Sinema, wield what amounts to a veto over their own party’s agenda. If you considered this situation in a vacuum, removing it from the current context and redacting all names (people and parties) so that partisan bias doesn’t affect your assessment, it would seem objectively absurd to any observer, regardless of party affiliation, income cohort or education level.  

If you Google “Joe Manchin bipartisanship,” the headlines aren’t flattering. “Joe Manchin, at the apex of his power, finds few allies in his quest for bipartisanship,” reads one. “Opinion: Why Manchin’s defense of bipartisanship is a canard,” says another. And another: “Why Joe Manchin’s Belief in Bipartisanship Is Foolish.” And still another (the subtitle on a CST piece): “In a democracy, the minority party is not supposed to run the country.”

Mitch McConnell may as well still be Senate Majority Leader. Manchin is the new Mitch. And while he may be enjoying the power he wields, Manchin is dangerously close to being seen as naive. “Manchin named most bipartisan Senator for third year in a row,” a press release on his website proudly touts. Right under that in Google’s search results is the following headline, from Politico: “Manchin: ‘All the confidence in the world’ for bipartisan infrastructure deal.” And then another: “As his voting rights proposal stalls, will Joe Manchin’s dreams of bipartisanship ever come true?”

I hope this isn’t lost on Joe, but he’s being played for a fool by Republicans.

Some of this is Biden’s fault for not giving Manchin an ultimatum (I’m not sure what that would sound like, but Trump certainly came up with plenty when he needed them), but most of it is structural.

I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it: America doesn’t have a functioning legislature. “Inefficient” is woefully insufficient as an adjective to describe the perpetual gridlock inside the Beltway.

Lawmakers are supposed to make laws. For a lawmaker to not make laws should be a contradiction in terms. But the sad, miraculous paradox of American politics is that voters are surprised when lawmakers do make laws. The raison d’être of US politicians isn’t to get things done. Rather, it’s to keep members of the other party from getting things done. With Joe Manchin, we’ve reached the pinnacle of democratic inefficiency: A lawmaker whose job it is to stymie his own party’s agenda.

I’m not advocating for autocracy. America tried that, and it didn’t work. Although, to be “fair” to the world’s autocrats, that may have had more to do with ineptness on the part of America’s would-be authoritarian than with autocratic governance as a concept. (That’s dark humor — it’s not meant to be taken seriously, or as an endorsement of authoritarians.)

In any case, the Times summed up the state of Biden’s agenda on Thursday, writing that,

Democratic leaders in Congress are preparing to move a sweeping, multitrillion-dollar bill through the reconciliation process to approve spending on physical infrastructure, education, emissions reduction, child care, paid leave, antipoverty efforts and more. Some liberal lawmakers have pushed for assurances that Democrats have the votes for such a package — which could cost as much as $6 trillion over the course of a decade — before agreeing to back a scaled-down bipartisan deal.

Forgive me, but that raises an obvious question: If Democrats are going to push the entire package through in piecemeal fashion anyway, what’s the point of doing a fraction of it with Republicans?

Oh, that’s right: It’s bipartisanship for the sake of bipartisanship, a slogan Manchin should have emblazoned on his business cards.


 

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10 thoughts on “The Book Of Manchin

  1. “Defense spending amounted to $714 billion in FY 2020—and is expected to increase to $733 billion in FY 2021.”
    – GAO.gov

    And we can’t manage to figure out how to finance the fix for our crumbling infrastructure??

    Eisenhower was absolutely spot on in his warning about the military industrial complex.

    1. “And we can’t manage to figure out how to finance the fix for our crumbling infrastructure??”

      Sadly that’s not the point. We know how to fix infrastructure. It’s that the R’s can’t figure out how to make money for their donors. They would like everything to be a toll road/bridge/path/school/grid. The military gets money because the suppliers of military equipment are big donors.
      Seems it was said by Mitch or some other ranking R during the previous admin that they don’t even think it’s the government’s job to build roads. Seriousldy?? Notice the complete failure and waste of our interstate highway system. /sarc !!
      Why can’t the richest country in the world have nice roads? It shouldn’t be a head-scratcher.

      It should be painfully obvious that the R’s don’t give a wit about doing a thing for the people of this country unless they get votes and donations. Otherwise, forget it.

  2. Whatever happened to a basic level of healthcare for everyone, as in portable healthcare (coverage stays with you regardless of where you work and even if you don’t work)?
    This probably has a lot of support among all people, even if not among the elected GOPers.

  3. Since our economic system is built upon small rents being collected by a large corporations. It would seem reasonable that corporations should support most of the Democrats propositions, as it is the poor that pay the rents. Therein lies the greatest growth the Democrats can see is if they start convincing and tapping corporate monies.

  4. If we had a three party system we would not be talking about Bi-partisanship . In addition to the fact that Independent minded voters would NOT get the “for me or against me ” treatment from the Political system… Get the money out and Corporations lose some leverage and one man one vote is reality… Does Everyone really want that and that’s another issue that has been debated . Those are the choices that comprise the proverbial third rail !!! Tough issues …ALL.

  5. The most comprehensive term paper I ever wrote for a history course was a history of major scandals from around 1850 until around the time of the Korean War — Teapot Dome, Credit Mobilier, and on and on. The way money runs politics has never changed as far as I can see. All our elected representatives care about is keeping their jobs and the good life those jobs let them live. The power they get is important but only because it leads to more money. Amazing how every Congress person seems to be much richer after they’ve been in office. That means donors and graft and perks,etc. The beat goes on.

  6. Contrary to the commentary here, I think things are going pretty well for progressives. Don’t you think Biden extracted some promises from Sinema and Manchin for this deal? I bet there will be a reconciliation bill on top of what was agreed to today, and won’t be surprised to see a compomise voting rights act passed as well. Sinema and Manchin are playing the middle so they can get re-elected more easily. With 50 seats in the Senate on both sides I am so grateful for Manchin and Sinema being on the Democratic side. If Democrats win a few more seats in both houses maybe they can enact a more progressive agenda, but until that time Biden and the Democrats are on a roll and are playing the hand given expertly. So far so good. And by the way, many still seem to underestimate Biden’s political and policy skills. Is he perfect? No but he is playing the game really well, and the country should be thankful for it- other country’s progressives are watching what Biden does with some admiration. Look at what is going on in UK, France and Germany…where the US was at the bottom of the barrel a year ago, we are doing much better politically than those players right now.

  7. This has all been obviously telegraphed by the way. And yet somehow many are convinced of impending high inflation and a booming economy. The country is on a structural crash course to autocracy, a road paved by dysfunction and incompetence. This is what a couple years of once-in-a-decade control of government looks like. Are you not impressed, ladies and gentlemen? Now they are repeating Obama’s ‘09-‘11 mistakes step by step. Might as well bring back Larry for the reunion tour if they’re going to stick with his policies.

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