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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsManchin signals he'll be team player on spending deal
Highly likely to vote yes on next Wednesday's budget resolution vote as well. Awesome news!
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/563323-manchin-signals-hell-be-team-player-on-spending-deal
Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.), a crucial centrist vote in the Democratic caucus, is signaling to colleagues that he wont derail a $3.5 trillion budget resolution that contains many of President Bidens legislative priorities.
Senate Democrats say Manchin has indicated he will not stand in the way of the measure moving forward and will be generally supportive as long as hes kept in the loop on his top concerns: how to pay for the bill and a clean energy provision.
BradAllison
(1,879 posts)MustLoveBeagles
(11,563 posts)OnDoutside
(19,908 posts)until he's ready to commit. That's pretty much it on this Bill. The crucial question is the voting rights bill... that's what matters above all
Demsrule86
(68,352 posts)OnDoutside
(19,908 posts)As I have said here many times since Jan 6th, there is no bill more important to democracy in America than a voting rights bill. Nothing. Now Lawrence O'Donnell covered the fact that Big Oil held a fundraiser in Texas for the WV Senator Joe Manchin, we know not only is he in the pocket of Big Pharma, but Big Oil too. If there's a fundraiser for Manchin by McConnell, lose all hope.
Demsrule86
(68,352 posts)OnDoutside
(19,908 posts)be saying goodbye to their own seats if they didn't. However time is not on their side. Plus if Manchin agrees, Sinema would be under massive pressure to agree too.
JohnSJ
(91,963 posts)OnDoutside
(19,908 posts)is on side...in fact I heard Pramila Jayapal welcome it.
Politicub
(12,163 posts)members are also pragmatic when it comes to voting.
Sedona
(3,769 posts)yonder
(9,631 posts)Response to Sedona (Reply #4)
Post removed
Demsrule86
(68,352 posts)vercetti2021
(10,150 posts)Whatever $$$$$ says. He'll jump
RockRaven
(14,784 posts)That said, it would be Susan-Collins of him (in an extremely minorly amusing way) to tell reporters he's concerned about the climate stuff in the bill, go to TX for a fossil fuel fundraiser, and then come back to DC and vote with the party line anyway...
monkeyman1
(5,109 posts)like getting hit with falling airplane part's in the middle of I-95 !!
OnDoutside
(19,908 posts)Tom Rinaldo
(22,911 posts)Manchin has been pretty open about stating his views and priorities. He is not a secret Republican agent working to bring down Biden, he is a conservative Democrat. He has been a steadfast supporter of the filibuster and has not been shy to say so. He opposed raising the corporate tax rate to 28% as originally proposed by Biden and he said so. He also said he could support raising it to 25% instead, and seemingly that is what the emerging legislation now is proposing.
His "moderate block" of Democratic Senators (2+ members) has been trading "warnings" with the progressive block about what level of expenditures deemed acceptable. Manchin called for 2 or 2.5 Trillion. Sanders wanted 6 Trillion or so. Now the working target is 3.5 Trillion.
While I am displeased, to say the least, with some of the positions and priorities Manchin professes, I have no reason to doubt that is isn't his literal goal to blow up the Biden presidency. He has leverage to back up his bargaining position, but he knows that other Democrats do also. Manchin supports a lot of Biden's economic agenda because it is good for the citizens of his state. As long as his corporate backers are not too directly threatened by such provisions he can back many. That is all part of the push and pull behind the scenes,
Manchin has a voting record much closer to the overall Democratic agenda than does West Virginia's other Republican Senator, even though she is viewed as being more "moderate" than most of the Republican caucus in the Senate. He gives support to Biden in many cases when she does not. Earlier this year I took note of reporting that Manchin was on board with some of the clean energy provisions that Biden was advocating for. Specifically they included sending a boat load of money to states like West Virginia to transition toward clean energy jobs to help displaced miners and the like.
Manchin knows that even the free market so to speak does not support fossil fuel usage over emerging alternative energy souses and that "the handwriting is on the world." But he isn't adverse to milking some more dollars for the fossil fuel complex from the feds targeted for his state and his backers if he can win that concession as the price for his vote. And for simple politics alone, Manchin no doubt cares about the actual language in pending legislation, aside form the actual substance. If the preamble to clauses sounds militantly anti-fossil fuels, that can be used against him by Republicans back home.
Grown2Hate
(2,005 posts)I'm not a Manchin "fan", but you laid out the reasons why he's important right now. As unfortunate as that is, I too never get the feeling that he'll "jump ship" (he'd have done it by now).
He will hold us hostage on voting rights (and NOTHING is more important than that right now), but SOME of the Biden agenda is better than zero of his agenda (which is where we'd be with Moscow Mitch in charge of the Senate).
It sucks and it's unfortunate, but it's better than the alternative.
Tom Rinaldo
(22,911 posts)Men like Evan Bayh, Joe Lieberman, and Max Baucus are why the Affordable Care Act didn't include a Public Option. Conversely their ultimate support was also how it managed to defeat a Republican filibuster without a vote to spare.