This is insulting.

[Scrivener7]

68. Your mistake is thinking the public's support matters one whit to Manchin and Sinema.

Because of the way the math works, they have us hostage on the 3.5T, regardless of what the public wants. They will not support it, and without their support it will not pass. It sucks, but it is the situation we are in. They are not negotiating in good faith, and there is nothing you or I or AOC or Joe can do to make them do so.

So now we need to try something else. This is the something else.

I'd much prefer the 3.5, of course. But it just isn't going to happen. That is not a failure. That is the legislative process. It is very, very ugly, and very, very unfair. But it is the system we have. So we need to realistically decide what we CAN get within that system. Insisting we want what we know isn't going to happen doesn't get us anywhere.