Why Did Manchin Kill The Build Back Better Bill?

This cartoon is by Joe Thibodeau.

On Sunday, Joe Manchin bragged on Fox News that he would vote against the Build Back Better bill. That effectively kills the bill, because it needed the votes of all 50 Democrats and Independents to pass. Why did he do that? Is it because he's rich -- he has his and doesn't care about anyone else -- especially the poor, workers, and middle class who are struggling to keep their heads above water in this inflationary recession? That's my opinion.

Here's what former Labor Secretary Robert Reich thinks at robertreich.sunstack.com:

I can’t resist opining on West Virginia senator Joe Manchin’s motive for announcing yesterday he won’t support the “Build Back Better” social and environmental package. He delivered the deathblow on Fox News Sunday (after refusing to take Joe Biden’s phone call presumably asking him not to make the announcement).

The reasons Manchin gave are absurd on their face. He must know that.

He said he’s worried about inflation and the national debt. But Build Back Better would be paid for with tax increases on big corporations and the wealthy — so it won’t have any bearing on inflation or the debt. More to the point, its sticker price of $1.75 trillion covers 10 years, during which the Congressional Budget Office projects $288 trillion worth of economic output. So a Build Back Better plan of $1.75 trillion or would amount to roughly 0.6% of gross domestic product — or slightly more than the 0.5% of GDP Americans spent last year on tobacco. And that doesn’t cover all the benefits to the economy of investing in K-12 education, childcare, and so on. 

Manchin also claimed he’s worried about the impact of the latest COVID surge on the economy. But if COVID slows the economy, that’s even more justification for federal spending that strengthens social safety nets. And even more reason to support a program that could possibly stimulate the economy in the short run. 

He said he can’t face his constituents in West Virginia without renouncing “Build Back Better.”But on a per-person basis, West Virginians would be among the biggest beneficiaries of the legislation in all America. One out of four West Virginians over 65 have no natural teeth, for example — the highest rate in the nation. Biden’s original bill provided dental benefits under Medicare.

So what’s really motivating Manchin? Four possibilities:

West Virginia is a coal state, and Manchin doesn’t want to do anything that might dampen coal production (the bill has a number of environmental measures). Possibly, but Manchin must know there’s no long-term future in mining coal regardless of what happens to this legislation. There are far fewer coal jobs left in West Virginia than there are jobs in health care. The legislation would, however, help West Virginians transition from coal to new and better jobs. And help them survive in the meantime.

He’s self-dealing. He owns stock valued at between $1 million and $5 million in Enersystems, a coal brokerage firm he founded in 1988? Last year he made half a million dollars in Enersystems dividends (roughly three times the $174,000 salary he made last year as a senator).

He’s takes bribes. He collects more campaign money from coal, oil, and gas companies than any other senator. (In June, Exxon lobbyist Keith McCoy told the Greenpeace investigative unit that Manchin participated in weekly meetings with company operatives.)

He loves the power and attention. Who ever heard of Joe Manchin before the Biden administration? A minor-league Democratic senator from a small, poor state suddenly has the national spotlight and has become the biggest spoiler in the Democratic Party.

Bernie Sanders Wins West Virginia While Hillary Clinton Moves Closer To Becoming The Democratic Nominee

The Democrats of West Virginia went to the primary polls yesterday, and they gave Bernie Sanders another moral victory. Sanders won the state by 15 points (51% to 36%). But while the victory might make Sanders and his supporters feel good, it did little to help him catch Clinton in the delegate count.

Clinton earned another 11 delegates last night, while Sanders won 16 delegates (meaning he only picked up 5 delegates overall). That's not nearly enough to help him catch up with Clinton's primary/caucus delegate lead (or her even larger lead in total delegates). In fact, when super delegates are included, both Clinton and Sanders have 17 West Virginia delegates (with 3 W.V. delegates still to be decided).

Here are the current delegate totals (according to Bloomberg Politics):

PRIMARY/CAUCUS DELEGATES
Clinton...............1716
Sanders...............1430
difference...............286

TOTAL DELEGATES
Clinton...............2239
Sanders...............1469
difference...............770

There are still 1,057 unallocated delegates. To reach the magic number of 2,383, Hillary Clinton needs only 144 of them (or 13.6%) while Bernie Sanders needs 914 (or 86.5%). Is there really anyone who doesn't believe Clinton can get far more than 144 delegates out of the remaining states/territories (Kentucky, Oregon, Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, California, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, and the District of Columbia)?

Significant Anti-Romney Vote Still Evident

Three more states held their primaries yesterday -- North Carolina, West Virginia, and Indiana. Willard Mitt Romney (aka Wall Street Willie), the only candidate left in the Republican race other than wannabe candidate Ron Paul, went into those primaries with 865 delegates out of the 1144 delegates needed for the nomination. As expected, he won all three of those state primaries. But even if he had taken all of the 132 delegates at stake yesterday (which he didn't do), it will still take a couple more primaries to put him over the top.

There is no doubt that Romney will be the eventual nominee, and will have the required number of delegates by the end of this month. But that is not the most important story right now. To me, the most important thing is that there is still a significant portion of the Republican Party that still refuses to climb on the Romney bandwagon. That was very evident last night at 34% of North Carolina voters, 35% of Indiana voters, and 30% of West Virginia voters still voted against Wall Street Willie last night.

One would have thought that with Romney assured of the nomination the Republican voters would now be falling in line and giving him their votes -- if for no other reason than to show their solidarity with the party's general election nominee. But that's not happening. There's still about 30% of Republicans, mostly teabaggers and evangelicals, who have not accepted Romney as their nominee.

The current idea being spread is that now that Romney can't be denied the nomination, he needs to moderate his views to appeal to a wider range of voters in the general election. I'm not so sure that would be wise. If he starts moderating his views now, he stands a good chance of losing that 30% of Republicans who haven't yet accepted him (and would be angered by yet another flip-flop). They could easily vote for a third party (Libertarian Party, Constitution Party, etc.), or just stay home on election day (which would be disastrous for down-ballot Republicans). He'd better win these voters over before he tries to moderate (if he can moderate at all).

Here are last night's results:

NORTH CAROLINA (99% reporting)
Mitt Romney...............629,496  (65.69%)
Ron Paul...............106,181  (11.08%)
Rick Santorum...............99,732  (10.41%)
Newt Gingrich...............73,368  (7.66%)
Others...............49,574  (5.17%)
TOTAL VOTES...............958,351

INDIANA (99% reporting)
Mitt Romney...............406,678  (64.61%)
Ron Paul...............97,451  (15.48%)
Rick Santorum...............84,612  (13.44%)
Newt Gingrich...............40,666  (6.46%)
Others...............0  (0.00%)
TOTAL VOTES...............629,407

WEST VIRGINIA (96% reporting)
Mitt Romney...............73,044  (69.48%)
Rick Santorum...............12,721  (12.10%)
Ron Paul...............11,683  (11.11%)
Newt Gingrich...............6,605  (6.28%)
Others...............1,074  (1.02%)
TOTAL VOTES...............105,127

NOTE -- Democrats got a big boost last night with the defeat of Senator Lugar in Indiana. They stand a much better (actually a very good) chance of beating the teabagger that Republicans will be running for the seat instead of Lugar. It looks like the teabaggers didn't learn from their experiences in Nevada and Delaware in the last election (where they threw away good chances to win by nominating far-right nut-jobs).

How Can Manchin Call Himself A Democrat ?

The weird-looking guy in the picture above in Joe Manchin. He is the "Democratic" senator from the state of West Virginia. I put the word "Democratic" in quotation marks because I'm really not sure he qualifies to use the term to describe himself. He's one of those "blue dogs" that vote with the Republicans more than he votes with the members of his own party. And it is a common-place occurrence for Manchin to take to the floor of the Senate and notify anyone listening that he disagrees with the president.

All of that would be bad enough, and would be enough for anyone to question his Democratic credentials. Manchin takes his aversion to the president much further. You can bet he won't be sharing any stage with the president or ask him to come to West Virginia to campaign with him (and he'll avoid any other real Democrat for the next few months also). Manchin is running for re-election, and he's seems to be afraid that the voters of his state might think he's a real Democrat instead of a DINO.

But even that is not far enough from the Democratic Party for Manchin. He is entering "Lieberman-like" territory. He has told reporters that he doesn't even know whether he will vote for the president or his opponent, Wall Street Willie (aka Willard Romney). That's right. Even in the voting booth, where no one can see what he's doing, Manchin doesn't think he can bring himself to vote for the presidential nominee of his own party!

Manchin says, "I'm just waiting for it to play out. I am not jumping in one way or another. I'm worried about me. I've said it's not a team sport. You need to go out and work for yourself."

Not a team sport? Is he kidding? Of course it's a "team sport". That's why we have the party system, so a candidate can make use of a team of citizens to finance, work for, and get out the vote for his campaign. That team is called a political party, and Manchin wants to use the Democratic "team" without being obligated to give back to it. If he didn't want to associated with the Democratic Party (team), he should be running as an Independent.

Does this jerk deserve the support (financially or otherwise) of any Democrat? I don't think so.