I was thinking more along the lines of $100 million to remodel some airfield down in the holler into “Joe Manchin International Airport”.
Josh Marshall of TPM writes that this new Manchin agreement may have been some sharp politics by the Democrats:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/icymi-18
He writes that earlier, McConnell threatened to withdraw Republican support (and thus doom due to the filibuster) for the China competition/CHIPs bill unless Democrats stopped negotiating about reviving a climate change bill. Manchin pulled his support from the climate change bill, so the Senate passed China/CHIPS on a bipartisan basis. Now Manchin has resumed support for the climate change bill, and Republicans are pissed, calling it a “betrayal”. If this is accurate, that meant that Manchin’s earlier withdrawal of support for climate change might have been a feint to get Republicans to help this other bill, and now that it’s through they can go ahead with the climate change.
If so, a rare smart and ruthless move by Senate Democrats.
So far as I’ve seen, he’s always been terribly clear on exactly what his absolutes are.
I’m sure that there’s been some back and forth on the specifics of some matters but, in general, the sticking point has been that the progressives try to convince themselves that he doesn’t really mean it when he says that “X can’t be part of any bill that I will accept”.
That how Manchin is simply up-front and honest can be interpreted as “weasely”, I think, says more about everyone else and how they operate than it does about Manchin.
Get ready to start a new thread: “Fuck you, Kyrsten Sinema!!”
Take the deal before he pulls the plug like he did when the initial BBB negotiations were happening. He put forward a counter proposal which stripped a lot of the really good stuff from the bill but kept in enough to make it viable as a bare minimum. Only to then get cold feet and withdraw the offer. I had given up any hope of a revived negotiation this soon before the mid-terms so this news is a pleasant surprise. Take what you can now and if the mid-terms go well and he is no longer the kingmaker in the senate you can chase the rest.
A much better topic, IMO. We can’t do any better than Manchin in WV. We can do much better than Sinema in AZ.
I think so, too. If she fuckers this up, I can’t even…
The only ray of hope I see here is that she is already so far down in the polls in AZ that she may see this as an opportunity to bolster her chances of reelection in 2024.
If she doesn’t, it would not surprise me to see her switch parties – and deliver the Senate into McConnell’s hands, especially if Dems don’t do well in the Senate in 2022.
And apparently the Republicans were so pissed that they ended up filibustering a Veteran’s Health / burn pits bill. That seems to be the only thing that pundits could come up with for why Republicans in the Senate quickly blocked something they were in great favor for not that long ago.
Such a good look for Republicans going into the mid-terms.
If Dems manage to pass their Inflation Reduction bill soon, what a tail wind it will give them for the mid-terms: Medicare negotiation with drug companies to lower drug prices; 369 billion for climate change; 15% corporate tax on corporations’ on-book profits before calculating for tax; no more carried interest. It’s a really good bill.
I suspect Sinema is likely to sink it.
No he hasn’t.
Probably the biggest example was when he “negotiated” with Biden to agree to a 1.75B framework that he would support, Biden announced that Manchin had agreed and Manchin said people should trust Biden but didn’t directly answer if he supported it. And then the kicker was that his stated reason for pulling out of negotiations was that he didn’t want Biden to tell the truth about the fact that they were negotiating.
Cite?
Not quite on topic, but…
Ted Cruz takes a shot at Mitch McConnell after he gets outplayed by Dems on Manchin deal
Repubs. When the going gets tough, the rats start eating each other.
And in addition to those factors, there’s the always-number-one with Sinema: tanking the bill would put All Eyes On Her.
Even harming her own re-election chances can’t compare to the importance of being the center of attention, for that particular individual. (And, of course, going Republican would amp that attention-level up to eleven.)
Agreed. She has been such a disappointment.
People I know in Arizona agree she has. to. go. I don’t think even signing on to this legislation is going to save her.
Oh what the fuck NOW?
For the bolded - no one’s asking for prognostication, dipshit, and sure as fuck does not explain why you’re not confirming the hope that the Democrats retain control of Congress after the November elections.
One of the things that drives me nuts about politics is the absolute pig-headed optimism often spewed by politicians. I remember the party conventions when I was a kid; both the Democrats and Republicans introduced their nominee as “the next president of the United States…”. Young as a was, I was pretty sure they couldn’t both be telling the truth. I hate that pep-club boosterism.
Unless there’s something more damning in the article than the part you quoted, I don’t have a problem with it. Manchin didn’t say he doesn’t want Democrats to retain control, just that he won’t predict whether it will happen. Good for him. I’m not going to predict it, either.
But I think you bolded the wrong part of the quote.
Joe Manchin said that? Fucking hysterical.
So, he can’t simply state whether or not he wants Dems to retain control?
That was great, btw, what you highlighted.
It’s very common for politicians not to answer a specific question asked–but instead to go off on a tangent. I expect his answer was simply something he wanted to talk about–and the questioners were not asking this question.