Date: 2024-04-25 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00021405
US POLITICS
SENATOR JOE MANCHIN
Omar: Manchin's excuse for not supporting Build Back Better is 'bulls---'
SENATOR JOE MANCHIN
Omar: Manchin's excuse for not supporting Build Back Better is 'bulls---'
Joe Manchin
Original article: https://thehill.com/homenews/house/586473-omar-manchins-excuse-for-not-supporting-build-back-better-is-bulls
Burgess COMMENTARY
Designing a 'political system' is not easy. The idea of 'demos' or 'democracy' goes back to the Ancient Greeks but the actual operation of 'democracy' is very hard. The Constitution of the United States has attempted to codify the idea, and it has many very good elements, including the separation of power (Executive, Judiciary and Lagislative branches), multilevel governance (Federal, State and Local) and multiple rules about voting to empower the people of areas with very different types of population.
The structure is not perfect, but it 'sort of' works. It is complicated in modern times by the role of money in politics, a short and viscious news cycle, the use of misinformation and disinformation and almost certainly the involvement of foreign national actors in the American political process.
It is against this backdrop that Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have emerged as important political players. West Virginia and Arizona are States with quite small populations, but these two legislators currently have control of the Senate because their votes really determine what Bills pass and which do not. Looked at from the outside ... that is from another part of the country ... their opposition to the Build Back Better Bill (BBBB) does not compute. More than anything else their own personal finances seems to come into question with Joe Manchin likely involved too much with the corporate coal industry and .... involved to much with big pharma and perhaps other corporate interests. We don't know. I don't know. But nothing else seems to explain their positions. (See #21452)
Peter Burgess
BY CAROLINE VAKIL
12/19/21 01:03 PM EST
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said on Sunday that Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-W.Va.) reasons for not supporting Democrats’ social spending bill is “bullshit” after the West Virginia moderate shocked lawmakers Sunday by announcing he was a 'no' on the legislation.
“Let’s be clear: Manchin’s excuse is bullshit. The people of West Virginia would directly benefit from childcare, pre-Medicare expansion, and long term care, just like Minnesotans,” Omar tweeted.
Omar said Manchin's position was what progressive House lawmakers had warned for months – that the Senate did not have all 50 Democratic votes needed to pass Biden's spending package.
“This is exactly what we warned would happen if we separated Build Back Better from infrastructure,” she said.
Ilhan Omar @IlhanMN
Let’s be clear: Manchin’s excuse is bullshit. The people of West Virginia would directly benefit from childcare, pre-Medicare expansion, and long term care, just like Minnesotans.
This is exactly what we warned would happen if we separated Build Back Better from infrastructure.
Quote Tweet East Atlanta Santa 🎅🏾😷🧼🧴💉 @emarvelous · 4h
Just now: @IlhanMN on Sen. Manchin’s comments on Fox News Sunday this morning that he’s “done all he can,” but that he won’t be able to support BBB moving forward: “I think it’s bullshit.”
10:32 AM · Dec 19, 2021·Twitter for iPhone 3,072 Retweets 419 Quote Tweets 16.2K Likes
During an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Manchin shockingly announced he would not be supporting the Build Back Better bill despite months of negotiations with the White House and his Democratic colleagues.
'I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation, I just can't. I tried everything humanly possible, I can't get there' he told guest host Bret Baier.White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement that Manchin's statements demonstrated a betrayal to previous commitments he had made directly to Biden.
“Senator Manchin promised to continue conversations in the days ahead, and to work with us to reach that common ground. If his comments on FOX and written statement indicate an end to that effort, they represent a sudden and inexplicable reversal in his position, and a breach of his commitments to the President and the Senator’s colleagues in the House and Senate,” Psaki said.
Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), who had also pushed for both pieces of legislation to be coupled together through Congress, said on Sunday, “we have been saying this for weeks that this would happen and we took the hits.”
“We were told that we were anti- our caucus, we were anti-democracy, we were anti- this and that when actually what we were and what we still are is pro- the people because the people have to be first, the people have to win,” Bush said.
“And so what we had was a bit of leverage, which was having the coupling of the two bills, the BIFF, the infrastructure package, as well as the Build Back Better Act,” she said. “Having those coupled together was the only leverage we had, and what did the caucus do? We tossed it, you know, and for me, it's really - it's sad.”
- Read Manchin's statement announcing opposition to Build Back Better
- Manchin says he will not vote for Build Back Better: 'This is a no'