Joe Manchin, eh?

 

Democrats failing

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 12/20/2024:

Say goodbye to Joe Manchin

Good. Bye.

Democrats need to stop freaking out about Joe Manchin’s decision to not seek reelection to the United States Senate.

[...]

Even when Manchin isn’t voting for Republicans, he’s doing all he can to stymie meaningful reform of the courts: he’s against court expansion, against term limits, and hasn’t said boo about the ongoing ethical disaster that is Justice Clarence Thomas. Those stances of course link up to Manchin’s legendary refusal to support any kind of pro-democracy Senate reform, and his steadfast support of the Senate filibuster—an antidemocratic tool to prop up minority rule.

Indeed, it’s hard to find a piece of Democratic legislation or policy position that hasn’t been made weaker and less effective because of Manchin’s presence. He is the guy who watered down Biden’s “Build Back Better” economic stimulus program—then turned around and didn’t vote for it anyway. He refused to extend the Covid relief child tax credit, the lapse of which has doubled the child poverty rate. He’s been a thorn in the side of every piece of environmental legislation that has come up while he’s been in the Senate, and he’s been a consistent opponent of voting rights legislation, including the “For the People” Act, which would have made voter registration automatic and restored voting rights to convicted felons.

[...]

There’s also the sheer amount of time Democratic leaders have had to waste massaging Manchin’s mercurial political whims. Every second Biden or Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer has to spend begging Manchin to not stab America in the back is time they could have spent leaning on Romney, or Susan Collins, or just crafting a better, more unified message for the Democratic Party. And don’t even get me started on all the cash we’ve had to funnel to West Virginia in every budget package to secure Manchin’s vote.

[...]

I would argue that in most cases the need to appease Manchin has caused Democrats to be politically weaker than they would have been if they just had to deal with a regular moderate Republican. If you have to make a deal with Romney, at least that deal gets the benefit of appearing “bipartisan.” With Manchin, the call is coming from inside the house: He forces Democrats to pass Republican-appeasing legislation but then own all of it, while the GOP gets much of what they want and remains unified in its unwillingness to govern.

[...]

We have plenty of examples of moderate Democrats—be they Jon Tester in Montana, Sherrod Brown in Ohio, or freshly reelected Governor Andy Beshear in Kentucky—who run in red states as Democrats, and win. It’s hard. But it is possible. And it can be done without suffocating the planet in greenhouse emissions. The sooner the Democratic Party stops trying to run wannabe Republicans in red states, the better.

  Elie Mystal @ The Nation

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Dems can't afford to lose the Senate in 2024

But they might.

One possibility:  They lose Manchin, who has been a thorn in their side, so good, but to a Republican, so bad.

FFS

Apparently these two boobs are worried about their future prospects as elected officials.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Apologies to boobs.

Not to be outdone by Kyrsten Sinema

The centrist Democratic senator Joe Manchin does not intend to change his party affiliation – at least for now, he said Sunday.

Manchin’s remarks on CBS’s Face the Nation came after fellow centrist senator Kyrsten Sinema sent shock waves through Congress by announcing that she was leaving the Democratic party and listing herself as an independent.

“I’ll let you know later what I decide to do, but right now, I have no intentions of changing anything,” Manchin told host Margaret Brennan, who had asked the West Virginian if there was any political advantage to becoming an independent like Sinema.

  Guardian

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The big deal

Biden and Manchin hashed out a compromise to be voted on.

The bill, H.R. 5376 (117), dubbed the “Inflation Reduction Act of 2022,” would spend nearly $370 billion on a raft of tax credits to help stimulate adoption of clean energy technologies, as well as spending for low-income and minority communities that suffer disproportionately from pollution.

It also calls for holding lease sales for oil and gas production on federal land and water, while establishing fines for excessive methane pollution.

Here’s a breakdown of what’s in the bill expected to reach the Senate floor next week:

  Politico

What caught my eye was a $7,500 rebate for new electric vehicles. Very definitely needed. And that really isn't enough. There needs to be a deal for people to trade in their gas-powered vehicles.  (And those should NOT be shipped to third world countries.  They should be used for parts, recycled metals, or destroyed.)

Continue reading.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

PS That's one of the first times I've seen Democrats manage to message properly, calling the bill "The Inflation Reduction Act".

Fucking GOP

Who were the other Senators who scuttled the bill?

They don't care about people.  They only care about power.  

A surprise deal on health care and environmental policies announced by Senate Democratic leaders Wednesday afternoon produced an unexpected casualty: the comprehensive toxic exposure legislation veterans advocates expected to pass this week.

The Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act — better known as the PACT Act — had been up for a procedural vote in the chamber with an expectation of final passage before the end of the week.

The measure is the culmination of years of work by advocates to improve health care and benefits for veterans suffering injuries from burn pit smoke, Agent Orange spraying and other military contaminant exposure.

[...]

The measure passed the Senate by a comfortable 84-14 vote in early June, and by a 342-88 vote in the House two weeks ago with significant Republican support.

But on Wednesday, after technical corrections sent the measure back to the Senate for another procedural vote, 41 Senate Republicans blocked the measure, leaving its future uncertain.

[...]

Eight Senate Republicans — including Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee ranking member Jerry Moran, R-Kansas — voted for moving ahead with the bill.

  Military Times

And why did those SOBs block the bill?

The legislation, known as the Honoring Our PACT Act (Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act), would expand treatment eligibility, and it has plenty of champions on Capitol Hill. Indeed, it cleared the House yesterday — though it did not pass unanimously.

The final tally was 256 to 174, with 34 Republicans voting with all House Democrats in support of the bill. That means, of course, that 174 GOP lawmakers voted against the legislation — roughly 82 percent of the House Republican conference. That includes every member of the House GOP leadership team, each of whom knew the bill would pass, but opposed it anyway.

[...]

The Washington Post reported:

Republicans who voted in opposition argued that the measure, which has a $300 billion price tag over 10 years, would add too much to the country’s deficit and exacerbate backlogs at VA.

Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa, who’s both a physician and a military veteran, argued, “We are not doing right by our veterans by being fiscally irresponsible in their name.”

In other words, the House GOP minority believes Democrats wrote a bill that’s too generous when it comes to veterans’ care.

  MSNBC

Three of the region’s four U.S. senators decided Wednesday to hold sick veterans hostage to their own anger. It’s appalling and childish. The senators — Roy Blunt and Josh Hawley of Missouri, and Roger Marshall of Kansas — voted against blocking a filibuster of the PACT Act, a measure designed to provide funding to treat veterans exposed to toxins and burn pits.

[...]

The three senators voted for a virtually identical bill in June, which passed overwhelmingly. Blunt even bragged about it.

[...]

Senate Republicans were furious at a budget deal, announced just moments earlier, between Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Manchin agreed to support a budget bill raising corporate taxes to pay for deficit reduction and climate change mitigation. The tax and budget bill would need a simple majority to pass, not 60 votes. That made Republicans mad.

[...]

The vote to end the filibuster was 55 yes to 42 no (Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer switched his vote to “no” in order to bring the measure back later.) In the Senate, of course, it takes 60 votes to open a can of bean soup, so the bill remains unpassed, while veterans suffer and die.

[...]

In a fit of pique over an unrelated compromise, Senate Republicans punished veterans struggling to breathe.

[...]

Comedian and activist Jon Stewart, who came to Kansas City this summer to urge progress on the PACT proposal, was equally furious. “Not one of these stab vets in the back senators should get to leave for the Summer til this s*** is fixed,” he tweeted. “Not one.”

[...]

Sens. Blunt and Marshall should be disinvited from any Veterans Day service or Memorial Day observance until the PACT Act is signed into law.

Josh Hawley? No need to worry. If he sees an upset veteran approaching, he’ll run the other way.

  Kansas City Star

And it's not just the veterans they're dumping on. They're talking about scuttling other progress.

“I just think the timing could not have been worse and it came totally out of the blue,” [Republican Susan Collins] the Maine senator told HuffPost Thursday about Senate Democrats’ unveiling of their bill to raise taxes on some companies, boost IRS enforcement and spend the resulting money to fund anti-climate change efforts.

[...]

Collins [also] warned that the manner in which that victory was secured, where it appeared Democrats kept Manchin and Schumer’s negotiations under wraps until a separate bipartisan computer chip production incentive bill was passed by the Senate, hurt the effort to gather support among Republicans to bring the gay marriage bill to the floor.

“After we just had worked together successfully on gun safety legislation, on the CHIPs bill, it was a very unfortunate move that destroys the many bipartisan efforts that are under way,” she said.

[...]

The news that West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) had arrived at an agreement broke like a thunderclap over official Washington early Wednesday night. The bill still faces hurdles, including ensuring all Senate Democrats are on board and will be available to vote on it when it comes to the floor. But if Democrats pull it off, it could be a big political victory for the party and the White House.

  HuffPo

We're looking at you, Kyrsten Sinema. I think she's taking the opportunity to steal Manchin's position as the most powerful Senator in Congress. 

Republicans are so mad Mitch McConnell got played.

The key point, Lemire stressed, [...] is that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) got tricked into giving up all his leverage.

[...]

"It doesn't happen often, but Mitch McConnell appears to publicly have been played," said Lemire. "A couple weeks ago Senator Manchin suggested there's no deal for reconciliation, so McConnell gave the okay for the CHIPS bill. House Republicans said they'd support it, too. The White House has given its blessing, now we see McConnell and other Senate Republicans going across to their colleagues in the House, you have to oppose something you previously just a few days ago were for and also have to explain that vote if this bill goes down, seem to be beneficial to China. It's a spiteful action."

  Raw Story

Get rid of the filibuster.  And get rid of the Republicans in Congress.

UPDATE:

UPDATE:  Freely admitted.

UPDATE 8/3:

A little political good news

FOR DECADES, Sen. Joe Manchin has presided over West Virginia’s Democratic Party, crowning candidates and throwing cushy appointments to allies while the state’s jobs, wages, and environment have gradually been ground to dust. But earlier this month, a grassroots slate of over 50 Democrats took control of the West Virginia Democratic Party after winning a majority of seats on the executive committee and ousting party leadership, thus ending Manchin’s de facto control of the state party apparatus.

Now, after a six-year organizing push, every old guard party apparatchik — save for the treasurer — is out of office, replaced with activists from across the Democratic spectrum set on revitalizing the state and forcing renewed support from the national party.

[...]

After Manchin and the Democratic National Committee used the bylaws governing unelected superdelegates to throw West Virginia’s 2016 presidential primary for Hillary Clinton — despite the fact that Sen. Bernie Sanders won every county in the state — activists used the DNC’s own rules to unseat the base of one of its most powerful members.

  The Intercept

Let us hope that other states will follow.

The recent upset offers hope that by populating the lower offices with Democrats who are committed to serving the public instead of favor-trading for personal gain, Manchin will no longer be the party’s only candidate who can run statewide and win.

[...]

They sowed the seeds of power by demanding that the party make good on its rules governing gender and racial equity in its staffing as well as those governing free, fair, and timely leadership elections.

Republicans now hold the governor’s office, supermajorities in both houses of the West Virginia Legislature, and every statewide office save for Manchin’s. That’s thanks largely to the inaction of a state party that until recently was composed entirely of Manchin loyalists.

[...]

The new slate of West Virginia Democrats is made up of a broad coalition of activists — including moderates — seeking to disrupt Manchin’s power. Unlike the Democratic Party upset in Nevada, which saw the Democratic Socialists of America overthrow a calcified political machine with a vast progressive ground game, West Virginia’s insurgents pulled it off by outmaneuvering a decaying party leadership grown accustomed to uncontested elections — using the DNC’s own bylaws.

[...]

“We won every officer seat we ran for,” said Shane Assadzandi, one of the organizers behind the new slate. “And after years of having to fight our own party to get a seat at the table, I look forward to fighting Republicans at the ballot box instead of useless Democrats at committee meetings.”

Kudos.

DURING THE UPCOMING midterm elections, the new slate will focus on winning down-ballot races for offices like city council, county commission, state delegate, and eventually state Senate. Without a roster of candidates building trust, legitimacy, and fundraising networks at the local level, statewide offices remain out of reach.

[...]

With the prospect of flipping West Virginia blue long off, the tactic of using DNC bylaws against old guard regimes may still prove replicable in other states like Massachusetts that are struggling under the weight of ineffective party leadership.

Maybe there's some hope for the Democratic party after all.  But they'll need lots of money and to expect the national Democratic party to muster its forces to squash this movement.

Best of luck to them.

Fuck Joe Manchin

And all the other Republicans in the Senate.

The US Senate on Wednesday failed to advance legislation that would codify the right to an abortion into federal law, after it was blocked by Republicans.

It was a largely symbolic vote by Democrats to mobilize Americans around the issue ahead of a likely supreme court decision striking down the protections enshrined by Roe v Wade.

The Senate roll call was a stark reflection of the partisan divide over abortion rights, with all Republicans and one conservative Democrat, Joe Manchin of Virginia, voting against the measure. The final tally was 49-51, well short of the 60 votes necessary to overcome a filibuster in the Senate.

  Guardian

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Why have a cap at all?

And while you're at it, pass a law that bans robbing Social Security funds to pay for anything else.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Manchin: A little good news

Congress is well and truly broken

Senate Republicans all voted against even starting debate on the voting rights bill. Debate is underway. It's expected to fail any way, as Manchin and Sinema will rob the Democrats of the 50 votes they need to pass the bill.

Nothing like wasting time on essential matters

And in the meantime....

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Richest country on earth

At Christmastime.

Hunger is rising this holiday season with the U.S. Census Bureau estimating more than 21 million Americans didn't have enough to eat in early December as pandemic relief payments run out and grocery prices rise.

[...]

Grocery prices in the U.S. are up 6.4% from a year earlier. Food banks are also seeing a rise in demand, and clinics meant to help malnourished and underfed children have seen an increase in patients.

[...]

Low-income families may soon face more pressure with monthly child tax credit payments ending and the Senate deadlocked on legislation to extend the program backed by President Joe Biden.

[...]

The last of the scheduled payments for the expanded child tax credit were sent out on Dec. 15. The Build Back Better Act includes language that would extend payments through 2022. The bill’s status is up in the air, however, after Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, on Sunday said that he would not vote for it.

  Bloomberg

We need to start presenting Scrooge as Manchin.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 12/24:

And there it is...

Joe doesn't care about actual coal miners

His money is in abandoned coal mines.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Some people are actually maggots

In Sen. Joe Manchin III’s hilly West Virginia home county, his family’s business has made millions by taking waste coal from long-abandoned mines and selling it to a power plant that emits air pollution at a higher rate than any other plant in the state.

That enterprise could have taken a hit under a key part of President Biden’s climate agenda, a $150 billion plan to push coal plants toward cleaner energy. One lawmaker, though, played a central role in killing that proposal: Manchin, who has earned hundreds of thousands of dollars annually from the family coal company while using his role as a Democratic swing vote in a 50-50 Senate to dictate Biden’s policies.

[...]

When pressed about whether he has a conflict of interest, Manchin bristles. “I have been in a blind trust for 20 years. I have no idea what they’re doing,” the senator told reporters in September, referring to his family’s coal firm. “You got a problem?”

  WaPo

As a matter of fact, I do.

Manchin’s latest financial disclosure report says that the West Virginia family coal business that he helped found and run, Enersystems, paid him $492,000 in interest, dividends and other income in 2020, and that his share of the firm is worth between $1 million and $5 million. He signed a sworn statement saying he is aware of these earnings, underscoring that he is not blind to them.

[...]

Manchin set up a blind trust with $350,000 in cash in 2012. In his latest financial disclosure report, the senator reported that the Joseph Manchin III Qualified Blind Trust earned no more than $15,000 last year and is worth between $500,000 and $1 million. By design, it is not possible to know precisely what’s in the blind trust. But the financial disclosure records show that it doesn’t include all of Manchin’s income from Enersystems.

Well, what a surprise.

[I]t calls into question the impartiality of a senator who in October forced Biden to drop the plan in his Build Back Better bill to phase out the same kinds of coal plants that are key to his family company’s profitability.

[...]

“The question I would ask him would be, when he says it’s in a blind trust, ‘Well, your public financial disclosure report that you sign and swear is true does not have Enersystems in the blind trust,’ ” Fox said. “And if the blind trust is truly blind, how do you know what’s in it?”

[...]

It is legal for Manchin to make millions of dollars from his coal interests even as he chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and legislates on matters affecting the industry. That is because members of Congress are not required to divest their assets to avoid a potential industry conflict.

[...]

Between 2011 and 2020, Manchin earned $4.8 million from Enersystems, according to a tally by the Center for Responsive Politics. His net worth as of 2020 was between $4.4 million and $12.8 million, the center said.

[...]

Compared with ordinary coal plants, power plants that burn waste coal, or what the industry calls “gob,” are dirtier and don’t generate as much electricity. The Grant Town plant emits more greenhouse gases and the main components of acid rain — nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide — into the air per megawatt-hour of electricity produced than any other power plant in West Virginia, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s most recent data. Only a handful of waste-coal-burning plants still operate nationally. They are such heavy polluters that the Trump administration created a separate category for them, weakening the air pollution standards they had to meet.

[...]

Holman said Manchin’s financial position is one of the most conflicted of any member of Congress he has studied because so much of the senator’s financial stake is in the coal industry while he is playing a key role on climate policies. Nonetheless, he said, “what Manchin is doing is not illegal. The conflict of interest code for Congress is just way too weak.”

What say we fix that? No wonder they haven't wanted to press Trump for all his shady self-dealing.

West Virginia’s embrace of coal power over less expensive alternatives like gas, wind and solar has contributed to a decade of rising electricity bills. According to Van Nostrand’s analysis, between 2010 and 2019 West Virginians’ electricity costs increased about five times more than the national average.

Jesus Christ. Not just polluting West Virginians, but shafting them as well.

Around the time Manchin helped kill the clean electricity provision, he was asked during a walk with reporters on Capitol Hill about whether he has a conflict of interest and was pressed on the fact that his son runs the family coal company. Manchin responded, “I’m very proud of my son. He does a good job. You’d do best to change the subject now.”

And West Virginians would do best to recall their senator.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  

Exactly.

Joe Manchin is actually a Republican

Here's proof:

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

West Virginians need to pay a visit to their senator on Christmas

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-W.Va.) opposition to President Biden's social spending package was "a breach of his commitments" calling his reversal on the bill "inexplicable."

“Senator Manchin’s comments this morning on FOX are at odds with his discussions this week with the President, with White House staff, and with his own public utterances,” Psaki said in a statement on Sunday shortly after Manchin told Fox's Brett Baier that he was a "no" on the legislation.

It was the first time Manchin said firmly where he stood on the bill after months of wrangling with lawmakers and the White House to come up with an agreeable framework.

[...]

Manchin announced on “Fox News Sunday” that he would not vote for Biden’s climate and social spending bill, confirming “this is a no on this legislation.” He cited concerns with inflation, the $29 trillion federal debt and a surge in new infections caused by the omicron COVID-19 variant as reasons for his position.

Psaki said the White House will continue to press Manchin on the bill and see if he will “reverse his position yet again” and “be true to his word.”

  The Hill

Yeah, good luck with that.

As Manchin said, if you want more progressive policies, elect more progressive Democrats.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

UPDATE:

There are better reasons to reject the Democratic Party.  The problem is, with our current system, there's only one other party capable of holding power - and that's the New Fascist Party, aka GOP.

UPDATE:

Progressives are hated only slightly less by "moderate" Democrats ("Beltway" Democrats) than by Republicans.

White House statement on Manchin:

More here

UPDATE:

Projecting much, Joe?

West Virginia Poor People's Campaign