Go Old School: How To Get The For The People Act And The American Jobs Act Passed

Arizona’s Jeff Flake built his entire political career around getting rid of “earmarks.”  Earmarks – funding for specific projects usually inserted into broad spending bills – were eliminated in 2011 by Republicans who had just recaptured the House riding a wave of Tea Party support.

It was a stupid idea that made negotiations over major pieces of legislation impossible, because earmarks for government appropriations in one’s congressional district is how things got done in Washington. Jeff Flake never delivered for his district – or for his state as a senator – and that is the real reason why he is no longer in Congress. Voters want a return on their tax dollars when they send you to Congress. Flake never understood this.

Were there abuses? Of course there were. Alaska’s infamous “bridge to nowhere” sponsored by Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) was a prime example. Yet it didn’t cost Young his seat. This old geezer is still in Congress.

Democrats are trying to revive the earmark process, to make negotiations over major pieces of legislation possible, and to end congressional gridlock. Congress weighs return of earmarks to ease gridlock in 2021:

Key leaders on Capitol Hill say it’s time to end the moratorium provided that rules requiring transparency ensure only legitimate projects make the cut. They also say the return of earmarks would help build public support for Congress to pass more bills, including a COVID-19 stimulus package [already done through the reconciliation process] or a massive infrastructure bill, if they know there’s something that would benefit them directly.

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Now it appears there’s enough of a groundswell to bring them back – under certain conditions: Each earmark’s sponsor must be identified; no private sector entity can be a recipient; and members cannot have a financial interest in the project the federal aid is benefitting.

The bipartisan House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress in September endorsed earmarks, using a competitive grant process to foster a more equitable allocation of aid for community projects around the nation.

Why am I bringing up earmarks? Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV). Stick with me while I explain.

Joe Manchin succeeded Senator Robert Byrd when he died. Robert Byrd served three different tenures as chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Appropriations enabling Byrd to steer a great deal of federal money toward projects in West Virginia. While critics derided his efforts as “pork barrel spending,” Byrd argued that the many federal projects he worked to bring to West Virginia represented progress for the people of his state.

There are roads, bridges, schools, post offices, etc. named after Robert Byrd in West Virginia because of his efforts. Those are big shoes for Joe Manchin to fill.

Joe Manchin is the only Senate Democrat who has not signed on as a sponsor of S. 1, the For The People Act. He has been saying stupid shit like Any Overhaul of Voting Rights Must Have GOP Support, essentially giving the “Grim Reaper,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and his anti-democratic insurrectionist Sedition Caucus a veto over voting rights in this country. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

But Joe Manchin calls for ‘enormous’ infrastructure package paid for with new taxes. Luckily, this is what President Joe Biden is proposing today:

Sen. Joe Manchin said that he favors a large infrastructure package that would be paid for in part by raising tax revenues — a point of contention between the two parties.

“I’m sure of one thing: It’s going to be enormous,” the West Virginia Democrat, who is seen as a swing vote in a chamber divided 50-50, told reporters at the Capitol.

While he didn’t predict a price tag, Manchin said Congress should do “everything we possibly can” to pay for it. He said there should be “tax adjustments” to former President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax law to boost revenues, including by raising the corporate rate from the current 21 percent to at least 25 percent.

The tax benefits in the Republican law were “weighted in one direction to the upper end,” Manchin said. He also suggested an “infrastructure bank” paid for with revenues, potentially a value-added tax, that would be used for “rebuilding America.”

“I’m not afraid to look at other things,” he said.

Notably, Manchin said the Republican resistance to higher taxes was not a “reasonable” position in an infrastructure negotiation.

“Where do they think it’s going to come from?” he asked. “How are you going to fix America?”

See where I am going with this? President Joe Biden spent most of his adult life in the U.S. Senate. He has mastered this kind of Senate negotiation.

President Biden needs Sen. Manchin’s vote on the For The People Act. Manchin is on board with Biden’s Infrastructure and American Jobs Act. But Manchin needs a guarantee of the kind of federal money that his predecessor Robert Byrd used to bring home to West Virginia if he has any hope of being reelected in 2024 – and that’s really the only thing that this prima donna cares about.

Democrats can get Biden’s massive Infrastructure and American Jobs Act through the Senate with their “second bite at the apple” Reconciliation process for this fiscal year. (The COVID Relief bill was under the last fiscal year, since Mitch McConnell failed to pass a budget).

President Biden should guarantee all the earmarks for federal projects in West Virginia that Joe Manchin can imagine in his wildest dreams in exchange for Joe Manchin agreeing to cosponsor the For The People Act with his fellow Democrats, and ending his indefensible support of the anti-democratic filibuster rule to make passage possible.

The Senate doesn’t necessarily have to eliminate the filibuster rule – although it should – but reform the rule to put the onus on the minority seeking to obstruct legislation, rather than burdening the majority in a democracy with having to come up with a supermajority of 60 votes under the ass-backwards McConnell version of the filibuster rule.  (The Founding Fathers opposed a supermajority requirement, it was why the Articles of Confederation were such a failure). The Senate can do a “carve out” for voting rights like they did for the federal budget and judicial nominations.

This is the kind of “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” negotiation that used to be common in Washington. This is how big things used to get done. You can bet that a master of the Senate like Joe Biden understands this. Maybe that’s why he sounds optimistic when others sound so negative.

Democrats have a way out of their “Joe Manchin problem.” Biden’s Infrastructure and American Jobs Act can kill two birds with one stone, and result in two major landmark pieces of legislation: one to save our democracy, and one to begin repairing congressional neglect over the past 50 years. America will be better and stronger for it.

Let’s get this done!