Update to There May Be Progress On A Scaled-Back Build Back Better Bill In The Senate This Week.
I warned you that skepticism was warranted, and that this Vichy Democrat collaborator may be “pulling a Manchin,” making promises he has no intention of ever keeping for media attention, and to run out the clock on the Democratic Party agenda, i.e., August 5.
The New York Times reports today, Manchin Pulls Plug on Climate and Tax Talks, Shrinking Domestic Plan:
Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, pulled the plug on Thursday on negotiations to salvage key pieces of President Biden’s agenda, informing his party’s leaders that he would not support funding for climate or energy programs or raising taxes on wealthy Americans and corporations.
The decision by Mr. Manchin, a conservative-leaning Democrat whose opposition has effectively stalled Mr. Biden’s economic package in the evenly divided Senate, dealt a devastating blow to his party’s efforts to enact a broad social safety net, climate and tax package.
In recent months, Democrats had slashed their ambitions for such a plan to win over Mr. Manchin, hoping that he would agree to support even a fraction of the sweeping initiative they once envisioned. His abrupt shift appeared to dash those aspirations.
In a meeting on Thursday with Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, Mr. Manchin said he would support a package that would include a negotiated plan aimed at lowering the cost of prescription drugs and an extension of expanded Affordable Care Act subsidies set to lapse at the end of the year.
This is necessary and should be enacted by Congress. But it is salvaging something from the ambitious agenda that the American people actually voted for in 2020. One greedy hillbilly coal baron from West Virginia should not hold veto power over the more than 81 million Americans who voted for Joe Biden.
The shift capped off weeks of painstaking negotiations to cobble together a package that could win Mr. Manchin’s support. It came seven months after the West Virginian abruptly walked away from talks and rejected a far larger plan.
More bad faith negotiation from this hillbilly coal baron from West Virginia.
As of Thursday morning, Democrats had remained cautiously optimistic that a deal could be reached, provided that they followed Mr. Manchin’s repeated calls to address the national debt, tax reform and drug prices.
The Washington Post earlier reported details of the conversation, which were confirmed by two people briefed on the discussion.
Because Democrats hold the Senate by a bare 50-50 majority, Mr. Manchin has been able to effectively exercise veto power over the domestic policy package, which the party had planned to move under a special fast-track budget process that would allow it to bypass a filibuster and pass with a simple majority. With Democrats bracing for losses in midterm elections this fall, the package could be the party’s last chance to enact substantial spending and tax legislation while it still holds the White House and both houses of Congress.
In rejecting any climate and energy provisions, Mr. Manchin appeared to have single-handedly shattered Mr. Biden’s ambitious climate agenda and what would have been the largest single federal investment in American history toward addressing the toll of climate change.
[It] stunned Democratic officials who had labored to win Mr. Manchin’s vote. [Seriously? It stunned you? It should have been expected, you have seen this so many times before.] As recently as Friday, Democrats said they had coalesced around a plan to use the funds from raising taxes on some high-earning Americans to extend the solvency of a key Medicare fund.
But it was particularly devastating for those who had championed the climate and energy provisions. In calls to various climate activists on Thursday night, Mr. Schumer and his staff sounded shellshocked and said they believed until just a few hours before that a deal was still possible, said one person who spoke with Mr. Schumer.
Without action by Congress, it will be impossible to meet Mr. Biden’s goal of cutting U.S. emissions roughly in half by the end of this decade. That target was aimed at keeping the climate stable at about 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming compared to preindustrial levels.
“I’m not going to sugarcoat my disappointment here, especially since nearly all issues in the climate and energy space had been resolved,” said Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat and the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. “This is our last chance to prevent the most catastrophic — and costly — effects of climate change. We can’t come back in another decade and forestall hundreds of billions — if not trillions — in economic damage and undo the inevitable human toll.”
“If we can’t move forward as we had hoped, we need to salvage as much of this package as possible,” he added. “The expression that failure is not an option is overused, but failure really is not an option here.”
Leah Stokes, a professor of environmental policy at the University of California Santa Barbara who has advised congressional Democrats on climate legislation, sobbed on Thursday night as she described the months of work she and other activists, scientists and legislative staff had poured into negotiations.
“The stakes are so high,” she said. “It’s just infuriating that he is condemning our own children.”
Many were seething with anger at Mr. Manchin. They criticized him as having strung negotiators along, while watering down a package [“puling a Manchin“] that at one stage would have been sufficient to put a steep dent in emissions and also adding fossil fuel projects that cut against climate goals. In the final days of talks, the clean energy tax breaks had been slashed and Mr. Manchin had been working to include approval for offshore oil and gas leasing and permitting for a fossil fuel project in his state, congressional aides said.
Tiernan Sittenfeld, the senior vice president for government affairs at the League of Conservation Voters, a nonprofit group, said Mr. Manchin has condemned future generations.
“There truly aren’t words, at least words that are suitable for printing in The New York Times, for how appalled and outraged we are,” she said.
For purposes of clarity, Joe Manchin is joined by all 50 Republican Senators in this crime against future generations. No one has reported where prima donna Democratic diva Sen. Kyrsten Sinema stood on the tax provisions, which she torpedoed last year for her Wall Street campaign contributors. So I’m not ready to let her off the hook so easy.
And I am not letting off the corporate Democrats in the House who were also doing the bidding of their Wall Street masters.
Jonathan Chait explains, Josh Gottheimer Is on a Mission to Destroy Joe Biden’s Presidency:
Joe Manchin has absorbed most of the heat from liberals angry that the Senate has often blocked President Biden’s proposals. But Manchin represents an overwhelmingly Republican state, and he has been willing to negotiate a meaningful (albeit smaller) Senate reconciliation package that would move forward key progressive goals.
The true archvillain of the Biden presidency is Josh Gottheimer, a New Jersey Democrat who keeps sticking the knife in Biden’s back.
Axios’s Hans Nichols reports Gottheimer is organizing a small faction of House Democrats to present a “counteroffer” that would blow up the incipient deal with Manchin [Manchin blew it up himself]. The Gottheimer crew wants to take out the tax hikes on the wealthy that Manchin is proposing. That would mean what’s left of the bill could still contain the spending proposals, but it would lack the revenue measures that would make it a deficit-reducer, which is Manchin’s main rationale for supporting the bill in the first place. If that revenue is gone, Manchin’s support probably collapses, and the bill dies. Which is probably fine with Gottheimer, who may be evil, but isn’t stupid.
Gottheimer’s fixation seems to be insulating from taxation a slice of people so wealthy they account for a tiny percentage of even the most affluent districts. Gottheimer has cast himself as a hard-headed centrist who understands what the voters want. In an interview with Jason Zengerle for the New York Times Magazine, Gottheimer cast himself as a throwback to Clintonism:
He pressed play and his iPhone screen filled with waving American flags as an old but familiar voice emerged, proclaiming, “I am honored to have been given the opportunity to stand up for the values and the interests of ordinary Americans.” The video was a television advertisement from Bill Clinton’s 1996 re-election campaign. Over images of construction workers and children and police officers, a series of bold captions touted Clinton’s first-term accomplishments: “WELFARE REFORM, WORK REQUIREMENTS”; “TAXES CUT FOR 15,000,000 FAMILIES”; “DEATH PENALTY FOR DRUG KINGPINS.” His promises for a second term followed: “BAN ‘COP-KILLER’ BULLETS”; “CAPITAL GAINS TAX CUT FOR HOME OWNERS”; “BALANCE THE BUDGET FOR A GROWING ECONOMY” “We are safer, we are more secure, we are more prosperous,” Clinton said. When the ad was over, Gottheimer says, he looked at Pelosi. “This is how we won,” he told her, “and this is how we win again.”
Sounds great, in theory. Except Bill Clinton raised taxes on the rich. Clinton understood that the political sweet spot was to promise middle-class tax cuts while also taxing the top one percent. Gottheimer’s formula is to avoid giving any benefits to the middle class and focusing on protecting the one percent.
Nichols’s reporting notes that the congressman’s proposal is a “counteroffer,” and that he is merely “mulling” it. It’s possible he will be talked out of his latest attempt to sabotage the Democrats’ agenda.
No worries, Joe Manchin just did it for him, saving him the trouble.
But if he wins reelection, Gottheimer will be around to organize plots to destroy the Democrats for a long time. At this point, Democrats would be better off with a Republican representing New Jersey’s Fifth District.
Most of these corporate Democrats in the final analysis voted for all the elements of the Build Back Better agenda. So the House did its job.
It is the dysfunctional anti-democratic institution of the Senate which failed the American people: 50 Republican Senators and two collaborator Vichy Democrat Senators who betrayed their party, their president, and more importantly, the American people and their country.
The only pathway out of the nightmare we are living is to elect more Democrats to the Senate. Render Sens. Manchinema “Mr. and Mrs. Irrelevant” on their way out the door in 2024. And elect more Democrats to the House. None of the 147 Republican lawmakers who still objected to the election results even after the Capitol attack in furtherance of the seditious Coup Plot – some are co-conspirators, all are aiders and abettors of the crime – should ever hold a political office ever again under section 3 of the 14th Amendment. They are treasonous traitors to their country.
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“It’s important that every young person, every activist, the majorities of this country who are demanding climate action understand very clearly this is not the Democrats… This is one man named Joe Manchin. When it comes to the most important existential issue of our time, this man is a wrecking ball.” — Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA).
“Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who took more campaign cash from the oil and gas industry than any other senator, and who became a millionaire from his family coal business, independently blew up the Democratic Party’s legislative plans to fight climate change.” – Ron Beownstein.
That was replying to Liza. The blog is back to it’s old tricks again.
They’re apprehensive, with good reason, he’ll jump the aisle if he doesn’t get his way. We need to pick up four senate seats so they can tell Manchin along with Sinema to drop dead. The bigger the cushion the better. If that happens I hope Biden remembers when Obama had 60 Democratic Senators and squandered that majority by repeatedly reaching his hand across the aisle only to have it repeatedly slapped. (Yes, I know the 60 seats was only temporary since Ted Kennedy died and Martha Coakley ran a lousy campaign which left the majority at 59.) There’s truth in the saying to strike when the iron is hot.
“We need to pick up four senate seats so they can tell Manchin along with Sinema to drop dead.”
I have no predictions but Nate Silver’s forecast is not that optimistic.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2022-election-forecast/senate/
Good Lord, what’s going on in Georgia? Brain damaged Herschel Walker might defeat the distinguished Rev Warnock. In the governor’s race, Stacey Abrams is trailing Brian Kemp.
And this for the House. Not good.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2022-election-forecast/house/
Good question.
Robert Reich
@RBReich
Why do Schumer and senate Dems keep Joe Manchin chair of Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee?
4:06 PM · Jul 15, 2022·Twitter for iPhone
Greg Sargent writes. “The hidden, ugly truth behind Joe Manchin’s stance on BBB’s climate provisions”, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/21/joe-manchin-climate-bbb-coal-industry/
What’s really driving Sen. Joe Manchin III’s opposition to the Build Back Better package?
We know the West Virginia Democrat is exaggerating the threat from inflation and has relied on bogus numbers to inflate BBB’s deficit impact. We know he reportedly thinks the expanded child tax credit could create a class of welfare moochers when it would be empowering for millions.
All that reminds us that the Democratic agenda is largely at the mercy of one [greedy hillbilly coal baron] who is relying on terribly wrongheaded policy arguments and priorities.
But our planetary future is also to some degree at the mercy of that same one man. The precise nature of Manchin’s stance on BBB’s climate provisions is difficult to pin down, but two new developments help illuminate it.
First, the United Mine Workers of America just called on Manchin to reconsider his opposition to BBB. Second, the New York Times just published an expose of the coal industry’s apparent success in shaping Manchin’s stances.
Why do the mine workers want Manchin to support BBB? I talked to Phil Smith, the union’s chief lobbyist. The short answer: Some of its provisions provide a better chance of helping workers who will be dislocated by our transition to a decarbonized future — a dislocation that will likely continue either way — than not passing BBB will.
This notion undermines Manchin’s posture. His most fundamental argument on BBB’s climate agenda is that it will transition us to decarbonization too quickly, threatening extensive collateral damage.
But, given the miners’ belief that BBB is needed to mitigate this transition, this raises questions about whose interests Manchin, in making that argument, is really representing.
The Times piece reports that coal interests have heavily lobbied Manchin throughout BBB negotiations. Manchin himself personally profits off industry holdings, per the Times.
In his statement announcing opposition, Manchin made specific claims about its climate provisions. None hold up under scrutiny, but they appear to reflect arguments coming from the [coal] industry.
For instance, Manchin argues BBB will threaten the “reliability of our electric grid,” because BBB will transition us too fast, leading to consequences that “we have seen in both Texas and California.”
Here Manchin is referring to BBB’s hundreds of billions of dollars in tax incentives for manufacturers and purchasers of power generated by alternative sources such as wind and solar. But as the Times reports, Manchin is echoing what coal industry lobbyists argue.
That claim is that subsidizing renewable energy will jeopardize the electric grid by leading to the retirement of coal and natural gas plants too quickly. Translation: It’s bad for business.
But the blackouts in Texas and California resulted from other causes, such as lack of extreme weather preparation. And scientists are loudly warning that the threat of climate change catastrophe demands faster action, not slower.
Manchin also argues that BBB’s tax incentives will “increase our dependence on foreign supply chains.” As the Times suggests, that echoes the coal industry’s argument that a subsidized expansion of U.S. solar power could benefit China, given its dominance of the supply chain in solar components.
So Manchin seems to be trading on fears of China to discourage investments in renewable energy. And here is where the position of the miners union gets interesting.
As Smith of the miners union told me, the union wants BBB precisely because it opens up more possibilities for displaced coal workers to find work in the renewable energy sector.
Here’s why. In addition to incentives for alternative energy manufacturing, BBB also contains provisions that incentivize companies to do this manufacturing in “coal-producing areas of the country,” as Smith put it.
The core idea here is that fossil fuel jobs will keep declining because of all kinds of causes, even as the transition to alternative energy continues. If so, Smith says, more investment in alternative sources, when combined with incentives encouraging their manufacture in those areas, will give displaced workers a better shot at a stake in this transition.
“This provides the potential for good jobs that our members who have been dislocated can get,” Smith told me. He noted that some 45,000 coal mining jobs have been lost since 2012, adding that the goal is to recapture alternative energy supply chains for U.S. workers.
What’s strange is that Manchin has supported such subsidies. He co-sponsored a bill with Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) that would create tax credits for manufacturers to build equipment for alternative energy industries in places where coal mines have closed or plants have been retired.
Yet even if Manchin does still support that goal, he is now objecting to BBB’s overall climate provisions. Manchin already succeeded in killing another key piece of BBB’s climate proposals — the provision that would punish fossil fuel companies for not transitioning fast enough — yet he’s now objecting to even the subsidies encouraging this transition.
“We’re likely to lose coal jobs whether or not this bill passes,” Smith told me. “If that’s the case, let’s figure out a way to provide as many jobs as possible for those who are going to lose.” Smith added that BBB tax incentives provide a “pathway to do that.”
Manchin has supported this idea in the past, but now he’s making it less likely to occur, and echoing coal industry rhetoric while killing BBB. Whose interests is he really representing here?
-The Carbon Monopoly, duh.
My advice, for what it is worth, is before Manchin changes his mind for the worse again, take the Prescription Drug Deal and ACA subsidy extension, approve it, go out and tell the American People what the Democrats have accomplished, and also campaign that they are the party of freedom, privacy, protecting children, safeguarding Democracy and law and order in the hopes that they can win margins in the House and Senate that makes the power of the conservatives less than it is now.
“…take the Prescription Drug Deal and ACA subsidy extension, approve it, go out and tell the American People what the Democrats have accomplished”
That appears to be the direction the Democrats are going.
But…
It looks pretty measly compared to the ambitious, progressive proposals that the Democrats started with and then pared down to get something passed in the Senate and then gave up on when the two traitors-for-hire in the Senate decided to tank Biden’s legislative agenda.
What is obvious to news junkies is that Manchin and Sinema are running the circus, and the Democrats defeated themselves in the first half of this administration with infighting and their own traitors. The damage done by Manchin and Sinema can’t even be quantified at this point.
However, that’s not a reason to not take the crumbs offered by Traitor Joe assuming that Psycho-Sinema is in agreement with him. There will be benefits for some people and not everyone is a news junkie who understands that this is what is left of BBB.
The Squad is vindicated. BBB died the moment it was decoupled from the cherished bipartisan infrastructure bill.