Sen. Joe Manchin and his Maserati
Last weekend, the U.S. Senate adjourned for the rest of 2021, without passing the Democrats’ signature Build Back Better bill that the U.S. House passed on November 19. Much of the blame for the lack of Senate passage of Build Back Better lies with Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, who cynically kept moving the goalposts on what it would take to win his vote, until ultimately he declared that he would not vote for the bill at all.
Of course, Republican Senators were not going to vote for Build Back Better, because it is a Democratic bill that helps President Biden and elected Democrats politically, and helps millions of people across the United States. That means that all 50 Democratic Senate votes (plus, most likely, the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris) would have been needed to pass the bill. And Senator Manchin had at least been going through the motions of negotiating over the Senate bill for weeks, repeatedly proposing cuts to various spending portions and whittling the bill down in size. However, every time an item got cut based on Manchin’s objections, Manchin would name new items that were obstacles to getting his vote, including everything from paid family leave to methane emissions to taxes. Manchin then complained that the bill itself would add to inflation, when in fact experts said the opposite. It eventually became apparent that nothing was going to get Manchin’s vote.
Finally, Manchin declared on Sunday that he could not vote for the Build Back Better bill. To add insult to injury, Manchin made this announcement on Fox “News,” a Republican propaganda network that is always looking to exploit Democratic divisions and hand Democrats political defeats. In this respect, after moving the goal posts so many times, Manchin behaved worse than the Republicans, who at least were honest all along about opposing the bill. If one recalls this famous “snakes vs. rats” speech from the finale of the first season of Survivor, it can be said that, while the Republicans can be thought of as snakes, Manchin, who lives on his yacht and drives a Maserati, is the rat.
Besides Sen. Manchin’s vote, another thing lacking in this matter was good marketing and good media coverage of Build Back Better. While we have heard the dry and somewhat uninspiring term “Build Back Better” over and over, the media coverage seemed to focus on the bill’s chances of passage pursuant to the votes of Sen. Manchin and others, rather than what was in the bill. Likewise, proper marketing of Build Back Better seemed to be in short supply from the Biden White House and Democratic leaders in Congress. Voters hardly ever saw a breakdown of all the popular items in the bill, which would help the U.S. economy. These include:
- Universal preschool for all 3- and 4-year-olds.
- A child-care cost cap of 7% of income for parents earning up to 250% of a state’s median income.
- Four weeks of federal paid parental, sick or caregiver leave.
- Expanded Child Tax Credits that drastically cut child poverty.
- Extended pandemic-era Affordable Care Act subsidies.
- New hearing benefits for Medicare beneficiaries, including coverage for a new hearing aid every five years.
- A $35-per-month limit on the cost of insulin under Medicare and a cap on out-of-pocket prescription drug costs at $2,000 per year.
- $500 billion to combat climate change, largely through clean energy tax credits.
- An increase in the State and Local Tax deduction limit from $10,000 to $80,000.
To win more votes, the Biden White House and Democratic leaders could have taken some of these individual items and targeted them at voters in the states of recalcitrant Senators where such elements are popular and important. In Sen. Manchin’s state of West Virginia, for example, the bill’s provisions that would lower prescription drug costs and improve nutrition are considered especially helpful.
At this point, Democrats need to regroup for fight for Build Back Better in 2022. One thing we can all do right now is to send emails and other communications to Manchin’s office, or anyone you might know in West Virginia, touting the individual benefits of Build Back Better and applying pressure on Manchin to do the right thing for his state and for the country. For example, here is a care2 petition that does just that.
Photo by Mike Licht, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/dHE9Ly
