That ultra-conservative Dem, Sen. Manchin (D-WV)has found his obstructionist footing….first he did not want the $15 minimum wage included in the Covid-19 package and it was taken to secure the votes Dems needed…..now he is thumping his well owned chest over the bill Biden will put forth on Climate…..
Sen. Joe Manchin said he may block Joe Biden‘s climate change and infrastructure package unless Republicans are allowed more influence during negotiations.
Mr Manchin, who describes himself as a “moderate” Democrat, carries an important vote in the near evenly-divided Senate. He wants to see Republicans have more say in the negotiations than they did in the $1.9tn coronavirus stimulus discussion.
Democrats managed to pass the coronavirus stimulus using reconciliation, which only requires a simple majority. Mr Manchin said he refused to use reconciliation to pass the climate and infrastructure package.
“I am not going to get on a bill that cuts them out completely before we start trying,” Mr Manchin told Axios.
Who does this political coward think he is?
Why does the Majority leader, Sen. Schumer, allow this grandstanding?
Best answer to that question is Schumer is scred to death that if he pushes Manchin he will jump parties and make McConnell the leader yet again.
If the Dems had a larger majority then Manchin would be just another back-bencher with no power at all.
Another scenario is Manchin knows that anything Biden tries to do will be blocked by the Repubs in the Senate….this way he looks like the hero trying to find that elusive lie of “bi-partisanship”
He is doing this to make the coal industry happy and to make him appear as a “peacemaker”.
Not to cover that he would be screwing the people of West Virginia out of good jobs…the people he was sworn to work for and their best interests….on this topic he fails miserably.
Manchin has been waiting his whole senatorial career to have this much power….and Schumer is a spineless slug to allow this one person to control bills in the Senate….a Senate that the Dems control by one vote.
Schumer is afraid that a senate this close can be torpedoed by one defection to the GOP and Manchin is the perfect ilk to do so.
How long will his obstructionism be tolerated by the Dem leadership?
Are they so afraid of him that they allow this backwoods yahoo to dictate the bills that will be considered?
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
In Saner Thought 
He’s certainly enjoying his moment in the sun. I think he was on every morning show this past Sunday.
He has Schumer over a barrel and he will milk it…..cash rolls in no doubt chuq
I don’t know who he is, but it seems to me he chose the wrong party to represent.
Best wishes, Pete.
He is a uber conservative for a Democrat chuq
Wow, Chuq: great leading title question.
I wish I could help get it across to folks that until we vastly improve our public education, transportation, health, and library systems, which all contribute in a connected way to the problem, we are going to continue to get guys like this in power, as we work over the next 40-60 years to educate folks and get them to keep learning continuously how to encourage critical thinking in this country.
Manchin is flex his muscle while he can….he is hurting the people back home and they do not care. chuq
😦
How can people be so lacking in conscience?
Big donors is the answer….never about the people he serves but rather the dollars hen collects. chuq
oh
That makse sense, sadly.