Manchin’s “No” on BBB, Climate action, Draws Psaki-bomb Response
December 19, 2021
UPDATE:
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. Weeks ago, Senator Manchin committed to the President, at his home in Wilmington, to support the Build Back Better framework that the President then subsequently announced. Senator Manchin pledged repeatedly to negotiate on finalizing that framework “in good faith.”
On Tuesday of this week, Senator Manchin came to the White House and submitted—to the President, in person, directly—a written outline for a Build Back Better bill that was the same size and scope as the President’s framework, and covered many of the same priorities. While that framework was missing key priorities, we believed it could lead to a compromise acceptable to all. Senator Manchin promised to continue conversations in the days ahead, and to work with us to reach that common ground. If his comments on FOX and written statement indicate an end to that effort, they represent a sudden and inexplicable reversal in his position, and a breach of his commitments to the President and the Senator’s colleagues in the House and Senate.
Senator Manchin claims that this change of position is related to inflation, but the think tank he often cites on Build Back Better—the Penn Wharton Budget Institute—issued a report less than 48 hours ago that noted the Build Back Better Act will have virtually no impact on inflation in the short term, and, in the long run, the policies it includes will ease inflationary pressures. Many leading economists with whom Senator Manchin frequently consults also support Build Back Better.
Build Back Better lowers costs that families pay. It will reduce what families pay for child care. It will reduce what they pay for prescription drugs. It will lower health care premiums. And it puts a tax cut in the pockets of families with kids. If someone is concerned about the impact that higher prices are having on families, this bill gives them a break.
Senator Manchin cited deficit concerns in his statement. But the plan is fully paid for, is the most fiscally responsible major bill that Congress has considered in years, and reduces the deficit in the long run. The Congressional Budget Office report that the Senator cites analyzed an unfunded extension of Build Back Better. That’s not what the President has proposed, not the bill the Senate would vote on, and not what the President would support. Senator Manchin knows that: The President has told him that repeatedly, including this week, face to face.
Likewise, Senator Manchin’s statement about the climate provisions in Build Back Better are wrong. Build Back Better will produce a job-creating clean energy future for this country—including West Virginia.
Just as Senator Manchin reversed his position on Build Back Better this morning, we will continue to press him to see if he will reverse his position yet again, to honor his prior commitments and be true to his word.
In the meantime, Senator Manchin will have to explain to those families paying $1,000 a month for insulin why they need to keep paying that, instead of $35 for that vital medicine. He will have to explain to the nearly two million women who would get the affordable day care they need to return to work why he opposes a plan to get them the help they need. Maybe Senator Manchin can explain to the millions of children who have been lifted out of poverty, in part due to the Child Tax Credit, why he wants to end a program that is helping achieve this milestone—we cannot.
We are proud of what we have gotten done in 2021: the American Rescue Plan, the fastest decrease in unemployment in U.S. history, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, over 200 million Americans vaccinated, schools reopened, the fastest rollout of vaccines to children anywhere in the world, and historic appointments to the Federal judiciary.
But we will not relent in the fight to help Americans with their child care, health care, prescription drug costs, and elder care—and to combat climate change. The fight for Build Back Better is too important to give up. We will find a way to move forward next year.
Climate Denial Crock of the Week 
December 19, 2021 at 2:27 pm
Democrats need to go scorch earth on manchin’s legacy, where he and his family’s income comes from, where all his campaign contributions come from, send representative after representative to WV for interview after interview, fund more WV polls…
And then move onto sinema and AZ.
Biden stop being a senator and be a president
I can dream
December 19, 2021 at 8:20 pm
“Biden stop being a senator and be a president.”
Aye, this pretense of good faith on the part of Republicans must end.
December 19, 2021 at 5:48 pm
Finally, more public pressure from the WH. Manchin gets plenty from the “center” and from the right. According to No Labels, Joe Manchin is a “problem solver” and solutions must be bi-partisan. According to Fox pundits the “13 infrastructure Republicans signed their political death warrants after voting for the phony infrastructure bill which is laden with progressive pork and lays the groundwork for all of the climate change craziness to come.”
December 19, 2021 at 8:18 pm
He’s just looking after jobs in West Virginia: He supports the many thousands of nurses and therapists treating black lung and silicosis by promoting coal mining.
December 19, 2021 at 9:07 pm
Except no, because he’s done everything he could to reduce the amount of money miners have available for treatment, even palliative treatment…and to give as much power and money as possible to those reducing everything the miners have even more.
December 19, 2021 at 9:09 pm
It. Was. A. Joke.
December 20, 2021 at 12:52 am
I. Know.
Of course I know you well enough to know that, and that your intentions are the best and your sanity intact (a less certain thing than we might wish, in these dark times). After decades of sandblasting of my sense of humor by relentless pushing of the boundaries by psychopathic narcissists, sometimes I’m compelled to speak unvarnished truth for the record.
December 19, 2021 at 8:24 pm
I think that has scary interpretations: Throw in a “tested” or something, willya?
December 19, 2021 at 8:49 pm
I was going to make a joke about getting coal for Christmas, but BBB failing is actually historically bad, and not just for climate change, but for the course of the U.S. as well.
I think it’s highly probable that the Democrats will lose the House in 2022. Then, even if the Democrats hold on to the White House in 2024, it’s unprecedented in at least 100 years that an incumbent President has had his party win back Congress after losing it. Which means, unless something gets passed in the next few months, the chances of real climate change legislation passing by 2028, and not some heavily watered down Republican measure, is slim to none.
December 19, 2021 at 8:52 pm
And, Manchin would ONLY potentially sign on to climate change legislation if it was tied with measures that help WVers. That’s why BBB was vital. He won’t support standalone climate bills (unless it actually helped FF more than hurt it).
December 19, 2021 at 9:01 pm
This can’t be a surprise to anyone here. It was absolutely inevitable the moment the guy standing on the bipartisan bridge to Ragnarok made his first statement on the 2 bills. The progressives caved, the inevitable happened (as I’m sure it would have anyway).
It does appall me that Sanders is playing the game, letting the Democrats get away with wanting just enough to happen to change nothing about the ongoing collapse of nature and civilization, without calling them out on it. The bill started off at $10 billion–or rather, didn’t start, since it was going nowhere at that level, the very low end of what would begin to start to commence to help a little. Then it was whittled down below the low end of useful to 3, to 1, and now here we are at the place we were headed all along, with the entire government refusing to do anything to prevent the end of civilization and nature.
it may seem like Manchild is most responsible for this debacle but at any time, any one of the Democratic leadership could have turned this around and gotten the us and the world what was needed. The whole collection of oligarchic jackals are criminally insane psychopaths who deserve to burn in hell forever, walking on the eternally melting faces of Sinemanchin, Bidosiumer, McConnocruz, amythomasconey gorsuchbarrettkavman and the rest of the Republicans.
December 19, 2021 at 9:28 pm
The U.S. population with your eco-fantasy-land mindset is comprised of you and maybe four other people that I haven’t met yet. I’m looking at what actually exists in political reality.
“it may seem like Manchild is most responsible for this debacle but at any time, any one of the Democratic leadership could have turned this around and gotten the us and the world what was needed.”
Complete BS.
For the record, I wasn’t surprised by Manchin’s move. In fact, I called it in October:
https://climatecrocks.com/2021/10/16/the-wisdom-of-half-a-loaf/
“The likeliest probability is that we’ll only be able to pass the initial infrastructure bill….”
December 20, 2021 at 2:30 am
Biden, Pelosi, Schumer, Feinstein, Clintons, Gore, Obama, et al in the Democratic leadership could have embraced a progressive agenda of ironclad voting rights, money out of politics, universal health care, education, UBI, demilitarized police and big military reductions, higher taxes on the rich, union protections, and so much more, at any time in the past 4 decades. They could have taken strong action on climate with the declaration of a national emergency and $20 trillion for energy, infrastructure, transit, the Green Climate Fund, etc. as a start), and as a result secured the presidency, and a clear majority, probably even a supermajority, in both houses.
They could have refrained from rigging the nomination process, and from collaborating with the conservative media (pardon the redundancy) to keep Sanders from being elected. Biden could have taken actions that were legal, moral, more than justified, and helpful to people, to counter Republican power-grabbing:
ditching the filibuster, increasing the number of supreme court justices, moving forward on statehood for DC and “our” territories, (eliminating one more vestige of racist colonialism even within the boundaries of the us), doing whatever it took to rein in Manchild once we were in this stalemate…
But they didn’t. They were too busy competing with Republicans for corporate money to secure their own and their class’s power—money to disinform and manipulate the public—and too busy pathetically and sycophantically following along behind the Republicans’ drive toward fascism.
December 20, 2021 at 10:14 am
Yes, yes. Sanders would have won in 2016 or 2020, the Democrats could have declared a national emergency and stripped Congress of its legislative powers, the U.S. voting public would have supported that, fallen on their faces in obeisance and given the Democrats supermajority representation in Congress, the Democrats have the support for $20 trillion for climate change legislation (but didn’t for less than a trillion in the BBB bill), they could have made DC a state in this Congress as well as increased the numbers of Supreme Court Justices and ditched the filibuster, the Democrats are all corrupt and haven’t been trying for decades to pass real legislative gains in climate change and social issues, and it has little to nothing to do with the voters themselves or individually corrupt politicians like Manchin.
Or – you’re such an ideologue you haven’t the first clue how crazy that is.
December 20, 2021 at 10:30 am
That’s a gross distortion of what I’ve said and what I know. It will obviously be impossible to educate you about me, politics, or reality until you’re willing to talk rationally without projecting your nonsense onto me. Goodbye.
December 20, 2021 at 2:53 am
Manchild doesn’t care one tiny bit for West Virginians. The one thing that will help West Virginians waaaaay more than anything else is the kind of strong actions on climate and social advancement embodied in the Green New Deal. That’s not just incidental to Manchild’s opposition to it, it’s central to it.
My eyes are completely open and I see political reality clearly. But it changes every week, and doesn’t matter one thousandth of a percent as much as psychological and ecological reality. When I say what’s needed, I have no illusions about what it will take to get it, which is why I keep saying it will take a peaceful revolution, since the oligarchy has no intention of giving up any of its power or wealth, or even its ability to further increase its power and wealth. I also have no illusions about what it will take to make that revolution happen. I only say what’s needed, given the psycho-ecological reality; I don’t say how likely it is to happen. People often disunderstand that; it seems I have to repeat the second part at least as much as the first.
December 20, 2021 at 10:28 am
“I don’t say how likely it is to happen.”
And why is that? Is it because your “peaceful revolution” of completely reversing oligarchic control in the U.S. has absolutely zero chance of happening, and all you are doing is raving about what night be (according to your own particular mindset and politics, never mind what the vast majority of Americans actually want), instead of what actually could be.
We DID lose a real opportunity for climate change and social welfare legislation with the death of the BBB. Of course it wasn’t enough. But, its chances of happening were more than a little higher than the chances of your peaceful revolution.
December 20, 2021 at 10:51 am
No.