‘Tis, indeed, the season of comfort and joy, but the approaching holiday isn’t the reason a smile has erupted on the usually dour countenance of Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.
The Louisville lawmaker suddenly finds himself with the easiest job in Washington – Sen. Joe Manchin, D-WVa, is doing all his work for him. The Democratic majority – just barely – in the upper chamber finds itself in the woe-is-me, hand-wringing phase of governing thanks to Manchin’s intransigence and our boy Mitch seems to be enjoying his ringside seat witnessing the spectacle.
McConnell has mischievously even gone so far as to suggest that the conservative Manchin cross the aisle and join the GOP, a move that would, coincidentally and conveniently, restore him to the position of majority leader, the political job he has openly and eternally coveted.
“I think what Manchin is discovering is that there just aren’t any Democrats left in the Senate that are pro-life and terribly concerned about debt and deficit and inflation,’’ McConnell recently told radio show host Hugh Hewitt. “So he feels like a man alone. If he were to join us, he’d be joining a lot of folks who have similar views on a whole range of issues.”
The spark behind McConnell’s fit of bliss is Manchin’s recalcitrance regarding President Biden’s Build Back Better Act, the administration’s $1.75 trillion legislative cornerstone, which proposes to fund programs ranging from universal pre-school to paid family and medical leave to new tax credits for installing solar panels or weatherizing homes.
That barely covers the surface of the vast, troubled plan. The Senate is split – 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats and Independents who caucus with the Democrats, the party that holds the majority only because Vice President Kamala Harris, serves as the presiding officer to break ties.
Every Senate Republican opposes the Build Back Better package and could filibuster it to death if the legislation followed normal procedures. Democrats are trying to squeak it through by an alternative process known as reconciliation, which would require the support of all 50 Democrats.
And, aye, there’s the rub. Manchin is not beguiled. He has been stringing his caucus along, acting as if he wanted to get a deal done, and finally going so far as to offer a revamped framework. But on Sunday, on Fox News, of all places, Manchin caught everyone, including Biden, off guard when he made it clear he was a no on the package.
Biden and the Senate Democratic leadership had done just about everything conceivable to placate Manchin, to no avail. The president reduced the cost off the package from $2.2 trillion to $1.75 trillion in October to make it more palatable to the West Virginia lawmaker, who subsequently told them to go pound sand.
Manchin said he couldn’t vote for a bill if he “can’t go home and explain it to the people of West Virginia.”
Well, one of the items expunged from that $2.2 trillion package at Manchin’s urging was a proposal to expand Medicare to cover dental care at a cost of about $238 billion over 10 years. The West Virginian cited funding concerns as the cause behind his opposition.
Manchin forced the issue even though West Virginia would have benefitted more than most places from the expansion. According to a survey by WalletHub, the Mountain State ranks 49th, ahead of only perennial doormat on everything Mississippi, regarding dental health. It ranks 51st in the nation, including DC, in the percentage of the elderly population – presumably, those over 65 eligible for Medicare – who don’t have any of their natural teeth remaining. According to the West Virginia Oral Health Coalition, about 43 percent of adults in the state aged 55-64 have lost six or more teeth due to dental decay or gum disease.
Yet Manchin had that provision killed and then still wouldn’t support Build Back Better. Maybe he can explain that to the people of West Virginia.
(By the way, for those of you keeping score at home, Kentucky ranks 41st in dental care. And it is 50th, just above its West Virginia neighbor, in the percentage of the elderly population with no natural teeth. Remember where McConnell and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Bowling Green, stand on this).
Manchin also opposes extending the $3,000 per child tax credit passed by Congress and signed by Biden earlier this year, which remains for the time being in the Build Back Better Act but expires on Dec. 31. Manchin again balks at the cost and reportedly fears adults will take the dough and spend it on drugs, which, indeed, are a problem in West Virginia.’
According to The Rural Blog, operated by the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, run by our old pal Al Cross, in a story written by Heather Chapman, the people of West Virginia will suffer mightily without the tax credit extension:
“The state has one of the highest child poverty rates in the U.S. About 48% of children 17 and under live at 200% of the poverty rate, considered an indicator of serious financial challenge. West Virginia’s rate of children living at or below 200% of poverty is the fifth highest in the U.S. In West Virginia, expiration of the Child Tax Credit expansion will eliminate or reduce the credit for approximately 72,000 low-income rural children and nearly 100,000 low-income children who live in metropolitan areas.”
Joe can explain that to the people of West Virginia too.
(Again, pull out those scorecards – the child poverty rate in Kentucky at last count was 21.7 percent. McConnell and Paul are looking forward to joining Joe in taking food out of the mouths of kids).
Democrats, at first blush, wouldn’t seem to lose much by cutting the cord with Manchin, kicking him to the curb and letting the Republicans pick him up. He is the key figure now in destroying Biden’s domestic agenda, which will reverberate to the Democrats’ liability in the 2022 elections. He’s already doing damage from within. In February, early in the Biden administration, Manchin thwarted the president’s nomination of Neera Tanden to lead the Office of Management and Budget. A month later he opposed a pair of House-passed gun-control measures. And in June he expressed support for retaining the Hyde Amendment, which virtually prohibits all federal funding for abortions.
And he won’t support Democratic efforts to kill the filibuster, which is stymying efforts like electoral reform.
Given all that, Republican entreaties toward Manchin are becoming more frequent and more aggressive. McConnell reportedly will consider allowing Manchin to remain chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee if he makes the move.
Crossing the aisle would hand the Republicans the majority and return Mitch to his long-desired spot as top dog. But Democrats are getting nowhere with Manchin and, to a lesser extent, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-AZ, standing in the way of the agenda. Losing one would allow the new minority to play Mitch’s game, blocking and ridiculing anything and everything the GOP moves forward, bolstered by Biden’s ever-present veto threat.
But there’s one problem – the courts. Democrats are making some headway in diluting the awful run of judicial appointments by former President Donald J. Trump. Biden has appointed 11 judges to the U.S. courts of appeal and 29 district court judges. There are 31 nominations currently awaiting Senate action: five for the courts of appeals and 26 for the district courts.
With McConnell in charge, any future judicial nominations will sway in the breeze. And then there’s Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, 83, one of the more liberal judges on the court who, because of his age, is being encouraged to retire, opening the door for a Biden appointee while Dems maintain the majority.
McConnell’s desire to load the federal judiciary with the worst right-wingers imaginable is sufficient to keep Manchin on the Democratic side – at least for the time being. If the party picks up seats in 11 months, which is possible, it becomes a whole new ballgame.
First of all, Manchin’s benefactors determine how he votes; not his constituents – Richard.
Second, it is time to call Manchin’s bluff… there is no way that he is switching parties to become just another GOP Senator. He would never willingly give up the power he has right now as the crucial DNC senate vote and the windfalls of cash this position is bringing to him; or I mean his campaign. Schumer should push judges hard till March and then tell Joe to get out or get in line!