Any surprise in this?
Shouldn’t be….
West Virgina Democratic Senator Joe Manchin IS the picvotal vote for Democrats in the US Senate….
Not President Joe Biden…
Not Pelosi, Schumer or Biden gets to decide…
Progressives in the House and Senate will have take a seat on the side in any major effort from their party….
Democrats’ most at-risk senators want to transform the artist formerly known as “Build Back Better” into an inflation-buster, just in time for the midterms.
It’s a gambit that could jump-start President Joe Biden’s stalled domestic agenda by helping Democrats cut a deal with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), sell the legislation as a cost-cutting package and run on it in the fall. That would give the party’s most vulnerable incumbents a potent message to help keep their seats, and keep the majority for two more years as a result.
“That obviously would have an effect on helping people in their reelections,” said Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), who defeated an incumbent GOP senator in 2020….
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It’s Democrats’ attempt at a do-over after they struggled to sell a $1.7 trillion spending bill that Manchin rejected in December, capping off a gloomy period for the party following months of battling with progressives. Since then, Democrats have touted their pandemic aid law and the bipartisan infrastructure law — both passed last year — as proof of their effective governance, but lawmakers increasingly sense they need to clinch another signature piece of legislation to convince voters.
Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), who faces a tough reelection campaign this fall, said his constituents barely know what’s been in previous proposals “because of the hideous lack of communication with the American people.”
“What’s critically important for us is to come to an agreement quickly. The good news is there is a lot of potential here to pass something that is extremely popular with the American people,” Bennet said. “This gives us another chance, I mean Joe’s only one of 50 of us. But he said start with a blank sheet of paper. Well, he’s put some pencil marks on a blank sheet of paper.”
Manchin is floating a package that would reduce the deficit, lower prescription drug costs, plow some money into fighting climate change and reform the tax code. While he’s repeatedly said there are no formal talks going on with Biden or his colleagues, most Democrats take it as a sign he’s open for business….
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For most Democrats, Manchin’s vision is as good as any at this point. But time is running out; congressional primaries are already taking place and floor time is being gamed out of the rest of the year. Democrats’ chances are at reviving a party-line spending bill that solves some of their policy and political problems are dwindling.
“We need to get some more things done for the people of Georgia, for the American people. And I’d be interested in pursuing whatever path lowers costs for people, holds corporations accountable that are artificially raising prices,” said incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), who is prioritizing lowering insulin prices. “It doesn’t matter to me about the path. I just want to get something done.”…