Joe Manchin is a no vote on Build Back Better Bill

Joe Manchin just killed Joe Biden's Build Back Better Bill this morning. Perhaps the drama had dragged on too long for Sen. Manchin. Perhaps, he just got tired of reporters hounding him wherever he went. Whatever it was that pushed him to this point, that point has been reached.

For all intents and purposes, Joe Biden is now a lame duck president. Though it's likely that Democrats will pass a stripped-down version of BBB, that's a far cry of the transformative, historic accomplishments that Biden was pushing for. Here's the video of Sen. Manchin's exclusive interview with Bret Baier:

Here's the transcript of the news-making portion of the interview:
BAIER: Senator, you are at the center of this negotiation with the president over his social spending and tax bill, a bill, the Build Back Better bill, that is not coming up in the Senate before the New Year in part largely because of your reservations. Without you, the leadership doesn't have the votes it needs. So, today, right now, what's the state of play. 
MANCHIN: Well, Bret, you know, this is a mammoth piece of legislation and I have had my reservations from the beginning when they heard about it a five and half months ago and I've been working diligently every day, every minute of every day, I've been working on this, meeting with -- whether it'd be the president, President Biden, whether it'd be Majority Leader Schumer and his staff, whether it would be with Nancy Pelosi, all of my colleagues. I mean, from all different spectrums of the political spectrum, if you will, from the right to the left. I've done everything humanly possible. 
And you know, my concerns I had, and I still have these concerns and where I'm at right now, the inflation that I was concerned about, it's not transitory, it's real, it's harming every West Virginian. It's making it almost difficult for them to continue, to go to their jobs, the cost of gasoline, the cost of groceries, the cost of utility bills -- all of these things are hitting in every aspect of their life. 
And you start looking at -- then you have the debt that we're carrying, $29 trillion, you have also the geopolitical unrest that we have. You have the COVID -- the COVID variant, and that is wreaking havoc again, people are concerned. I've been with my family, I know everyone is concerned. 
So when you have these things coming at you the way they are right now, I've always said this, Bret, if I can't go home and explain it to the people of West Virginia, I can't vote for it. And I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation. I just can't. I've tried everything humanly possible. I can't get there.
BAIER: You're done? This is -- is this a no? 
MANCHIN: This is a no on this legislation. I have tried everything I know to do, and the president has worked diligently. He's been wonderful to work with. He knows I've had concerns and the problems I've had. 
And, you know, the thing we should all be is directing our attention towards the variant, the COVID that we have coming back at us in so many different aspects in different ways, it's affecting our lives again. We have inflation that basically could harm -- really harm a lot of Americans and especially those who are most needy and having a hard time struggling right now. So I think that's where attention needs to be directed towards immediately.

Predictably, progressives are upset:

"Let’s be clear: Manchin’s excuse is bull----," Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., tweeted. "The people of West Virginia would directly benefit from childcare, pre-Medicare expansion, and long term care, just like Minnesotans. This is exactly what we warned would happen if we separated Build Back Better from infrastructure."
I didn't see that coming -- not. That's as predictable as this: Getting criticized by a socialist in West Virginia isn't exactly threatening. Sen. Manchin won't lose a split-second of sleep over it. Mondaire Jones chimed in, too:
"Manchin is a tour de force in gaslighting and dishonesty," tweeted Rep. Mondaire Jones, D-N.Y. "’We’ve got COVID’ — but Manchin just voted with Republicans to overturn Biden’s employer vaccine and testing requirements. ‘We’ve got inflation’ — but Build Back Better would cut costs for millions of working families."
TRANSLATION:BLAH, BLAH, BLAH. YADA, YADA, YADA. During the Biden administration, that whining plus 5 dollars is worth $3.00. Pelosi should tell these whiny little crybabies to sit down and shut up. They're annoying.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tim Walz's Confederate Flag Fiasco

Image
After Minnesota's Democrats shoved the most controversial progressive legislation down Minnesotans' throats, gossip started popping up about Gov. Walz being interested in running for president . That's died off but Gov. Walz is still making headlines, this time for all the wrong reasons. First, Gov. Walz isn't the brightest bulb in the chandelier. Still, Gov. Walz is fighting against Minnesota's history. This Alpha News article quotes David Hann, the chairman of Minnesota's Republican Party, as saying " The flag the DFL has eliminated was a version of the historic flag our regiments fought under during the Civil War. Minnesota was the first state to offer troops to the Union cause in 1861 , beginning a long tradition of leading the nation in confronting injustice. The DFL quest to erase our history is repugnant and should be rejected." Gov. Walz, though, sees things differently. He's quoted as saying "Minnesota is a diverse state, it continue
Read more

What is Kamala Harris afraid of?

Image
Apparently, Kamala Harris suddenly loves debating. Let me rephrase that. Harris loves debating as long as the moderators are partisan hacks. She wants nothing to do with a debate moderated by Fox's Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum. She's afraid of Bret and Martha because a) they'll either fact-check both her and Trump or they won't fact-check either of them and b) Bret and Martha aren't afraid of asking follow-up questions. To a candidate whose answers are scripted and who isn't quick on her feet, the last thing you want is a follow-up question. Kamala fears follow-up questions like vampires hate wooden stakes, sunlight and holy water. Why has Kamala Harris avoided Fox News like the plague? The moderators/propagandists fact-checked Donald Trump aggressively but didn't fact-check Harris . Why didn't David Muir and Linsey Davis fact-check both candidates equally? Is it because Harris doesn't like fair fights? Perhaps she's just afraid of getting exp
Read more

Why is Joe Biden letting Hamas off the hook?

Image
It isn't disputable whether Joe Biden's administration is letting Hamas off the hook. That issue was settled months ago, when a spineless Joe Biden caved to activists interested in saving Hamas and thwarting the Israelis' attempt to defend themselves. Gerard Baker's op-ed highlights what's at stake for the U.S. if the terrorists are permitted to survive. In his op-ed, Baker wrote "If, under the pressure of internal Democratic politics and global public opinion, the Biden administration forces a 'cease-fire' that leaves our closest ally in the region short of victory over an enemy that seeks to destroy it, sooner or later we shall all pay the price." It's time to revisit George W. Bush's speech to a joint session of Congress on Sept. 20, 2001. It's required that we remind ourselves of one of its most important paragraphs. In talking about who committed the atrocities of 9/11, President Bush identified al-Qa'ida as "a collectio
Read more