Manchin’s “latest” (apparently signaled last summer but we just didn’t know about it) is 1.5 trillion. But when you look at his statements over the 9 months, it shows that instead of negotiating in good faith and trying to come to a compromise, every time the White House and the Democrats lower their request to meet his, he lowers his again:
In January, Manchin said he’d back up to $4 trillion in infrastructure spending, as then-president-elect Joe Biden laid out his plans for office.
“The most important thing? Do infrastructure. Spend $2, $3, $4 trillion over a 10-year period on infrastructure,” Manchin told Inside West Virginia Politics in January.
He reaffirmed his support for a larger package in April, as Senate Republicans readied their own much smaller infrastructure package.
“We’re going to do whatever it takes. If it takes $4 trillion, I’d do $4 trillion, but we have to pay for it,” Manchin told reporters at the time, saying that he would go big if the situation warranted it.
The document obtained by Politico is dated July 28, meaning that it came about two weeks after Senate Democrats announced their $3.5 trillion reconciliation deal. Ahead of that deal, Manchin said any Democratic-only plan would need to be fully paid for, and not require borrowing money.
After Manchin presented his proposals to Schumer, all 50 Senate Democrats voted to advance the $3.5 trillion blueprint and send it to the House. That unanimous support is now on the ropes.
No kidding. Manchin has consistently been shifting the goalposts. Apparently, the fact that he already voted for the 3.5 trillion dollar package is meaningless. Sinema too! What changed?
This has been bad faith all around. There’s not much the Democrats can do about it but it’s a sad comment on our system that this kind of thing can just happen without any real ability to push back. A tiny handful of Americans voted for these two. It’s just not right.
Abolish the senate. What a mistake it was to ever create out own “house of Lords.” The British successfully cut them out of the governing and so should we.