Again. As usual.
Oops, he did it again. After laying out all the conditions, he suddenly decided at the last minute that all the conditions he laid out are no longer operative. This is about the 5th time he’s done it. It’s ridiculous. And to be honest, we don’t know if Kyrsten, Queen of the Desert would have gone along in the end anyway. She has her prerogatives too.
Most of us long ago realized that he isn’t acting in good faith but the Democrats had to keep trying because they simply have no choice. In the old days there might have been a Republican or two they could drag into negotiations but that’s long over unless Mitch gives his dispensation and even then, they won’t do anything that might accrue to the benefit of Democrats.
Greg Sargent has the ugly details:
This will surprise only people who haven’t paid even cursory attention to the last year of Democratic politics, but Sen. Joe Manchin III may have just killed any hopes for a resuscitated version of the Democratic agenda.
The West Virginia Democrat reportedly told party leaders late Thursday that he won’t support any new incentives to combat climate change or any new tax hikes on corporations or the wealthy. The Post reports that in private talks, Manchin appeared close to a deal, only to renege at the last minute.
Yet as ludicrous as this turnaround is on its face, there are still more hidden absurdities behind the situation that show what a farce it has truly become. They turn on the specifics of what Manchin appeared to reject, and his inflation-related excuse for doing so, which amount to a display of towering bad faith.
First, a caveat: After those stories broke, Manchin claimed on Friday that he’s still open to a deal and wants to see July’s inflation numbers before deciding. So perhaps he just doesn’t want to act quite yet. But given all we’ve seen, let’s inaugurate the Manchin Rule: Until the senator actually shows he’s operating in good faith, we’ll presume otherwise.
He said that Schumer can go ahead with a small bill to extend ACA subsidies and let Medicare negotiate drug prices, but they need to wait on the tax hikes and climate stuff until August — when they’ll all be in recess. Talk about bad faith…
The deal would have raised around $1 trillion in revenue from rolling back some of the 2017 GOP tax cuts. Half of that revenue would have gone to deficit reduction, and the other half would have gone mostly to funding the transition to green energy.
Also in the mix were provisions empowering Medicare to negotiate down prescription drug prices, which would produce substantial savings. Those could be used to continue funding expanded Affordable Care Act subsidies, which are set to expire after originally passing in last year’s covid-19 rescue package.
But Manchin has rejected the tax hikes and the climate provisions. For now, he is open only to some kind of deal in which savings from the prescription drugs provisions fund expanded ACA subsidies.
By the way, the subsidies highlight another problem with Manchin’s position. Even if he does just want to delay another month, extending the subsidies this month is critical, because states will soon have to assume they’ll expire and send out notices of premium increases.
Regardless, how Manchin reached this point is hard to discern. As The Post reports, he has long supported tax reforms such as those being debated, yet he seemingly backed away from them, including a measure to close a loophole enjoyed by the very wealthy to sustain Medicare.
What’s more, Manchin is still reportedly telling people he wants to secure a few hundred billion dollars in deficit reduction. How he would do this without raising high-end taxes is unclear.
It gets worse. A Democrat briefed on the conversations says Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) sought to meet Manchin’s concerns about the climate provisions head-on.
This included reducing spending on green energy tax incentives to $375 billion, the Democrat says. It also included nixing incentives for electric vehicles, which Manchin had objected to as well.
And a Democratic aide tells me much of the legislative text on green tax incentives had been written, and haggling was down to minor points. Manchin’s turnaround floored those working on that text, given what had been happening only hours earlier.
[…]
His spokesperson insists we must “adjust to the economic realities the country faces” and avoid “steps that add fuel to the inflation fire.”
But climate change is also a reality, and without something like this agenda, it may be impossible to come close to hitting climate targets scientists say are necessary to avoid disaster.
And how much would the package offered to Manchin actually increase inflation? Economist Dean Baker notes that half would go to deficit reduction, which Manchin wants, and the nixing of incentives for electrical vehicles removes another spending piece.
What’s more, Baker says, spending on ACA subsidies would be offset by less spending on prescription drugs. “It’s basically impossible to see how that would be inflationary,” Baker tells me.
Manchin is clearly either incoherently capricious or subject to sign-off from the special interests in whose pockets he resides. Either way, he’s been acting in bad faith from the beginning and he’s not going to change. He has personally and almost single-handedly destroyed what could have been a historic legislative agenda and seemingly enjoyed making the entire party dance to his tune. It’s pathetic.
I assume the Dems will say yes to the prescription drug and ACA elements. But there’s every chance he’ll pull back on that too saying that someone said something that hurt his feelings and that will be that. It wouldn’t be the first time. The Emperor is a very sensitive fellow.