The problem isn’t Joe Manchin.
Perhaps the biggest campaigners for the Republicans in 2022 and 2024 will turn out to be America’s top Democrats. It is hard to imagine any strategy, insofar as they have one, that would better ensure Democrats’ loss of both houses of Congress and the presidency than that which the president and his allies are pursuing right now.
“If his comments on FOX and written statement indicate an end to that effort [to come to an agreement on the president’s signature Build Back Better legislation], they represent a sudden and inexplicable reversal in his position, and a breach of his commitments to the President and the Senator’s colleagues in the House and Senate,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a Dec. 19 statement.
While the statement’s blistering language sounds like something a presidential administration might have said about a member of the opposition party, Psaki was directly attacking, on the White House’s behalf, President Biden’s former colleague and co-partisan, Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-W.V. The White House was irritated that Manchin said Dec. 19 on Fox that he would not support Biden’s more than $2 trillion “Build Back Better” bill (BBB), citing spending and inflation worries.
Putting aside the Trumpian notion that a representative’s commitments should be “to the President and the Senator’s colleagues in the House and Senate,” the statement is still jarring. One could only look to the Trump administration to find such a blatant example of a president – Psaki speaks on behalf of the chief executive – attacking a member of his own party, especially an administration suffering so grievously in opinion polls in the run-up for what will be a desperate fight to hold onto either of the houses of Congress. It is hard to imagine Obama speaking in such a way to Blue Dog Democrats during his administration’s quest for the Affordable Care Act, or George W. Bush issuing such condemnations against other Republicans.
Not only did Biden’s press secretary attack Sen. Manchin, but Congressional Democrats piled on as well.
“We all knew that Senator Manchin couldn’t be trusted,” Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., said on MSNBC. “The excuses that he just made I think are complete bullshit.”
Also on MSNBC, Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez said, “I think what Sen. Manchin did yesterday represents such an egregious breach of the trust of the president.” She went on to say that Democrats “should take the kid gloves off.”
Bernie Sanders, the socialist senator from Vermont, said of Manchin, “If he doesn’t have the courage to do the right thing for the working families of West Virginia and America, let him vote no in front of the whole world,” seemingly unaware that speaking on television is much more “in front of the world” than is casting a vote in Congress.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he would schedule a vote on the bill, “so that every member of this body has the opportunity to make their position known on the Senate floor, not just on television.”
While Sanders and Schumer apparently hope to shame Manchin into voting for the bill, and while Psaki, Ocasio-Cortez, and Biden seem to think Manchin has an obligation to the president, the reason for the West Virginia Democrat’s “no” vote is clear. A recent poll of voters in his home state, where Biden lost to Trump by 40 points, shows that 74 percent of respondents support Manchin’s handling of the bill. The same poll showed Biden with a 33 percent approval rating in West Virginia, while 61 percent approve of Manchin.
In essence, the president and the Democratic legislators are vehemently condemning Manchin for representing his constituents. While Biden might think it is the duty of a senator to represent the president, one can only wonder what such thinking says about Democrats’ campaign plans for 2022. Good campaign slogans don’t usually highlight unquestioning loyalty to the party line or the candidate’s willingness to work against the stated interests of his or her voters.
This past weekend, the Democrats’ lack of strategy could have charitably been described as misguided. Now, in the light of new information, the administration and its allies seem positively unhinged.
The Washington Post reported Dec. 20 that Sen. Manchin had actually sent a new proposal to the White House the previous week. Included in it was most of what was in BBB, including universal pre-K and more than half a trillion dollars for environmental protection.
So much for the claim that the senator was merely working at the behest of evil coal companies (and, one supposes, their evil supporters who comprise most of West Virginia’s electorate).
What Manchin did leave out of his proposal was billions of dollars for the popular child tax credit, or CTC. This was also the apparent source of Manchin’s anger: someone in the White House apparently leaked to the press that Manchin wanted to do away with the credit, which explains his testy exchange with a Huffington Post reporter, in which he said, “You’re bullshit. This is bullshit.”
Shortly thereafter, Manchin was on Fox saying he’ll vote “no.”
Of course, leaking the CTC proposal in a move to embarrass Manchin was pure stupidity, as cutting it from the bill might have been good politics. The CTC is just about the only part of BBB that has bipartisan support and that could stand on its own and likely get past the 60 votes needed for cloture.
The bumbling and ineptitude of the White House in first leaking information to embarrass a senator from the president’s own party, and then going on to attack him in a public statement, along with the subsequent infighting within the Democratic Party won’t hurt Manchin. If anything, it helps him; In a state that voted overwhelmingly for Trump, public condemnation from Biden, Ilhan Omar, and others can’t help but boost the senator’s support.
On the other hand, the stupidity of the president, his administration, and legislators, help to further ensure that the Republicans win back control of the Senate and House on a scale not seen since the Gingrich Revolution.
If the Democrats start acting smarter, they might be able to maintain either the House or Senate. If they don’t, they’ll be annihilated by the voters.
Image: Stock photo of Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-W.V., via the West Virginia Conference of the United Baptist Church.