The foresworn Islamic revolutionary Ilhan Omar pretty much threatened Manchin on TV today and Commie Bernie is so deluded as to think that Manchin’s decision will hurt him in WV.
The time has come for Manchin to change parties and drive Schumer into obscurity where he belongs. pl
I agree — he’s less in step with the Democratic Party now that it’s shifted so far leftward. But I wonder if negotiations with perennial fence sitters like Sen. Manchin usually result in more federal appropriations for their constituents? In other words, do legislators like him bring home more bacon? I have no idea, I just wonder.
akapatience
Yes, so what?
akaPatience,
I think that it is contestable whether the betrayal of citizens of any State’s Constitutional liberties is compensated by monetary appropriations, especially when these appropriations often only serve to defray the cost of mandates thrust upon your citizens by central government fiat in its lust for power and overweaning control of all social and legal concerns.
That fiat is but a further exponation of “Honest” Abe’s trampling of the right of one’s state to set the tone of those social and legal arrangements favored by the citizens of that state for themselves under Federalism as originally conceived.
The Centralizing, All-Dominating federal government usurps the rights of the citizens’ of the various States in this manner at an ever-increasing pace. This tyrannical ploy whipsaws compliance from the States.
All
In re “bacon,” if you perfectionists want to make the perfect be the enemy of the good, go right ahead.
No no, I’m just wondering if Manchin is so often a holdout based on principle alone – or if it’s also a tactic he employs to get more for his constituents during the bargaining process? It strikes me that the state of WV, which is among the very poorest, may otherwise have trouble garnering federal favors. If he were to switch party affiliation, would he lose that leverage? And if he did, would his political viability be jeopardized? If the answers are yes, then I doubt he’ll switch — unless he’s forced to somehow. No doubt knives have been drawn and dirt diggers are on his case.
I hope he wasn’t a passenger on the Lolita Express…
Manchin should be more beholding to the state of West Virginia than to the Democratic Party. It should be the same for all senators and representatives. The fossil fuel industry is still big in WV, so Manchin should not be expected to support any of the anti-fossil fuel measures in the BBB bill. If they want to salvage anything from this bill, which even Manchin is interested in, it should be broken up into single issue pieces. Putting that big a wish list into one bill was always a bridge too far in such an evenly divided Congress. That approach only works when you have such an overwhelming majority that you can steamroller the opposition.
Earmarks on appropriation bills have been banned for a decade. And the bans on earmarks were off and on before that due to taxpayer rage about the Bridge to Nowhere.
Bring them back I say. Sure it is bacon, but it was rarely more than 2% of the federal budget. And one state’s pork-barrel usually tends to be another state’s vital project. Without them DC, no matter which party, decides what to spend money on. The White House and the Chairmen of the House or Senate Appropriations Committees can use the budget to penalize their political foes. It should be the individual states.
Dear Colonel,
But then the Dems would have to recruit a new senator to be the spoiler so they never need make their voters happy (as opposed to say, there paymasters on Wall St and Pharma St).
ISL
OK. Let them try.
It would be amusing. My guess is (satire alert) Bernie becomes a deficit hawk (in exchange for not becoming a political Ralph Nader).
Fauci will soon be looking for a new job – had the right BigPharm-Wall St creds.
The problem for Manchin switching parties is that he will no longer be free to vote as he sees fit. He can do so as a Democrat and suffer no worse than some angry scolds. If he was a Republican, he would be expected to vote the party line above all. Any deviation and he will be primaried out. He also voted to convict Trump. That can’t be forgiven.
TTG
I don’t think so. The amount of credit he would get from Republicans and Independents would make him invulnerable in WV.