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      Dire end to Biden’s first year as Manchin says no on signature bill

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      Dire end to Biden’s first year as Manchin says no on signature bill Senator’s announcement deals huge blow to president’s agenda and kicks off fiery recriminations among DemocratsJoe Biden had hoped to end his first year in office by signing his signature bill, the Build Back Better Act, a $1.75tn spending package that includes massive investments in healthcare, childcare and climate initiatives.Why Trump appears deeply unnerved as Capitol attack investigation closes inRead moreInstead, the president is ending the year with a member of his own party dealing a devastating blow to his legislative agenda and potentially Democrats’ prospects in next year’s midterm elections.The announcement by centrist West Virginia senator Joe Manchin that he will not support the Build Back Better Act has kicked off a round of fiery recriminations among Democrats, as party leaders rushed to determine whether the bill can still somehow be saved.But Manchin’s comments did not seem to leave much wiggle room for future negotiations. After announcing his opposition on Fox News Sunday, Manchin released a fuller statement saying the cost of the legislation, which had already been slashed in half to appease him, was too high to justify.“I have always said, ‘If I can’t go back home and explain it, I can’t vote for it,’” Manchin said. “Despite my best efforts, I cannot explain the sweeping Build Back Better Act in West Virginia and I cannot vote to move forward on this mammoth piece of legislation.”The White House was clearly blindsided by Manchin’s announcement, accusing the senator of reneging on commitments that he had reiterated to Biden just days earlier.“On Tuesday of this week, Senator Manchin came to the White House and submitted – to the president, in person, directly – a written outline for a Build Back Better bill that was the same size and scope as the president’s framework, and covered many of the same priorities,” press secretary Jen Psaki said on Sunday.“If his comments on Fox and written statement indicate an end to that effort, 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.”Despite the significant setback, the White House pledged to keep advocating for the bill’s passage. “The fight for Build Back Better is too important to give up. We will find a way to move forward next year,” Psaki said. Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer has already said he will hold a vote on the Build Back Better Act once the chamber reconvenes in January.In a “Dear colleague” letter that singled out Manchin, Schumer said: “Senators should be aware that the Senate will, in fact, consider the Build Back Better Act, very early in the new year so that every member of this body has the opportunity to make their position known on the Senate floor, not just on television.”But the bill will likely have to undergo significant revisions to win the support of Manchin, and Democrats cannot move forward without him because of the 50-50 split in the Senate.For the left of the Democratic party, the dilemma represents a bitter case of “I told you so”. The Congressional Progressive Caucus had insisted that the bipartisan infrastructure bill should not pass until the Build Back Better Act could move forward as well. Instead, the House passed the infrastructure bill last month after Biden convinced progressives that he could also secure 50 Senate votes for the spending package.Despite Biden’s assurances, six progressives still voted against the infrastructure bill to protest the decoupling of the two proposals, and those lawmakers have expressed outrage over Manchin’s announcement, which has proven their predictions correct.“We have been saying this for weeks that this would happen, and we took the hits,” congresswoman Cori Bush told MSNBC on Sunday. “Having those coupled together was the only leverage we had. And what did the caucus do? We tossed it.”However, it is not just the left wing of the Democratic party expressing criticism of Manchin. Congresswoman Suzan DelBene, the chair of the centrist New Democrat Coalition, warned that the party would suffer severe consequences if the Build Back Better Act is not passed.“The challenges our country faces are too big and the cost of inaction is too high to throw in the towel on Build Back Better negotiations now,” DelBene said Sunday. “Failure is not an option.”In an effort to bring Manchin back to the negotiating table, DelBene suggested that the bill should be altered to focus on funding a smaller number of programs for a longer period of time.Manchin’s most recent gripe about the legislation is that it calls for some programs to be phased out after a year or a few years. The senator has complained that those programs will inevitably be renewed and result in even more government spending, although the White House has said any future renewals would be paid for through additional revenue-raising provisions.“At the start of these negotiations many months ago, we called for prioritizing doing a few things well for longer, and we believe that adopting such an approach could open a potential path forward for this legislation,” DelBene said.But the progressives who are outraged at Biden and Democratic leaders for their handling of the negotiations have endorsed a different tactic, calling on the president to use the power of the executive pen to enact immediate change.“Biden needs to lean on his executive authority now. He has been delaying and under-utilizing it so far,” New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in a Monday tweet.“There is an enormous amount he can do on climate, student debt, immigration, cannabis, healthcare, and more. Time is running out. We need to move and use alternative paths.”Biden’s strategy in the coming weeks will likely have significant repercussions on the midterm elections. If Democrats cannot deliver on their promises to address the climate crisis and make childcare and healthcare more affordable, despite having full control of Congress and the White House, they will face many angry voters as they seek reelection next year. After months of drawn-out negotiations and no results to show for them, those voters may decide they are ready for a change in Washington.TopicsJoe BidenUS politicsDemocratsJoe ManchinnewsReuse this content More

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      Harris refuses ‘personal’ fight with Manchin over Build Back Better: ‘The stakes are too high’

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      Harris refuses ‘personal’ fight with Manchin over Build Back Better: ‘The stakes are too high’Vice-president says focus should be on ‘getting the job done’ despite senator’s attempt to sink Biden’s $1.75tn plan

      Dire end to Biden’s year as Manchin says no on signature bill
      Kamala Harris has refused to be drawn into a war of words with Joe Manchin over the West Virginia senator’s attempt to sink the Build Back Better spending plan, saying: “The stakes are too high for this to be in any way about any specific individual.”By ditching landmark climate legislation, America makes the world unsafe | Kate AronoffRead moreThe vice-president, whose vote in the 50-50 Senate would have passed Build Back Better had Manchin (and the other 49 Democrats and independents) stayed onboard, was speaking to CBS News.But Manchin issued a dramatic “no” in an interview with Fox News Sunday, enraging the progressive wing of the Democratic party as well as the White House, which issued a stinging rebuke.“I don’t have any personal feelings about this,” Harris insisted. “This is about let’s get the job done. Let’s get it done.“I refuse to get caught up in the what might be personal politics. The people who are waking up at three o’clock in the morning worried about how they’re going to get by, they could care less about the politics of DC.”Build Back Better, valued at around $1.75tn, aims to boost social and health care as well as target spending at the climate crisis and other Democratic priorities.Harris said: “Let’s talk with families who say I can’t afford to do the basic things that I need to do as a responsible adult, like care for my children, care for my older parents, or afford to get life saving medication like insulin.”Asked how the Democrats could do that without Manchin – as many in the party have said they will try to do, if they are not able to turn him round – Harris said: “You don’t give up? That’s how we do it.”Manchin does appear to have personal feelings on the issue, having told a West Virginia radio station on Monday he reached “wit’s end” before deciding to drop his bombshell on Fox.“This is not the president, this is staff … they drove some things that are absolutely inexcusable,” he said. “I just got to the wit’s end of what happened.”Manchin also said he had been “far apart, philosophically” with Democratic leaders for months.“We’re in a 50-50 Senate, you all are approaching legislation [as if] there is 55 or 60 Democrats,” he said.Some fear Manchin could switch allegiance from Democratic to independent or even Republican – as every other official in major office in his state has done. Such a move would jeopardise or end Democratic control of the Senate.On Monday, Manchin said he “would like to hope there was still Democrats that feel like I do”, but said that could change.The Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, said he would “certainly welcome” Manchin into Republican ranks.“He doesn’t fit well over there,” McConnell said, “but that is a decision ultimately that he has to make. We certainly welcome him to join us if he was so inclined.”McConnell also told the Guy Benson Show podcast he was “shocked at the vitriol” in the White House rebuke of Manchin.“And basically it seemed to me that they were calling Senator Manchin a liar. I think that was not smart. This is a 50-50 Senate. It’s going to be 50-50 for another year, and believe me, this is not how I would handle a disappointing vote like that.”Schumer vows vote on Build Back Better despite ‘no’ from ManchinRead moreJoe Biden’s press secretary, Jen Psaki, told reporters in Washington she would not “relitigate” Manchin’s announcement on Sunday and the White House rebuke, which was issued in her name.West Virginia is a major coalmining state. Also on Monday, a prominent coal union urged Manchin to reconsider his opposition to Build Back Better, not least because it would extend benefits, due to expire at the end of the year, to miners suffering from black lung disease, and encourage investment in jobs for former miners.“For those and other reasons, we are disappointed that the bill will not pass,” said Cecil Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers of America.“We urge Senator Manchin to revisit his opposition to this legislation and work with his colleagues to pass something that will help keep coal miners working, and have a meaningful impact on our members, their families and their communities.”TopicsKamala HarrisJoe ManchinUS CongressUS politicsJoe BidenDemocratsnewsReuse this content More

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      By ditching landmark climate legislation, America makes the world unsafe | Kate Aronoff

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      By ditching landmark climate legislation, America makes the world unsafeKate AronoffThe rest of the world needs to start treating the US as what it is: a dangerous country that needs to be reined in As the now very likely collapse of the Build Back Better Act underlines, what’s exceptional about the United States is its extraordinary ability to dole out harm. Besides its ever-ballooning military budget and foreign wars, America also makes the world unsafe thanks to the prodigious amount of fossil fuel it continues to send around the world.US ‘closer to civil war’ than most would like to believe, new book saysRead moreOil Change International, Earthworks and the Center for International Environmental Law have found that burning the oil and gas expected to be drilled in the US alone over the next decade could gobble up 10% of the entire world’s remaining carbon budget, the amount of carbon dioxide that can be released before the planet warms above 1.5C.The Build Back Better Act wouldn’t have made a dent in that drilling, of course: constraining US fossil fuel production or exports has been a political third rail on both sides of the aisle, despite John Kerry having spent months hectoring other smaller and less wealthy nations about their own fossil fuel use in the lead-up to Cop26.Just last week, energy secretary Jennifer Granholm went out of her way to assure oil executives that the administration wouldn’t reinstate the longstanding crude oil export ban, assuring them: “I don’t want to fight with any of you.”West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin – whose promised no vote on Build Back Better seems to have hammered the nail into Biden’s legislative agenda – made half a million dollars last year off his family’s coal business, and was reportedly speaking weekly with ExxonMobil lobbyists this spring. But he’s hardly the only Democrat furthering the fossil fuel industry’s interests.What the Build Back Better bill represented was a bare minimum, at best: the roughly $55bn a year the bill would spend on incentives for renewables deployment, building upgrades and electric vehicles over the next decade is roughly half of what Americans spent on caring for their pets in 2020, and pales in comparison to the $768bn one-year Pentagon budget that breezed through both chambers last week.Even the White House’s topline goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 is dangerously behind the times: that’s when the entire world should be carbon neutral. With its vast resources and outsized historical responsibility for the climate crisis, the US should get there much, much sooner. But what the United States should do to reduce emissions and what its staid, corporate-captured democratic institutions are capable of at this moment are two different things.That’s not to say the fight is over. Congressional leadership could finally call Manchin’s bluff and force a vote on Build Back Better. Biden has a slew of emissions-cutting executive actions at his disposal should he choose to use them, including the EPA’s ability to regulate carbon dioxide. And there are exciting victories at the state and local level to build on.But the road ahead is a rocky one. With a deadly Omicron surge encroaching, the child tax credit about to lapse and student loans payments starting up again in February, Democrats will struggle to point voters to success stories during next year’s midterm elections without Build Back Better in hand.They face a potential blowout in the House, where a Republican majority may well refuse to recognize that any Democrat could win the 2024 presidential election. It’s very likely that the United States, the world’s largest economy and second biggest greenhouse gas emitter, will not pass its first-ever comprehensive climate legislation for at least a decade.Should they take back control in Washington, Republicans will expand drilling as quickly as possible, rest of the world be damned. Countries committed to seeing temperatures not rise above 1.5 or 2C should start treating the US for what it is: an exceptionally dangerous country that needs to be reined in.
      Kate Aronoff is a staff writer at The New Republic and the author of Overheated: How Capitalism Broke the Planet – And How We Fight Back
      TopicsUS politicsOpinionJoe BidenClimate crisisUS domestic policycommentReuse this content More

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      Commander in, Major out: White House pet shakeup after biting incidents

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      Commander in, Major out: White House pet shakeup after biting incidentsJoe Biden brings in new German shepherd puppy, to be joined by a cat in January President Joe Biden on Monday introduced the newest member of his family, a purebred German shepherd puppy named Commander, while the first lady’s office said the cat she promised more than a year ago to bring to the White House would finally join them in January.But the news was not so good for another member of the Biden animal family. The family decided it was best for their other German shepherd, Major, to live in a quieter environment with friends after some biting incidents.Biden shared a photo on his official Twitter account of the three-month-old male puppy with a caption that said: “Welcome to the White House, Commander.” He also released a brief video of him tossing a ball to Commander and walking the leashed dog into the White House.Commander was born on 1 September and arrived at the White House on Monday afternoon, a gift from the president’s brother James Biden and sister-in-law Sara Biden, according to Michael LaRosa, a spokesperson for the first lady, Jill Biden.His name appears to be a play on Biden’s status as commander-in-chief of the US armed forces.The first lady said shortly after Biden won the November 2020 presidential election that they would be getting a cat. LaRosa said the feline would join the family in January.The Bidens had two other German shepherds – Champ and Major – with them at the White House before Commander.But Major, a three-year-old rescue dog, ended up in the proverbial dog house following two biting incidents in the months after his arrival last January. He was sent home to Delaware for training before he was returned to the White House. White House officials had explained Major’s aggressive behaviour by saying he was still getting used to his new surroundings.But he was sent away again. Now, his permanent exile from the executive mansion appears official.“After consulting with dog trainers, animal behaviourists, and veterinarians, the first family has decided to follow the experts’ collective recommendation that it would be safest for Major to live in a quieter environment with family friends,” LaRosa said in an emailed statement. “This is not in reaction to any new or specific incident, but rather a decision reached after several months of deliberation as a family and discussions with experts.”Champ died in June at the age of 13.CNN first reported Commander’s arrival after he was seen scampering around the White House south lawn on Monday.TopicsJoe BidenUS politicsDogsPetsAnimalsnewsReuse this content More

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      Schumer vows vote on Build Back Better despite ‘no’ from Manchin

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      Schumer vows vote on Build Back Better despite ‘no’ from ManchinSenate majority leader says Democrats will keep working on Biden plan ‘until we get something done’ Democrats will keep working on Joe Biden’s Build Back Better spending plan “until we get something done”, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer told colleagues on Monday – a day after a stunning move by Joe Manchin of West Virginia drew accusations of betrayal from the White House and seemed to leave the president’s agenda dead in the water.Joe Biden must use his presidential powers to deliver on his promises | Ross BarkanRead moreIn a letter to colleagues, Schumer wrote: “We are going to vote on a revised version of the House-passed Build Back Better Act – and we will keep voting on it until we get something done.”He also put senators on notice that they will “consider voting rights legislation as early as the first week back” next month, a timeline for another part of Biden’s agenda and an olive branch to disillusioned progressives.Build Back Better had been delayed as the White House and Democrats in Congress sought accommodation with Manchin and fellow centrist Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, key votes in a Senate split 50-50 and controlled by Vice-President Kamala Harris.In his letter, Schumer spoke of “moments of deep discontent and frustration” before Manchin’s decision to use Fox News Sunday to say he was a “no” on the spending plan, which is valued at about $1.75tn and would expand health and social care and seek to combat the climate crisis, among other priorities.Manchin cited the cost of the plan and worries including inflation, the debt and the Omicron coronavirus variant, and said: “I’ve always said this … if I can’t go home and explain it to the people of West Virginia, I can’t vote for it.“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 … This is a no on this piece of legislation. I have tried everything I know to do.”Manchin also put out a statement. The White House responded with a fierce rebuke, accusing the senator of going back on his word – an accusation reportedly included at Biden’s insistence.In a local radio interview on Monday, Manchin said he had reached “wit’s end” over the negotiations but refused to blame Biden either for the talks breaking down or for the angry statement.“This is not the president, this is staff … they drove some things that are absolutely inexcusable,” he told West Virginia Radio, without further explanation. “I just got to the wit’s end of what happened.”Manchin also claimed to have been “far apart, philosophically” with Democratic leaders for months.“We’re in a 50-50 Senate, you all are approaching legislation [like] there is 55 or 60 Democrats,” he said.On Monday, Schumer said Manchin’s move would not “deter us from continuing to try to find a way forward”. Listing provisions including a child tax credit, he said: “We were elected to address these many needs and we will not stop fighting until we do.”Also on Monday, the progressive New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, attacked Manchin’s “betrayal of working class families” but said she did “not believe the situation is beyond repair”.Speaking to MSNBC, she said the White House and Democratic leaders had the tools to move legislation.“It’s really about time we take the kid gloves off and we start using them to govern for working families in this country,” she said.“Our leadership needs to step up. It takes the president of the United States, who I believe needs to be more forceful on the filibuster, he also needs to lean on his executive authority and say, ‘If you’re going to get in the way, we’re going to find other ways to do it. You’re either with us or not, but this train is moving.’”Ocasio-Cortez said it was a “farce” that Manchin held so much sway.“This idea that we can just go on Fox News and legislate through television … and threaten to vote no is unacceptable.”Manchin holds one card which would change the rules of the game. Should he decide to switch parties – thereby ceasing to be the only Democrat in high office in a state that voted solidly for Donald Trump – Republicans would regain control of the Senate. That would stymie Biden’s agenda for good and remove the option of a supreme court pick next year.It has happened before. Most recently, in June 2001, Jim Jeffords of Vermont changed affiliation from Republican to independent and caucused with the Democrats, giving them the majority 51-49.Some analysts doubt Manchin would take such a drastic step but concede that his stance makes it harder for Democrats to know the best way forward. On Monday, the website Axios cited “people close to” Manchin as saying if he did leave the party, he would probably become an independent but still caucus with the Democrats.In his radio interview, Manchin was asked if there was still a place for him inside the Democratic party. He said he “would like to hope there was still Democrats that I feel like I do”, but added that could change, CNN’s chief congressional correspondent, Manu Raju, tweeted.An analysis by Politico listed ways in which Build Back Better could progress, for example by breaking it into chunks more palatable to the centrists.But it also warned: “Manchin doesn’t give a lick if the Democratic party doesn’t like him. Biden lost West Virginia by nearly 40 points, and his constituents aren’t inclined to support anything with the president’s name attached to it, [so] being assailed by the left only helps Manchin politically.”White House rebukes Manchin after ‘no’ to Biden spending plan deals huge blowRead moreIn his statement on Sunday, Manchin alluded to Republican claims that Build Back Better is “socialist” in intent, saying: “My Democratic colleagues in Washington are determined to dramatically reshape our society.”On Monday, the Huffington Post cited two sources when it said Manchin told “several” Democrats “he thought parents would waste monthly child tax credit payments on drugs instead of providing for their children”.The site also said the senator believes Americans would “fraudulently use … paid sick leave” to “go on hunting trips”.Schumer’s pronouncement that the Senate would consider voting rights legislation next month is also significant, not least because it indicates a stronger line on reforming the filibuster, which requires 60-vote majorities for most legislation. Manchin and Sinema are both opposed to changes.Schumer said continued Republican opposition to voting rights efforts – guaranteed given it is being pushed in answer to Republican moves to restrict voting and make it easier to overturn elections – would prompt consideration of filibuster reform.“As with BBB,” Schumer wrote, “members will be given the chance to debate on the Senate floor and cast a vote so that their choice on the matter is clear and available for everyone to see.”Numerous Republican-controlled legislatures have passed restrictive voting laws and redrawn district boundaries to make them more favorable to their party’s candidates.“If the right to vote is the cornerstone of our democracy,” Schumer wrote, “then how can we in good conscience allow for a situation in which the Republican party can debate and pass voter suppression laws at the state level with only a simple majority, but not allow the United States Senate to do the same?”TopicsDemocratsUS politicsJoe BidenUS domestic policynewsReuse this content More

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      White House rebukes Manchin after ‘no’ to Biden spending plan deals huge blow

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      White House rebukes Manchin after ‘no’ to Biden spending plan deals huge blow $1.75tn domestic spending plan all but dead in the waterSenator accused of ‘breach of commitment’ to presidentThe West Virginia senator Joe Manchin dealt a huge blow to Joe Biden on Sunday, saying “no” to the $1.75tn Build Back Better domestic spending plan. The White House issued a stinging rebuke in return, stoking a bitter war of words in a party sharply divided between moderates and progressives.Fauci: Omicron ‘raging through the world’ and travel increases Covid risksRead moreThe White House accused Manchin of going back on his word.“Senator Manchin’s comments this morning on Fox are at odds with his discussions this week with the president, with White House staff and with his own public utterances,” Jen Psaki, the press secretary, said in a statement.Adding to angry accusations of betrayal from leading progressives including Senator Bernie Sanders, Psaki said: “Weeks ago, Senator Manchin committed to the president, at his home in Wilmington, to support the Build Back Better framework that the president then announced. Senator Manchin pledged repeatedly to negotiate on finalising that framework ‘in good faith’.Citing work by Manchin on the proposed bill this week, Psaki said: “Senator Manchin promised to continue conversations in the days ahead, and to work with us to reach that common ground.“If his comments on Fox and written statement indicate an end to that effort, they represent a sudden and inexplicable reversal in his position, and a breach of his commitments to the president and [his] colleagues in the House and Senate.”Biden and Democrats said this week they would delay the bill until next year but the president vowed it would pass and said he would continue talking to Manchin.But on Sunday Manchin used an interview with Fox News Sunday to announce his withdrawal from such talks – a hugely provocative move in a party in which he and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, another centrist, have held up Biden’s agenda to huge progressive frustration.With the Senate split 50-50 and Republicans unanimously against, Manchin’s opposition means Build Back Better is all but dead in the water.Citing the cost of the plan and economic worries including inflation, the national debt and the Omicron coronavirus variant, Manchin said: “I’ve always said this … if I can’t go home and explain it to the people of West Virginia, I can’t vote for it.”“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.”The host, Bret Baier, seemed surprised.“You’re done?” he asked. “This is a no?”Manchin said: “This is a no on this piece of legislation. I have tried everything I know to do.”01:04Manchin also issued a lengthy statement in which he cast the US debt as a spectre haunting all other concerns, domestic and foreign.“For five and a half months,” he said, “I have worked as diligently as possible, meeting with President Biden, [Senate] majority leader [Chuck] Schumer, [House] Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi and my colleagues on every end of the political spectrum to determine the best path forward despite my serious reservations.“I have made my concerns clear through public statements, op-eds and private conversations. My concerns have only increased as the pandemic surges, inflation rises and geopolitical uncertainty increases.“… Despite my best efforts, I cannot explain the sweeping Build Back Better act in West Virginia and I cannot vote to move forward on this mammoth piece of legislation.”Manchin cited a report by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office which said that if the bill’s spending increases and tax cuts became permanent, $3tn would be added to its cost. Democrats criticised the report, which Republicans requested.Psaki rejected each claim in Manchin’s statement, and said: “Just as Senator Manchin reversed his position on Build Back Better this morning, we will continue to press him to see if he will reverse his position yet again, to honor his prior commitments and be true to his word.”On CNN’s State of the Union, Sanders listed Build Back Better provisions including investment to combat the climate crisis and improve health and social care.Republicans are shamelessly working to subvert democracy. Are Democrats paying attention? Read more“I’ve been to West Virginia,” he said. “And it’s a great state, beautiful, but it is a state that is struggling.“[Manchin] is going to have to tell the people of West Virginia why he’s rejecting what the scientists, the world is telling us, that we have to act boldly and transform our energy system to protect future generations from the devastation of climate change.“… I hope that we will bring a strong bill to the floor of the Senate and that Joe Manchin should explain to the people of West Virginia why he doesn’t have the guts to stand up to the powerful special interests.“… If he doesn’t have the courage to do the right thing for the working families of West Virginia in America, let him stand up and tell the whole world.”Analysts would counter that Manchin is the only Democrat in major office in a state which voted solidly for Donald Trump, cuts his cloth accordingly and could easily switch allegiance, putting the Senate back in Republican hands.In his statement, Manchin echoed Republican claims that Build Back Better is “socialist” in intent, saying: “My Democratic colleagues in Washington are determined to dramatically reshape our society.”Sanders, a self-identified democratic socialist, promised to make Manchin’s stance an election issue, saying: “I think … that right up to the 2022 election [we ask]: ‘Which party is prepared to do the right thing for the elderly, for the children?’“By the way, we talk about kids, I want everybody out there to know if Manchin votes no, those $300 tax credits that have gone a long way to reducing childhood poverty in America? They’re gone. That’s all. We cut childhood poverty by 40%, an extraordinary accomplishment. Manchin doesn’t want to do that.“Tell that to the struggling families of West Virginia.”In the 50-50 Senate, Manchin has gained huge power. He voted for coronavirus relief and a bipartisan infrastructure bill, big-ticket spending items. But he has opposed reform to the filibuster, the rule that requires a supermajority for most legislation, even in answer to Republican moves to restrict voting among Democrats.How a reboot of Trump’s Remain in Mexico plan isn’t the solution migrants are hoping forRead moreThe infrastructure bill was “decoupled” from Build Back Better to ensure passage through the Senate. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, one of six House progressives who voted no on infrastructure despite assurances from Biden that he would get all senators on board for Build Back Better, refused to blame the president for Sunday’s disaster.“My lack and deficit of trust was about Senator Manchin,” she told CNN. “He’s continued to move the goalposts. He has never negotiated in good faith, and he is obstructing the president’s agenda, 85% of which is still left on the table. And in obstructing the president’s agenda, he is obstructing the people’s agenda.”Pressley was asked if Build Back Better might be split into smaller bills, to attract moderate Republicans.She said: “I remain focused on keeping the pressure on Senator Manchin, the White House using the full weight of this presidency to lean on this senator to show solidarity with this Democratic party and with the American people and to stop obstructing the president’s agenda, which is the people’s agenda.“This is a mammoth bill to address. Let’s get it done.”TopicsJoe ManchinBiden administrationJoe BidenDemocratsUS politicsUS SenateUS CongressnewsReuse this content More

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      Joe Manchin says he 'cannot get there' on Build Back Better bill – video

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      Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat who is key to President Joe Biden’s hopes of passing a $1.75tn domestic investment bill, has said he will not support the package.
      Manchin has been a key holdout on the White House’s Build Back Better plan, which aims to bolster the social safety net and fight climate change, and is the cornerstone of Biden’s legislative agenda.
      ‘I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation,’ Manchin told Fox News, citing concerns about inflation. ‘I just can’t. I have tried everything humanly possible.’

      Joe Manchin tells Fox News he’s a ‘no’ on Build Back Better in huge blow for Biden More

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      From Peril to Betrayal: the year in books about Trump and other political animals

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      From Peril to Betrayal: the year in books about Trump and other political animals 2021 provided a glut of memoirs, deep dives and tell-alls about American politics in an age of Covid and attacks on democracy itself. Which were the best – and most alarming?If in recent years American politics books have been noted mainly for ephemera, in 2021 the winds of history began to blow open the doors – occasionally to devastating effect. The advent of a new administration loosened tongues and made documents more readily available as some sought redemption, justification or simply fame.March of the Trump memoirs: Mark Meadows and other Republican readsRead moreSuch books illustrate the truth that one cannot keep a thing hidden and generally share certain characteristics that convey the ring of truth. They report bitterly angry outbursts by Donald Trump, staff reeling from dysfunction, chaos and the pressures of a campaign in a pandemic. They frequently recount interviews with Trump himself. They contain sufficient profanity to make sailors blush.And, happily, this paper celebrated its bicentennial in part by scooping many of them, with real consequences in the case of Mark Meadows, who published The Chief’s Chief this month. Some – the former White House chief of staff in particular – may wish they had not written books. But some books are essential to understand the danger in which the country finds itself.The former FBI director James Comey opened the year with Saving Justice, a second book defending the rule of law. Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes followed with Lucky, a quick but full postmortem of the 2020 campaign, noting: “Luck, it has been said, is the residue of design. It was for Joe Biden, and for the republic.”The heart of the year was a series of blockbusters from prominent reporters, each containing significant new information on aspects of the chaos that was 2020. Michael Bender led off with Frankly, We Did Win This Election, in which Trump’s words, on the record, are unsurprising but nonetheless shocking.In Landslide, Michael Wolff completed his Trump trilogy with a focus on the campaign – including Chris Christie, in debate preparation (as a result of which he tested positive for Covid), earning Trump’s ire for asking hard but predictable questions on Covid response and family scandals – and on a post-election dominated by Trump’s anger as the levers of power, including the supreme court of which he chose three members, failed to overturn his defeat.Wolff is keenly analytic: as he writes, Trump “knew nothing of government, [his supporters] knew nothing about government, so the context of government itself became beside the point”. Instead, Trump was “the star – never forget that – and the base was his audience”. This self-referential and adulatory mode of governing failed in a divided country facing a pandemic and rising international challenges. Landslide is a fine book, though as new evidence from the 6 January committee emerges, Wolff’s conclusion limiting Trump’s own knowledge of and responsibility for the events of that day may come to seem premature.Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker followed with I Alone Can Fix It, in which Gen Mark Milley said the US was in a “Reichstag moment” on 2 January, four days before the insurrection, and referred to “the gospel of the Führer” poisoning American democracy. Trump’s anger at his pollster, Tony Fabrizio, for being the bearer of bad news on Covid and the electorate is telling too: “They’re tired? They’re fatigued?” Politics as empathy was not the campaign’s theme.Bob Woodward, writing with Robert Costa, likewise completed his Trump series with Peril, whose title sums up its conclusion. The book, notable for revealing Gen Milley’s attempts to reassure the Chinese military in the waning days of the presidency, quotes Trump’s apparent view that “real power [is] fear” and asks, “Were there any limits to what he and his supporters might do to put him back in power?”Adam Schiff’s Midnight in Washington brings a former prosecutor’s eye and perspective of a House intelligence committee chairman to issues surrounding Trump and Russia. His book is both history and warning.Among Trump loyalists, former trade czar Peter Navarro released In Trump Time, in which he criticized Meadows and anyone else he deemed insufficiently loyal. The book’s most memorable line calls Vice-President Mike Pence “Brutus” to Trump’s “American Caesar” – all without irony or, one hopes, knowledge of Roman history.Not all notable books were tell-alls. Some contained real policy insights. Josh Rogin’s Chaos Under Heaven looks at US-China relations from a strategic as well as pandemic perspective, noting US conflicts of both interest and policy as well as Trump’s inability to develop a workable strategy. Rival books on antitrust policy by two very different senators, Amy Klobuchar and Josh Hawley, illustrate Congress’ increased focus on large technology companies. Evan Osnos’ Wildland chronicles the lives and fortunes of billionaires and the growth of the Washington machine – and the effects, including rightward political shifts, on those at the bottom. On a related theme, in Misfire Tim Mak delivers a shocking history of the National Rifle Association and its former leaders.Several books will serve as first drafts of history. Madam Speaker, Susan Page’s biography of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, describes how she “took on the boys club and won” through mastery of legislation and her caucus. Justice, Justice Thou Shalt Pursue compiles the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s opinions, speeches and other documents, with Amanda Tyler as co-author.Uncontrolled Spread review: Trump’s first FDA chief on the Covid disasterRead moreUnsurprisingly in the second year of a pandemic, healthcare featured prominently. In The Ten-Year War, Jonathan Cohn recounts the 10-year history of Obamacare. Patrick Radden Keefe’s Empire of Pain tells the sad and painful story of the promotion of opioids in America. On the pandemic, Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta in Nightmare Scenario focus on the Trump administration’s response. Leaving responsibility mostly to the states had deleterious consequences, as did chaos, turf wars and giving priority to “the demands of Trump and his base” as he sought reelection rather than an effective response.Scott Gottlieb, a well-regarded former FDA commissioner, takes a broader, more philosophical view in Uncontrolled Spread. Absence of leadership and a “sizeable enterprise devoted to manufacturing skepticism” about the virus and public health solutions meant the US failed the bar of “delay[ing] its onset and reduc[ing] its scope and severity”. But the Operation Warp Speed vaccine effort “proved what government could accomplish when it functions well” and makes one keenly regret the absence of leadership elsewhere as confirmed US deaths, so many among the unvaccinated, surpass 800,000.The pandemic’s broader impact is equally profound. In Gottlieb’s words, “Covid normalized the breakdowns in a global order that it was presumed, perhaps naively, would protect us, just as Covid pierced our own perception of domestic resiliency, cooperation, and fortitude.” Vaccine hesitancy in the face of clear science is only one pandemic effect.‘Pence was disloyal at exactly the right time’: author Jonathan Karl on the Capitol attackRead moreWith honorable mentions for Wolff, Leonnig and Rucker, Woodward and Costa, and Gottlieb, ABC’s Jonathan Karl produced arguably the year’s most significant book in Betrayal, in which Trump cabinet members “paint a portrait of a wrath-filled president, untethered from reality, bent on revenge”. The attorney general, Bill Barr, decries election-related conspiracies; the acting defense secretary, Chris Miller, seeks to dissuade Trump from attacking Iran by taking (and faking) an extreme position in favour:
      Oftentimes, with provocative people, if you get more provocative than them, they then have to dial it down.
      Such was government in the Trump era.Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote in his Nobel Lecture that “one word of truth shall outweigh the whole world”. The amount of newly uncovered truth is already outweighing a fair number of the more than 4,000 exoplanets Nasa has recorded.Yet the vital question remains: what will Americans, in particular Republican officials and independent voters, do with this information? As Karl wrote, “The continued survival of our republic may depend, in part, on the willingness of those who promoted Trump’s lies and those who remained silent to acknowledge they were wrong.”Is it to be Solzhenitsyn’s hope – or his fear that “when we are told again the old truth, we shall not even remember that we once possessed it”?TopicsBooksUS politicsDonald TrumpTrump administrationBiden administrationJoe BidenRepublicansfeaturesReuse this content More