Sen. Joe Manchin. Photo (cc) 2017 by Third Way Think Tank.
Sen. Joe Manchin has finally done what he was obviously planning to do all along — he’s killed the Build Back Better bill. Naturally, he made his announcement during an appearance on Fox News.
This is why I was upset with progressives like Reps. Ayanna Pressley and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for holding the infrastructure bill hostage until Build Back Better was passed. To what end? Manchin was never going to vote for BBB, no matter how many programs were cut out of it. At least we got the infrastructure bill anyway. But I hate to be right — BBB would have done an immense amount of good.
The protracted process did enormous damage to President Joe Biden’s political standing. He and his advisers need to think about how they got themselves in a position where they rolled all the dice in a very public way on something that was never going to pass.
It’s time also to think about how individual chunks of BBB might be salvaged. It won’t be easy. But the Local Journalism Sustainability Act, part of which had been folded into BBB, stands out as something that has actual bipartisan support. Let’s get it done.
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pauljbass
Great points!
Rather than the Hedge Fund Predatory Newsroom Destruction Corporate Welfare Act, I would recommend carving out the earned income tax credit for first-priority salvaging.
Steve Ross
The public likes all the bill’s separate pieces (https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/americans-like-whats-in-the-build-back-better-act-theyre-lukewarm-on-the-bill-itself/) but doesn’t realize what’s in the bill itself. Those same media outlets that would benefit have never bothered to consistently list the contents in their stories! Manchin Mold grew in the media darkness. Manchin lies about the supposed cost and effect on inflation were countered by very few (Paul Krugman was a shining exception… and… he used “numbers”).