Here’s How We Know Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin Are — for Now — Doing the Right Thing

Quote:The reports of Democrats on Capitol Hill continuing to be in disarray are real, y’all, and we are here for it, stocked up on the popcorn and all that.

As Bonchie reported earlier, President Joe Biden’s party is in “flaming Elmo territory” as the infighting between hardcore leftists/socialists like New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders versus the more moderate Democrat senators like Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema and West Virginia’s Joe Manchin has hit fever pitch over both the infrastructure bill and the reconciliation bill.

Even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer are at odds with each other, with Schumer noting yesterday per CNN that “he wasn’t consulted on Pelosi’s decision to reverse course [on which bill to hold a final vote on first], a rare break between the two party leaders.”

While all of this back and forth over the bills and who stands where on what might sound confusing, one sure way to know that Sinema and Manchin are — at least for now — doing the right thing is in how several “View” co-hosts erupted into meltdowns during their program today, calling the two senators “enemies of democracy,” who “will be the ruination of this nation” if they can’t be brought to heel by party leaders to rubber-stamp Biden’s bloated agenda:

“The Democrats have the numbers to make it happen, but Manchin and Sinema are standing in their way. They call themselves Democrats, and they will be the ruination of this nation. Those two,” Behar said.

[…]

“These people are destroying the country in my opinion. We are so in trouble in this country, I don’t know if people understand how dire the situation is,” Behar said. “If Joe Biden loses, if the Democrats lose, the Republicans, who are so corrupt right now and we all know that, they will move in, Trump will run in 2024 – he might win because of all the cheating that’s going on. We cannot let this happen!”

“Manchin and Sinema must be brought to task! They are the enemies right now of the democracy,” she added. “Yes, we have a great democracy, but it is really on life support right now because of these two people!”

Co-host Sunny Hostin also proclaimed that it was a crying shame Sinema and Manchin were acting the way they are because “so many people worked so hard to bring us back from the brink of the debacle of the past four years of Donald Trump” by turning Georgia blue.

Another way we know Sinema and Manchin are doing the right thing? Because they keep giving hardliners in their party absolute fits when they say stuff like this:

Heh. We’ll keep you posted as the drama continues to unfold. Stay tuned.

Pelosi at the congressional baseball game.

House May Pull Infrastructure Bill as Manchin Deals Knock-out Blow on Reconciliation: "Fiscal Insanity"

Quote:House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced earlier in the week that she would be taking a second try at a vote on the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill on Thursday, after putting it on Monday because she didn’t have the votes.

But it’s looking like she still doesn’t have the votes now, and in the words of The Hill, is “poised to pull the infrastructure vote” yet again.

As we reported earlier, the progressives have made it clear that they don’t intend to vote on it, putting it in jeopardy. But if she puts it off again, after promising it for Monday, the moderates have threatened to revolt if it happens yet again.

“Obviously, our group will have a lot of trouble with that,” said one of them, Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX), according to The Hill. “And it will be catastrophic.”

“If the vote were to fail tomorrow or be delayed, there would be a significant breach in trust that would slow the momentum in moving forward in delivering the Biden agenda,” Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-FL), a leader of the Blue Dog Coalition, declared.

Translation: you do this to us again, don’t expect us to do anything for you on the bigger reconciliation bill, which the moderates already have issues with.

The Hill reported that Pelosi tried to jerry-rig a compromise.

First, she said the infrastructure and family packages must move “simultaneously” — the same criterion the liberals have demanded. And second, she stipulated that the legislative text of the larger package must be finalized before the House will act on either bill.

That seemed impossible and was immediately rejected by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), “That won’t happen,” he said.

Manchin now has had multiple meetings with Biden on the issue. All this back and forth appears to have made him even more recalcitrant and hardened in his stance on it all.

He released a statement today that just flames the reconciliation bill and implicitly suggests that what Biden and “Democratic leaders” in the House are pushing amounts to “fiscal insanity.”

Here’s the most pertinent part:

Every Member of Congress has a solemn duty to vote for what they believe is best for the country and the American people, not their party. Respectfully, as I have said for months, I can’t support $3.5 trillion more in spending when we have already spent $5.4 trillion since last March. At some point, all of us, regardless of party must ask the simple question — how much is enough?

What I have made clear to the President and Democratic leaders is that spending trillions more on new and expanded government programs, when we can’t even pay for the essential social programs, like Social Security and Medicare, is the definition of fiscal insanity. Suggesting that spending trillions more will not have an impact on inflation ignores the everyday reality that America’s families continue pay an unavoidable inflation tax.

“Proposing a historic expansion of social programs while ignoring the fact we are not in a recession and that millions of jobs remain open will only feed a dysfunction that could weaken our economic recovery. This is the shared reality we all now face, and it is this reality that must shape the future decisions that we, as elected leaders, must make [….]

Overall, the amount we spend now must be balanced with what we need and can afford — not designed to reengineer the social and economic fabric of this nation or vengefully tax for the sake of wishful spending.

Exactly right. They’re trying slam through a wishlist of items that they don’t need, but they want, because they are long term Democratic goals for power, and they think they can get it all now because of the pandemic. But Manchin is obviously not buying into this, and especially not the “it costs zero dollars” nonsense, calling it “fiscal insanity” and ignoring the effect it will have on inflation.

I don’t know what Pelosi thinks she can pull out of a hat on this one… but this definitely is in critical condition — and they’re about to shut off the life support.

Manchin and Sinema Are Playing a Game Democrats Forget to Play

Quote:In 2008, the Democrats thought they had a mandate. They pushed through the Affordable Care Act, thinking they would have a permanent political majority. Once they tackled that, they began talking a lot about other things, like gun control and other progressive policies. But Obamacare and those policies were so unpopular that the voter backlash was consistently harsh. They lost the House, then the Senate, and then the White House.

They played a full-court press in order to regain political power. They threw everything against Donald Trump to see what would stick. At the end of Trump’s first term, with the help of the media, they took back power.

In decades past, the Democrats were better at playing the long game. They could push slowly, moving the football down the field. But in the last 12 years, they have sped their game up and started throwing a lot of Hail Marys. As a result, they are losing political power faster than they gained it. It took four years to reclaim two branches of government. In essence, it feels like they’ve lost it all again in one year.

Congress is at a stalemate, and while I figure we probably will get an infrastructure package, a bad reconciliation bill, and a raised debt ceiling, concessions to Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin will neuter a lot of the progressive political agenda. This works in our favor now, but there isn’t some political dynamic shifting going on with those two. Sinema is not the “maverick” John McCain was. Shes’s just trying to establish a more permanent presence in the Senate.

Likewise, Manchin is juggling (quite well, I might add) a few different goals. The first is to not piss his party off too much, which he is doing well as only the far left is supremely pissed at him. The second goal is to control the fate of the Green New Deal. The third goal is to keep blue collar oil field and coal miners happy. All of this is meant to help him stay in power.

The play appears to be working for both. There’s good polling right now for Sinema.

And for Manchin, the numbers appear to be very hopeful as well.

Why it matters: The survey of 974 registered voters, conducted Tuesday, is the latest flash point in the fight over infrastructure — and how aggressively Democrats should move on a budget reconciliation package to allow them to enact key planks of President Biden’s agenda without a single GOP vote.

By the numbers: In suburban areas, which are crucial to Democrats’ hopes to retain the House in 2022, the poll found 64% support the pause while 36% oppose it.

The poll revealed stark partisan differences, with Republicans supporting Manchin’s position by a 78% to 22% margin and Democrats opposing him, 48%-52%. Independents were split, backing Manchin 52% to 48%
In rural areas, seven in 10 respondents supported Manchin.
Sinema and Manchin both realize something the progressives attempting to (and currently succeeding in) controlling the party don’t: They know that the only way to win is to play the long game, and the only way to play the long game is to stay in office.

The young progressives in the party don’t yet realize that they are burning through their political capital with the voters at an unsustainable rate. Their party is on the way to a loss in 2022 if they continue to loudly and vocally push for these far left agendas that scare the hell out of the voters. Bernie Sanders knows his time in politics is almost up, so he’s pushing to get some of his long-held political goals pushed through. None of them realize just how much they are chasing voters away.

Or they don’t care, so long as they get what they want.

Eventually, the Democratic Party will probably get what they want. They are still at odds with themselves over how to do it, but it’s probably going to happen. Just how much it happens, however, will depend on Sinema and Manchin and those two, only. Republicans don’t have to lift a finger over any of it, because they know the fight only benefits them in the long run.

When Joe Manchin Will Kill the Filibuster

Quote:This week’s Beltway brawls over infrastructure, the Biden fiscal agenda and the federal debt ceiling, for all their sound and fury, are merely preliminary legislative bouts. The main event of the 117th Congress will be the epic fight over “voting rights.” The Democrats know their congressional majorities are unlikely to survive next year’s midterms unless both houses pass one of three controversial bills — the For the People Act, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, or the Freedom to Vote Act. Deceptively benign titles notwithstanding, each of these bills arrogate to the federal government powers reserved to the states by the Constitution.

The first two were passed by the House but were DOA in the Senate. The Freedom to Vote Act, however, is a Senate bill (S.2747) and it is co-sponsored by Sen. Manchin. When the current budget battles are over, the Democrats will send S.2747 to the Senate floor for a vote. It will fail to garner 60 votes, whereupon Manchin will claim GOP intransigence “forced” him to break his pledge to preserve the filibuster. Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema, the only other Democratic senator overtly opposed to killing the filibuster, will by then be so damaged by the abuse to which she is now being subjected over Biden’s $3.5 trillion spending bill that she will immediately cave and begin reciting the obligatory talking points:

In the face of state-level threats that undercut the fundamental right to vote for millions of Americans, we must act now to protect our democracy. Our bill would set commonsense minimum standards to ensure that no state infringes upon its citizen’s right to vote and confront widespread anti-democratic practices such as partisan gerrymandering and dark money spending. Free, fair and open elections are the backbone of our national commitment to government of the people, by the people, and for the people – and through this legislation, we will do our part to pass this experiment in self-government on to the next generation of Americans.

This claim that there is a vast Republican conspiracy to suppress the vote is fiction. It is nothing more than empty agitprop for Democrats to deploy against states that pass election integrity laws. When the Georgia legislature passed the Election Integrity Act of 2021, for example, President Biden repeated so many falsehoods about the law that the Washington Post awarded him four Pinocchios. The same false charges have been leveled at Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Hampshire, Montana, Nevada, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. No matter how many times these charges have been debunked the Democrats continue to recycle them on cue.

However, for the Democrats, mere facts are irrelevant. Election integrity laws are an existential threat to the very survival of their party. They are ostensibly led by a President whose job approval rating hovers in the low to mid-forties in most national polls. His numbers are even worse in important battleground states. A new survey conducted in North Carolina shows Biden with an approval rating of 38 percent. This is unlikely to improve significantly if his domestic and foreign policy blunders continue to mount at their current rate. Combined with an upcoming midterm election cycle that is historically unkind to the party in power, this is lethal. As Douglas Schoen and Carly Cooperman write at The Hill:

The recent decline in support for President Biden and his administration likely means that the Democratic Party will lose control of the House and potentially the Senate in 2022 — and makes it increasingly likely that Biden will be a one-term president … President Biden’s approval rating has markedly deteriorated, having dropped 16 points since this spring … What explains Biden’s precipitous decline? … In short, by catering to the left wing of the party, the Biden administration risks enhancing the likelihood of an outcome in the midterms similar to 1994 and 2010, when similar big government initiatives cost the Democrats control of Congress.

As this week’s budget battles have demonstrated, neither the President nor congressional Democrats are able to escape the clutches of the increasingly powerful left wing of their party. Consequently, they will attempt to change the way congressional elections are conducted in the states by passing the Freedom to Vote Act. Masquerading as champions of voting rights they will use this pernicious and unconstitutional legislation to fundamentally alter the democratic process in a way that favors their party for decades to come. And, make no mistake, that is what the Freedom to Vote Act does. It contains virtually all the defects that rendered the For the People Act a dead letter when it was delivered to the Senate.

The bill would, for example, create a federal right to a no-excuse mail-in ballot for every registered voter in the nation. This would increase the potential for fraud exponentially and invalidate election statutes in more than a dozen states. It would mandate automatic voter registration via state motor vehicle agencies, guaranteeing that non-citizens and other ineligible people will be able to vote. It would loosen voter ID requirements to the point at which they would be meaningless while rendering null and void any state law requiring a photo ID to vote. S.2747 also requires states to give felons the right to vote immediately upon release from prison, which would invalidate laws in over half the states.

It goes without saying, of course, that the Freedom to Vote Act also runs afoul of the Constitution. Among the most obvious is the provision that requires “super PACs, 501©(4) groups, and other organizations spending money in elections to disclose donors.” This mirrors a violation of the First Amendment that was also included in the For the People Act. Even the American Civil Liberties Union withheld its support from the latter because this provision obviously infringes upon political speech. The legislation also commandeers the broad authority to regulate all federal elections—congressional and presidential—an expansion of federal power that cannot be reconciled with the text of the Constitution.

None of these constitutional defects concern the Democrats. Their bluster notwithstanding, they know they’re fighting for their lives. Amidst such desperation, Sen. Manchin sounds like the voice of reason: “While I am hopeful that common ground can be found that would result in another historic investment in our nation, I cannot — and will not — support trillions in spending or an all or nothing approach that ignores the brutal fiscal reality our nation faces.” But the Mountain State mountebank is just keeping his powder dry. When his “voting rights” bill reaches the Senate floor, he will blow up the filibuster and jam the Freedom to Vote Act down our collective throats. We have all been here before of course.

Manchin just said today that $1.5T is the max. limit for a reconciliation bill. That’s the first time I’ve heard him throw out a specific #.

Which is less than half of what Sanders/Squad wants. Not to mention that the $$ wouldn’t be spent on the same things, anyway.

The mostly unreported story here is that the dems are having a civil war behind the scenes, pitting the progressives against the "moderates" (what they call themselves). We won't vote for THIS if you don't vote for THAT.

The hilarious part is that Pelosi rolled the debt ceiling increase issue into one of the bills and threatens the GOP that if the government gets shut down because YOU didn't vote for this, we will blame it on the GOP. Why is it hilarious? Because the dems have all the votes they need by themselves, without needing any GOP votes. They have a 5 vote margin in the House.

I think that once pointed out to the public, even the dumb people will get it.

(10-01-2021 11:22 AM)CrimsonPhantom Wrote:  

It was and act of kindness on the part of Speaker Pelosi. We would not want poor AOC to have to cry again.

Schumer Promised Manchin on Signed Document That Reconciliation Package Would Cost $1.5 Trillion

Quote:Democrats are having major issues in passing both the approximately $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill and the near $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill and the reason for it is infighting among Democrats.

Both bills are important parts of the Joe Biden agenda. Progressives have signaled that they will not vote for infrastructure unless reconciliation is passed at the same time, while moderates have balked at the $3.5 trillion price tag and want to handle the bills separately.

One of the moderates, Sen. Joe Manchin, has said his final price on reconciliation is $1.5 trillion, and now we know he means it after a document between him and Senate Majority Leader and New York Sen. Charles Schumer has been discovered by Fox News.

The note, signed by Schumer to Manchin, says that the top line number would be $1.5 trillion and that debate would begin no later than October 1.

“Senator Manchin does not guarantee that he will vote for the final reconciliation legislation if it exceeds the conditions outlined in this agreement,” it said, Breitbart News reported.

The document also reveals the two men agreed the package will include terminating the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing, which means the FED will stop pumping money into the economy willy-nilly.

The signed document also proposes raising the corporate tax rate to 25 percent, the top tax rate on income to 39.6 percent, raising the capital gains tax rate to 28 percent, along with any revenue from the bill “exceeding” $1.5 trillion to go towards reducing the deficit.

The revelation of the letter is a blow to the far-left House members because it confirms their worst fears that no assurances will likely be given that the package will include an additional $2 trillion in spending to fund the most radical items of President Biden’s reconciliation package.

But Sen. Schumer’s office said the signed document is not what it appears to be.

“Leader Schumer never agreed to any of the conditions Sen. Manchin laid out; he merely acknowledged where Sen. Manchin was on the subject at the time,” a spokesperson for the Senate Majority Leader said to Politico.

“Sen. Manchin did not rule out voting for a reconciliation bill that exceeded the ideas he outlined, and Leader Schumer made clear that he would work to convince Sen. Manchin to support a final reconciliation bill — as he has doing been for weeks,” they said.

It could be that Schumer did not believe how firm Manchin is, but judging by what he said on Wednesday he appears to be pretty firm.

“Every Member of Congress has a solemn duty to vote for what they believe is best for the country and the American people, not their party. Respectfully, as I have said for months, I can’t support $3.5 trillion more in spending when we have already spent $5.4 trillion since last March. At some point, all of us, regardless of party must ask the simple question – how much is enough?” the senator said.

“What I have made clear to the President and Democratic leaders is that spending trillions more on new and expanded government programs, when we can’t even pay for the essential social programs, like Social Security and Medicare, is the definition of fiscal insanity. Suggesting that spending trillions more will not have an impact on inflation ignores the everyday reality that America’s families continue pay an unavoidable inflation tax. Proposing a historic expansion of social programs while ignoring the fact we are not in a recession and that millions of jobs remain open will only feed a dysfunction that could weaken our economic recovery. This is the shared reality we all now face, and it is this reality that must shape the future decisions that we, as elected leaders, must make,” he said.

“While I am hopeful that common ground can be found that would result in another historic investment in our nation, I cannot – and will not – support trillions in spending or an all or nothing approach that ignores the brutal fiscal reality our nation faces. There is a better way and I believe we can find it if we are willing to continue to negotiate in good faith,” he said.

Ro Khanna Completely Owns Himself in Attempt to Slam Kyrsten Sinema

Quote:The anger on the left towards Kyrsten Sinema is palpable, with politicians and media figures alike crusading against the Arizona senator for opposing the Bernie Sanders budget. She and Joe Manchin, who is also taking an absolute beating from his own party, are standing in the gap for fiscal sanity as Democrat leadership make an irresponsible, inflation-booming attempt to “transform” the economy.

The attacks are becoming more and more direct, and Ro Khanna, a “rising” Democrat star in the House, launched his last night against Sinema. In doing so, he revealed a delusion that exists on the left in regards to what power they truly hold. He also just managed to completely own himself, which is always good to see from a Democrat.

He’s so close to figuring it out and just can’t quite get there. You see, the reason the president isn’t meeting with Khanna and that he’s being relegated to chasing White House staffers is that he, like the rest of his progressive colleagues, has no leverage. There is nothing Khanna has to offer that can somehow move these negotiations forward. In effect, he is a nobody while Sinema is a somebody.

Political power is not derived from ideological purity, something that was learned during the Tea Party era as the establishment of the GOP still firmly remained in control. It comes from either having something to offer or from having the ability to blow up an offer. Sinema falls in the latter category, and that is driving the left batty. As Manchin said yesterday, if the liberals want to rule the roost, they should go elect more liberals. A “majority,” especially one that’s split 50/50, does not carry with it a mandate to bully the more moderate members into cosplaying the Great Society.

For Democrats to take the position that Sinema and Manchin owe them anything is delusional. It’s also self-destructive. Does anyone believe these attacks are moving Sinema? If anything, she seems to revel in drop-kicking her colleagues when they go after her. She also has no incentive to give the progressives what they want. Sinema, despite being a liberal on most issues, understands politics. She gets that a backlash against the far-left is coming in 2022 and that it could continue into 2024. Given that, she understands that getting in bed with Nancy Pelosi is politically foolish.

So Khanna and others can flail about all they want. It’s not going to make a difference. Manchin resides in a state that went for Trump by 30 points. Sinema is from a state that is primed for a move back towards the GOP. They are far smarter than their short-sighted progressive friends, and in reality, are saving Democrats from themselves.

Pelosi and Biden Suffer Embarrassing Defeat in Effort to Move Infrastructure Bill

Quote:We’ve been indicating for awhile that the “bipartisan” infrastructure bill was in trouble because of the stalemate between the progressives and the moderates on the bigger budget reconciliation bill.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) had said she’d have the infrastructure bill on for a vote on Monday. Then she was forced to shift it to Thursday, angering the moderates to whom she’d promised the Monday vote. Now, as we’ve seen, there was no vote yesterday, Pelosi was forced to pull the vote yet again because she didn’t have the numbers despite claiming all week that she would. That’s a pretty big embarrassing defeat for Pelosi after she’d been promising that she’d have it all week. But as we said, it was a dumb promise to make given the stalemate.

Now that she’s put it off again, that’s likely to antagonize the moderates even more.

As we previously reported, they were already telling her that more delay, past Sept. 30, would be “catastrophic.”

“Obviously, our group will have a lot of trouble with that,” said one of them, Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX), according to The Hill. “And it will be catastrophic.”

“If the vote were to fail tomorrow or be delayed, there would be a significant breach in trust that would slow the momentum in moving forward in delivering the Biden agenda,” Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-FL), a leader of the Blue Dog Coalition, declared.

Murphy had threatened to withhold her vote on reconciliation if the infrastructure bill wasn’t moved for a vote.

Looks like we’re at that catastrophic point.

Pelosi did her best to spin it and said they were still working toward an agreement.

From NY Post:

Hours later, the speaker sought to put a positive spin on what she called a “productive and crucial day”.

“Discussions continue with the House, Senate and White House to reach a bicameral framework agreement to Build Back Better through a [$3.5 trillion] reconciliation bill,” Pelosi wrote in a so-called “Dear Colleague” letter.

“The Bipartisan Infrastructure bill has already had its rule passed and its debate has concluded. All of this momentum brings us closer to shaping the reconciliation bill in a manner that will pass the House and Senate.”

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki tried to spin it as well, saying the two sides were “closer to an agreement than ever. But we are not there yet, and so, we will need some additional time to finish the work, starting tomorrow morning first thing.”

What was actually funny, too, was that the Biden administration sent out people to try to reach an agreement, including Susan Rice. But they don’t seem to have gotten anywhere.

You know you’re in trouble when you have to deploy Susan Rice to cover your action.

It’s not clear how Pelosi thinks they’re going to make it past the stalemate.

The greater question on the budget reconciliation bill is what’s holding it up, with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) saying his top line number is $1.5 trillion.

On Wednesday, Manchin had reiterated his opposition to spending $3.5 trillion “when we have already spent $5.4 trillion since last March.”

“What I have made clear to the President and Democratic leaders is that spending trillions more on new and expanded government programs, when we can’t even pay for the essential social programs, like Social Security and Medicare, is the definition of fiscal insanity,” he said in a statement. “Suggesting that spending trillions more will not have an impact on inflation ignores the everyday reality that America’s families continue to pay an unavoidable inflation tax.”

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema has indicated that she not only has an issue with the price but a lot of the taxes that are included within the bill.

But it’s pretty humiliating for both Pelosi and Biden, without a clear roadmap to how they are going to get either bill through at this point and likely more defeat on the way.

House Democrat Tries Some Budgetsplaining on Joe Manchin, Exposes Himself in the Process

Quote:As Bonchie pointed out yesterday, Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin is continuing to play the type of hardball politics with his own party on massively bloated spending bills that Republicans are happily injecting into their veins on a daily basis.

In many ways, Manchin is sounding like a Republican these days, which has prompted some to suggest he finally give in and come on over to the dark side with the rest of the evil Republicans. He won’t, though, because he knows right now he’s the most powerful man on Capitol Hill in either party.

In any event, during what was purported to be a “press conference” Thursday but which in reality looked like swarms of reporters ambushing Manchin, the native West Virginian explained that he wasn’t budging on his topline number of $1.5 trillion because he had done the math. He likened his decision-making process to how families do their budgets at home. They take into account what they have coming in, look at what they need versus what they want, and then buy what they need based on what they have.

The video below is some nine minutes long, but Manchin made these comments in the first minute of the clip. Watch:

A few hours later, House Democrat John Yarmuth (Ky.) did an interview on CNN, where he tried a little budgetsplaining on Manchin in response to his presser. In the process, however, he exposed himself.

“I read Joe Manchin’s statement, I’ve listened to him. He has no understanding of how the federal government monetary system works when he compared it yesterday to his household income. That has no relevance to what we can do,” Yarmuth explained. “It’s not a question of what we can afford. The federal government can afford anything that it feels it needs to do, and right now that’s what we ought to be focused on.”

Yarmuth’s comments were so shocking that even the CNN host Erin Burnett’s mouth dropped open. Watch:

He went on to tell Burnett that in the scheme of things, $3.5 trillion is “pretty inconsequential”:

“It’s $3.4 trillion over 10 years. We’re going to spend twice as much during that time on defense,” he said. “If you take the entire add-up, all of the things we’re proposing to do, it would be essentially about 5 percent more than we will spend otherwise. We’re going to spend $61 trillion over the next 10 years. So to add another $3.4 trillion or $5 trillion to it is very—I think it’s pretty inconsequential when you consider all the benefits to the American people.”

When you watch and read all this keep in mind that Yarmuth is the Chairman of the House Budget Committee and he’s going on record as saying the government can spend however much it wants on whatever it wants.

This is something Republicans have long known about how Democrats and, sadly, how some Republicans have operated in the past, too, but this guy was essentially saying the quiet part out loud.

Republicans – and not just the ones in his Kentucky House district – need to play this one on loop in national campaign ads next year so the millions who are still struggling to make ends meet and are having to make sacrifices big-government Democrats like Yarmuth don’t have to can see just how little they care about not only spending the money taxpayers worked hard to earn but also spending money they don’t have, which means future generations will be on the hook.

The especially funny thing about all this is that Manchin is not a budget hawk by a long shot. Maybe he’s doing some of this on principle, but I suspect most of this he’s doing simply because he knows he can.

And as long as he does, we get to sit back and enjoy it.

Media Attacks on Manchin and Sinema Reveal How Elites Fail to Understand Our Country

Quote:It’s not a secret that the liberal media, with very few exceptions, has been all-in pushing for Joe Biden and has been largely supportive of the radical agenda he has embraced.

In doing so, they frequently reveal how little they know of the rest of America — those who are not on board with the leftist agenda, i.e. most of the country, those folks in flyover land that the media often tries to diminish.

Now, a lot of the talking heads on CNN and MSNBC are absolutely furious at Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) for standing in the way of the socialist spending bonanza that Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) have been trying to peddle. “Fiscal insanity” was what Manchin called it.

But when they only live inside their own media bubble with the thoughts of the coastal elites, they obviously miss a lot of America and what the rest of the country thinks in the process. Apparently, for some media elite, that even extends to a failure to understand basic geography.

Here’s Dr. Abdul El-Sayed a commentator on CNN, telling us about how Manchin should understand that “climate change is ravaging coastal states like his.”

Um, no, West Virginia isn’t a coastal state. Nice job there, CNN, with that kind of news. Maybe when you don’t even know that basic fact, it’s just a little hard to believe anything else you have to say. Not to mention that long history of inaccurate and fake news, as well.

Then there’s this dishonest and constitutionally lacking argument from MSNBC’s Ari Melber. But it’s one signed onto by many on the left, claiming that Manchin represents less than one percent of the population and Sinema just about two percent.

But, if you have even the most basic understanding of the Constitution, you understand the Senate is not apportioned based on population — that’s the House. The senators represent the states and each state gets an equal number of two senators apiece. Beyond that simple constitutional factoid, Melber’s take is dishonest because the reason that the two have the power is that there are also 50 Republican senators who are disagreeing with the socialistic spending bill, too. So it isn’t the two senators stopping the runaway spending bill, it’s the 52 senators stopping it.

By Melber’s logic, why should we listen to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) who would represent less than 0.2% of the population according to this screwy logic? Yet liberal land is full of yelling about how the two Democratic senators are “stopping the majority.” Because that’s the Constitution. But also because it isn’t the majority.

This is the problem when you lose yourself while pushing a political narrative. Facts tend to get lost in the shuffle.

From Yesterday:

Here’s How We Know Joe Biden’s Meeting With House Democratic Caucus Was an Epic Failure

Quote:I’ve lost count of the number of days/weeks this has been going on but the Democrats are still in disarray at this hour and we know that because of what’s been reported to have taken place during the meeting President Joe Biden had with the House Democratic caucus earlier today to try to resolve the ongoing infighting over the infrastructure and reconciliation bills, as well as what he said afterward.

POTUS arrived in a blaze of glory with his handlers and key members of the House Democratic caucus including Speaker Nancy Pelosi alongside him. As per the norm, no questions were taken from the press — which would end up being a sign of things to come at the closed-door meeting and after.

First and foremost on the agenda for discussion was the infrastructure bill. According to Politico Congressional reporter Sarah Ferris, during the meeting, Biden gave apparently gave his .02 on what was going on, although what wasn’t clear was whether or not his remarks were scripted, as is often the case when he speaks before an audience.

What she did say that was quite illuminating, however, was that once he concluded his remarks, Biden offered to take questions from the Democratic House members who were assembled — but his handlers “jumped in” and shut him down.

“INSIDE the caucus: At the end of his remarks, BIDEN offered to take questions from members but his staff jumped in. He didn’t take any questions,” Ferris tweeted.

Perhaps the reason why Biden got shut down by his own staff was because they don’t want him to blow up whatever inroads he might have made with Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema over the last few days regarding the highly-debated “topline numbers”:

Per Ferris, “Biden explained that this range comes from his conversations with Manchin and Sinema. They’re not discussing these specific toplines per se, but WH has been assembling all the different programs they *do* support and this is roughly how much they’d cost.”

In other words, Manchin and Sinema are still in the driver’s seat.

When the meeting was over, Biden sent strong signals that the meeting was a failure by indicating a timeline for “getting this done” no longer matters, which will be interesting news for moderate House Democrats who had already suggested that failure to move by the end of September would be “catastrophic.”

Watch the video below as Biden nukes talk of a timeline for getting the infrastructure bill passed and snaps at a reporter who asks why he can’t unify the party:

Well, it is now October 1st, and it’s safe to say that House and Senate Dems and all the various warring factions within are in “catastrophic” mode and with no end in sight.

I think it’s safe to declare at this point that the Democrat Civil War is officially underway, and considering it’s ramping up as we head into the 2022 midterms, we are so here for it.

Joe Biden Makes Idiotic Comments During Bumbling Capitol Hill Visit

Quote:Joe Biden, who has good days and bad days, was apparently lucid enough to appear in public today. Amidst all the chaos on Capitol Hill over the far-left reconciliation package, the president set forth in order to help the negotiations. If reports are any indication, he did the opposite, but that was to be expected. Biden’s ability as a legislative mastermind has always been a myth, after all.

And is it really surprising that he didn’t convince Kyrsten Sinema or Joe Manchin to betray their constituents when this is the kind of commentary he brought?

Biden is right in one regard. A defeat of both bills would indeed be a gift to Republicans, who are more than content to let Democrats destroy themselves. Yet, he couldn’t just leave it at that. Instead, he had to invoke January 6th because the left in this country literally has nothing left. Further, Biden essentially saying “Do what I want or there will be violence,” is as anti-democratic of a position as I can think of. This guy is a tyrant at heart, using lies and veiled threats in order to get his way. That is when he’s not passed out in the White House basement because he’s so addled.

Do you know what people suffering under the current runaway inflation don’t care about? January 6th. Do you know what people who have their retirement in stocks don’t care about? January 6th. No one outside the beltway is still obsessing over a three-hour ordeal in which the only person who was purposely killed was shot by a police officer. There are also serious questions about what actually transpired after a judge forced the release of surveillance footage prosecutors had tried to keep hidden (see The Feds Are Forced to Release January 6th Surveillance Footage and Narratives Crumble).

Regardless, nothing Biden said today moved the needle. In fact, he seemed to double down on the very aspects of the reconciliation process that are so offputting to the moderates that hold all the leverage. Biden is classic “BSer,” and he’s learning quickly that he can’t “C’mon, man” his way past this legislative roadblock. Flailing about, bringing up January 6th isn’t going to convince Manchin to nuke his state’s economy, and we all know Sinema just doesn’t care about anything.

I would posit that what we are witnessing is the last gasps of a broken party that knows it’s about to get shellacked in next year’s elections. The disarray we are seeing right now didn’t develop overnight. It’s been building for a very long time, going all the way back to the Trump years. Things are just now starting to boil over, and I don’t think there’s any putting the water back in the pot. The Democrat coalition is too damaged, and their “leader” is a senile old man who can’t do anything but mumble about January 6th and vaccine mandates.

Anyone want to make a bet that the 1.5 trillion that Manchin says he can vote for will happen? Biden pretty much knows that pretty much all of the social/environmental spending will get axed. Mark it down. Biden put this BS in the legislation to appease the uber leftists knowing full well it was unlikely to pass.

(10-02-2021 08:45 AM)Fo Shizzle Wrote:  Anyone want to make a bet that the 1.5 trillion that Manchin says he can vote for will happen? Biden pretty much knows that pretty much all of the social/environmental spending will get axed. Mark it down. Biden put this BS in the legislation to appease the uber leftists knowing full well it was unlikely to pass.

Are you saying Manchin’s proposal will happen or won’t happen?

The Dems are in a full-blown, five-alarm meltdown. None of their principal “leaders” — Biden least of all — have the strength or credibility with the warring factions to dictate an acceptable outcome. And the two major factions — Jayapal/Sanders on one side, Gottheimer/Manchin/Sinema on the other — are not exactly on speaking terms with one another right now.

The only thing I feel certain of is that if the House does not pass the infrastructure bill — which passed the Senate 69-31 — then reconciliation for any amount of $$ is dead in the water.

(10-02-2021 09:00 AM)Native Georgian Wrote:  The Dems are in a full-blown, five-alarm meltdown. None of their principal “leaders” — Biden least of all — have the strength or credibility with the warring factions to dictate an acceptable outcome. And the two major factions — Jayapal/Sanders on one side, Gottheimer/Manchin/Sinema on the other — are not exactly on speaking terms with one another right now.

Which is why I can say that Biden has turned out to be better than I expected. Just like Obama was.

If democrats ever get together, particularly if it is behind the Jayapal/Sanders/Harris agenda, it will be time to stick a fork in us as a country. I pray to God that they do not.

Joe Biden's Visit to the Capitol Was Much Worse Than Originally Thought

Quote:Last week, I wrote an article that asserted that the Democrat civil war was peaking. I’d like to apologize for what I now realize was clickbait. I try my best to have my headlines deliver, no matter how snarky, but reality has slapped me in the face and informed me that the Democrat infighting can, in fact, get worse.

And boy, has it gotten worse over the last few days. Obviously, Joe Manchin has been at the forefront of that, with Bernie Sanders also throwing gasoline on the fire from the other end of things. Yet, it looks like Joe Biden, surprising no one, has been the most destructive force. His ridiculous trip to the Capitol yesterday is now being reported as more disastrous than originally though.

Because he ran his mouth without knowing what he’s talking about and proclaimed that the infrastructure bill and reconciliation bill will be linked, something Nancy Pelosi had already promised not to do any longer, the moderates that Biden needs to pass his agenda are now furious.

Does that sound like a party that’s about to come together to give Biden what he wants? Or does it sound like the president is a bumbling old man who thought he was going to charm people on Capitol Hill and only ended up blowing up what little progress had been made? The agreement to not link the bills was the bare minimum, and now that’s gone. You are not going to get Joe Manchin’s support, nor the moderates in the House, if the bills are linked. Manchin has been absolutely clear on that. Yet, Biden has been out of it for much of these negotiations and apparently had no idea what had even been agreed to.

And as if that wasn’t going full “Leroy Jenkins,” Biden’s Chief of Staff, Ronald Klain, is now lobbying to undercut Pelosi directly.

While I’m always a skeptic when it comes to the government actually doing the right thing, which in this case would be not spending $3.5 trillion on broad entitlements that aren’t needed, I’m not seeing how the two sides get together here. Pelosi is already having a hard enough time rallying the moderates by herself. Now, she has Biden and his White House actively rallying progressives to keep obstructing when they themselves have no leverage to speak of. It’s a recipe for nothing passing at all.

And that’s great if you are a Republican, but it’s still worth noting just how ineffective and impotent Joe Biden is. This is a man who has no sense of his own ability or lack thereof. He truly believes he’s above it all, able to show up at Congress, say “c’mon man” a few times, and have his agenda rubber-stamped. But he’s learning quickly, to the extent he can process what’s even happening, that he has no mandate. I couldn’t think of a better way to start the fall season.