Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) on Tuesday appealed to fellow centrist Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) to get on board with Democrats’ reconciliation bill on climate investment, drug pricing and taxes (aka the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022).
During an interview on local West Virginia radio program “Talkline with Hoppy Kercheval,” Manchin emphasized how Sinema had already approved the proposals in the legislation, including the proposed 15 percent minimum corporate tax on companies of $1 billion or larger. (Indeed, that provision of the bill seemed crafted specifically to win her support.)
“This is everything Kyrsten agreed to in December,” the West Virginia Democrat said. “She signed off on the bill back in December.”
Additionally, “She’s the one that kept saying we want no new taxes, so I agree, no new taxes,” Manchin said.
The senator said he plans to meet with Sinema Tuesday afternoon to see if “there’s something different in here she doesn’t like that she liked before.”
“I don’t know what it would be ‘cause there’s nothing left in there,” he added.
The West Virginia senator has been publicly working to win over Sinema, who could make or break the legislation’s passage with Democrats’ razor-thin Senate majority: they don’t have a single vote to spare to meet the 50-vote threshold needed for reconciliation.
As such, Democrats have been biting their nails over Sinema’s impending decision ever since Manchin unveiled his deal with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) last week.
Manchin’s public entreaties to Sinema present a remarkable shift in the two senators’ aligned resistance to passing key platforms of their fellow Democrats’ agenda. Whereas Democrats have had to chase after both Manchin and Sinema (particularly in the case of the doomed Build Back Better bill), now the West Virginia senator finds himself pursuing Sinema as well.
All the while, Sinema has kept mum on the Schumer-Manchin deal, with her spokesperson saying only that the Arizona senator was “reviewing” and awaiting the Senate parliamentarian’s assessment of the bill.
Fellow centrist? Shouldn’t that be fellow recalcitrant obstuctionist?
You can’t press jello
Maybe she should conside that if this bill fails, there will be a “kick me” sign hanging on her ass. She might want to consider whether it might be better for her pharmaceutical patrons to go with this or suffer a a slam when there is a true democrat majority passing a new version of the bill.
Were there not discussions with Sinema back before this deal went public?
It’s nutso to think that anyone, much less someone as unpredictable and immature as Sinema, would go along with something without having been at least given some sort of opportunity along the way to weigh in. That’s basic negotation 101. And why not meet with her before going public, instead of applying pressure publically now?
This all seems very odd, and does not augur well. She’s already reconciled to being thrown under the bus, or basically knows that this is where she’s put herself, politically. So, where’s the incentive to vote for this? If she sees political or personal gain in not voting for this bill, she’ll grab it. Certainly, she sees gain in stretching out announcing a decision, helping keep her name in the news. Even after the Senate, she’ll have a nice sinecure at a think tank somewhere, or cash in at Fox News. So, again she should have been consulted, or at least called, or, better yet, taken to lunch, before this thing went public. Oh well.
Manchin Presses Sinema A Little Harder On Reconciliation Deal