Biden must reset his agenda, learn from FDR after Joe Manchin decision
The standard reaction from Democrats to Sunday’s news that West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin is a “no” on President Joe Biden’s everything-but-the kitchen sink social safety net, climate and tax bill is one of outrage and betrayal. How could he, they ask? He’s a Democrat. His state is one of the poorest, most backward places in the whole country.
Why?
Manchin’s explanation, delivered on the now Chris Wallace-less “Fox News Sunday,” is disingenuous: "This is a no on this legislation. I have tried everything I know to do."
"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 said in a news release.
How about this: “The Build Back Better Agenda is exactly the boost West Virginia cities so desperately need right now,” said one of the state’s leading newspapers, the Wheeling-News Register, in October. “It will create jobs, lower taxes for those most in need, and reduce costs for working families.”
Sounds like a pretty good explanation to me.
Kurt Bardella: Manchin's decision on Build Back Better is a sign no one is afraid of this White House
The editorial's author may want to revisit the next line, which reads as follows: “We are thankful and proud Sen. Joe Manchin is working diligently to negotiate the best deal for all West Virginians which will lead to a plan that helps everyone, while ensuring a strong financial future for our country.”
I wonder how thankful and proud they are now that their senator has walked away with nothing to show for his constituents?
Learn from FDR
All this notwithstanding, Democrats should perhaps consider a few basic – and uncomfortable – points before laying all the blame for this debacle at Manchin’s feet. In a 50-50 Senate, with all 50 Republicans lined up in opposition to the president – a stubborn red wall – Biden nevertheless thought he could ram through one of the biggest, most sweeping, complex pieces of legislation in American history.
In Biden’s Oval Office, portraits of several presidents hang. The biggest of all is his hero, Franklin D. Roosevelt. What’s interesting here is that even in his first year – 1933 – when FDR enjoyed huge majorities in both the House (313 of 430 seats) and Senate (59 of 95 seats), he never bit off more than he could chew as Biden did with this giant bill.
Facing an economic crisis the likes of which America had never seen, FDR spread his legislation out over several months during this first year. Beginning with the Emergency Banking Act of March 9 (five days after he took office), he secured passage of 15 major pieces of legislation during the first 100 days of his presidency.
The Editorial Board: Planet Earth or 14,000 coal jobs. Guess which Sen. Joe Manchin picked?
But he didn’t try to do it all in one fell swoop like Biden is trying to do.
A country too divided
I understand why Biden tried, and I empathize with him. The things he wanted (and still wants) to do, “create jobs, lower taxes for those most in need, and reduce costs for working families,” as the Wheeling newspaper noted – were intertwined with raising taxes on corporations and fat cats who have raked in literally hundreds of billions of dollars during the pandemic but aren’t keen on forking over more to Uncle Sam. Just ask Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who got into a nasty public spat with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., about this last week.
Aside from biting off more than he could chew, the president, and Democrats, should remember – and again unlike FDR – that he was not elected with a mandate to do anything big.
The country’s just too divided.
But he won 7 million more votes than President Donald Trump, his supporters say. True, but a shift of just 44,000 in three states would have kept Trump in the White House. Democrats lost seats in the House, and as mentioned, were projected to have more than the 50 Senate seats they have today.
This is not the stuff of mandates.
Frankly, if Sara Gideon and Cal Cunningham had won their respective Senate races in Maine and North Carolina last year, Democrats wouldn’t have been forced to be dependent on the coal-loving, yacht-living Manchin. How much cooperation did they think they’d really get from a guy who’s from a state Trump won by 39 points anyway?
You’ve heard of a RINO? Republican in Name Only? Manchin’s a DINO. He's not a real Democrat, because if he were, he wouldn’t have trouble explaining to one of the poorest states in the country why Biden’s plan – big and complex as it is – would have benefited them. Now, thanks to their senior senator walking away from the negotiating table, they’ll probably never know.
Paul Brandus is the founder and White House bureau chief of West Wing Reports and a member of Paste BN's Board of Contributors. His latest book is "Jackie: Her Transformation from First Lady to Jackie O." Follow him on Twitter: @WestWingReport