West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin may yet prove to be Republicans’ biggest asset in a chamber they no longer dominate as of today following the passage of rules that formerly give his party control over committees and legislation.
As both sides have continued to negotiate over a new $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill the vast majority of the GOP believes is too expensive and unnecessary for a significant portion of the country, Manchin has stepped forward to declare that as far as he is concerned, no bill will get his support if his party simply tries to ram it through using a budget reconciliation technique that only requires a simple majority in the evenly divided chamber.
***Get FREE SHIPPING on all orders over $45 at our patriotic store!***
In fact, as Hot Air notes, that’s exactly what Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi want to do:
Yesterday a couple of things happened with regard to the COVID relief bill that Democrats are hoping to pass. First, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Schumer put in place a bill that would allow them to pass the relief bill using reconciliation rules which only require 51 votes for passage. So, at least in theory, they would be able to pass the $1.9 trillion package without any GOP input or support. Pelosi said last week, “I hope we don’t need it. But if we need it, we will have it.”
Then yesterday afternoon, President Biden met with 10 GOP Senators at the White House to discuss the possibility of a bipartisan agreement. The GOP is pushing for a much smaller bill in the range of $600 billion, noting that another $1 trillion COVID bill passed just a few weeks ago. No agreement was reached at the White House meeting yesterday but Sen. Collins, who was leading the GOP group, called it productive.
Enter Manchin, who represents a deep red state.
“I will vote to move forward with the budget process because we must address the urgency of the COVID-19 crisis. But let me be clear – and these are words I shared with President Biden – our focus must be targeted on the COVID-19 crisis and Americans who have been most impacted by this pandemic.
“The President remains hopeful that we can have bipartisan support moving forward. I will only support proposals that will get us through and end the pain of this pandemic. For the sake of the country, we must work together with laser focus to defeat the COVID-19 crisis, support our neighbors and communities who continue to suffer and get back to a more normal life as quickly as possible,” he added.
Manchin clarifed his statement in a subsequent interview with Fox News’ Brett Baier Tuesday.
“If they say, we’re pushing forward with reconciliation…and they come to you and they say ‘Joe, we need that vote’…are you voting for it?” Baier asked.
“What I have told everybody, I made it very clear, from the President of the United States to all of my colleagues, we’re going to make this work in a bipartisan way,” Manchin replied.
He added, “My friends on the other side are going to have input and we’re going to do something that we agree on. I’m not going to do it just down the lines, just saying a party line vote…We’ve built too much trust up among each other to allow this to fall apart.”
Baier pushed him somewhate: “So that sounds like a no if they try to blow it down the line.”
“We’re not going to blow it down the line. They can’t do it down the line,” Manchin said. He added, “I said fine, we’ll start this process but I want you to know I will vote in a bipartisan way.”
***VOTE NOW: Should Republicans Conduct A Post-Presidency Impeachment Of OBAMA?***
Democrats won’t win on a strict party line vote so they’re going to need some GOP support — and Manchin didn’t say how many Republican votes would satisfy his “bipartisan” threshold.
But this is a lot better than the hyperpartisanship we’ve seen from his side of the aisle after Democrats ‘won’ control of everything in November.
