Democrats’ challenge
It took one op-ed from one of their own to consign Democrats’ grand plans to overhaul domestic policy to the Land of Almostcertainlynotgonnahappen. Sen. Joe Manchin says Congress should ask for “a strategic pause” on Joe Biden’s budget vision, which is crammed into a single $3.5 trillion bill House and Senate leaders intended to pass via simple majorities through the reconciliation process, in light of what he calls “rising inflation, crippling debt” and “the inevitability of future crises.”
Progressives can vilify Manchin, without whose support passage in a 50-50 Senate is now impossible, all they like. His concerns are shared by millions of Americans, and without his vote, they have no hope of passing the gargantuan package. Those inclined to go ballistic on him and other centrists would be far better off spending their energy looking to downsize the plans to something spending-shy Democrats consider acceptable. Time and time again, the far left is more than happy to use its leverage to lay down my-way-or-the-highway conditions. Moderates are allowed to have their own non-negotiable terms.
As we’ve said many times, we like most of what’s in what Manchin calls “the largest single spending bill in history.” It makes sense to add dental, vision and hearing coverage to Medicare. Workers deserve 12 weeks of paid maternity or paternity leave when a child is born. Free community college will help millions upgrade their skills. In a nation on fire from climate change except when it’s underwater, major new investments in greening infrastructure are overdue.
But any time priorities from immigration to education to health care to job creation wind up stuffed into one behemoth, there’s bound to be fat to be cut, especially given that, as Manchin says, “over the past 18 months, we’ve spent more than $5 trillion responding to the coronavirus pandemic.” If the price tag is too rich for his blood (and Kyrsten Sinema’s, and, in the House, New Jersey’s Josh Gottheimer and other members of the Problem Solvers Caucus), there’s no choice but to negotiate.