Senator Joe Manchin said, “The right to vote is fundamental to our American democracy and protecting that right should not be about party or politics.” What happens with the infrastructure bill and other legislation is likely to affect the outcome of voting rights legislation.
Separately, in leaked audio recording of a meeting with donors, Manchin further hinted he could back possible changes to the filibuster rule that could deter GOP obstruction. Manchin has steadfastly opposed eliminating the filibuster, and while he reiterated that position publicly on Wednesday, his leaked comments are a sign that voting reforms might still have a shot at passing, particularly if further Republican opposition to voting reforms and bills such as the commission to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection convinces Manchin that there's no other option but to change Senate rules.
Many media sources have reported for several weeks now that democrats were committed to a two bill process for infrastructure. President Biden has been clear about that this was to be paid for and how it was not going to be paid for, for months now Senator Manchin has been clear that the infrastructure bill had to paid for and Senator Manchin made it clear previously that the Trump tax cut for the wealthy was unfairly weighted and concluded that adjustments needed to be made. Republicans, therefore, could not have been surprised when President Biden and Senator Manchin repeated themselves yesterday.
Senator Manchin is a co-sponsor of the John Lewis Voting Rights Legislation and, clearly, his own voting rights agenda. He, obviously, must believe both are reasonable, modest, centrist pieces of voting rights legislation or he would not support them. He clearly feels strongly about voting rights when he says that the right to vote is fundamental to our American democracy. 538 makes it clear that republicans have pushed in partisan votes numerous many voter suppression bills and that this can have bad and unpredictable affects on upcoming elections. Stacey Abrams has pointed out that this is Jim Crow in a tuxedo.
But, while laws that make it more taxing to vote are not new, the current onslaught of voting restrictions and changes to how elections will be administered is not something we’ve grappled with on this scale. Additionally, there is their nakedly partisan origins — nearly 90 percent of the voting laws proposed or enacted in 2021 were sponsored primarily or entirely by Republican legislators — and the fact that these laws are likely to have a greater impact on Black and brown voters, who are less likely to vote Republican.
Republican efforts to pass new voter restrictions have been so aggressive and widespread that their effects are hard to predict.
Republicans have shown themselves to be extremists and unwilling to work on legislation with democrats even when it is popular among republican voters. 147 House Republicans and 8 Senate Republicans voted to object to counting electoral college votes. Only 7 Senate Republicans voted to remove the former guy after he incited the insurrection. Only one Senate Republican supports the inadequate John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and none supported either the original version of the For the People Act or Manchin’s version of the For the People Act. Even a bill for a commission to investigate the insurrection was filibustered and could not get an up or down vote. The American Rescue Plan got zero Senate Republican votes as well as zero House Republican votes. The only possible conclusion from this can be that the Senate cannot function with such an extremist Republican caucus in the Senate and the filibuster.
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Although the filibuster should be eliminated, that won’t happen. However, filibuster reform is possible. An exception to the filibuster was created for judges at the district level and that was extended to Supreme Court nominations. An exception to the filibuster was created for a specific type of legislation, budget reconciliation bills. Now, the parliamentarian determines what is allowed and belongs in a budget reconciliation bill (the $15 / hr minimum was ruled out). There is no reason that an exception to the filibuster for voting rights legislation cannot be carved out. Certainly, the parliamentarian can determine what is germane to voting rights legislation and what is not. This would be enough to get Manchin’s version of the For the People Act passed. Given what he has seen of republican extremism and the inability to get any major legislation passed under regular order (with one exception), he has every reason to go ahead and support carving out an exception to the filibuster for voting rights legislation and getting his version of the For the People Act passed. His objections have been answered and some of the answers are from the extremist republican obstruction. Filibuster reform for other legislation can be to make those who wish to filibuster produce the votes, raise that number to 45, make them all available at all times on the Senate floor and make them speak about the legislation that they are opposing.
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With voter suppression being countered by passing Manchin’s version of the For the People Act, there are good reasons to believe that it is possible that democrats can retain both chambers of Congress. Normally, the party that holds the White House would be extremely likely to lose both chambers of Congress, especially since we may lose 15 seats in the US House of Representatives from redistricting alone. However, the most popular republican political show has attacked our senior active military leader’s character and pushed the false conspiracy theory that the FBI was responsible for the insurrection. House republican leader Kevin McCarthy refused to shake the hand of wounded brave cop hero Fannone. Republicans attempted a coup. They have pushed voter suppression bills. Republicans have pushed the conspiracy theory that Donald Trump actually won the election. They pushed beliefs that Joe Biden would be arrested not inaugurated on January 20, that Donald Trump would return to power on March 4, and then that Donald Trump would return to power in August. Republicans are refusing to be vaccinated and equating it to how Nazis treated Jewish people in the Holocaust. The economy is growing rapidly and vaccinations have increased to the extent possible given republican refusal under President Biden. Put all of this together, all other things being equal and given democrats get Manchin’s version of the For the People Act passed, even with redistricting it is not hard to see democrats retaining both chambers of Congress given republican extremism.
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I obviously want us to win no matter what. We need to win no matter what. However, I am much, much less sanguine about our prospect to be able to put together wins in both chambers or either chamber without passing voting rights legislation in Congress to counter the voter suppression bills republicans are pushing across the country. Moreover, even if we could win and retain both chambers in the midterms of 2022 without countering their voter suppression bills, it would still be wrong for us to not counter the republican voter suppression bills and a second era of Jim Crow in place, discriminatory voter suppression targeting African Americans, Latinos, people of color and other marginalized groups.
Saturday, Jun 26, 2021 · 7:47:41 PM +00:00 · Dem
Fucking liars — they never, ever negotiate in good faith and they aren’t even honest people with simply a different point of view. They are unpatriotic, dishonest, unprincipled, power-hungry seditionist, bigoted, conspiracy theorists who never ever negotiate in good faith. I despise them.
They always pull this shit ! But they were told 3.5 months ago — the whole group and Capito Moore, the principle negotiator for their side said that using reconciliation for other parts to the infrastructure would “not poison the “ infrastructure deal because they had “used that option in 2017” .
Immigration reform , stimulus for the last republican recession, ACA…
Doing the same damn thing . And trying to act surprised now when they were told this three and a half months ago by President Biden and they said it would “not poison” the well.