Can we just save time and negotiate directly with whoever is backing Manchin and Sinema?
Imagine calling them out publicly and saying, since you won’t tell us the number you’re comfortable with, we’re calling on the special interests who have funded you to negotiate directly with the administration.
Let’s skip the middleman and go right to the source.
This is clearly how America now works, post-Citizens United. I mean, it always has. But now with unlimited and dark-money giving, it’s worse.
So let’s just publicly tell ExxonMobil, what exactly do you want? Name a number. Can we give even more subsides. Give us a starting point. Hell, how much stock would we have to buy to gain a controlling interest?
Because if we’re talking about the possibility of averting complete climate disaster, and they are the ones standing in the way, that’s gotta have some kind of number value. So what is it? We’re never going to know if we have to negotiate though middleman Joe Manchin.
And what does Big Pharma want, and can we get that info directly, instead of having to “negotiate” though Sinema? Make us an offer.
Nobody in Washington would ever want to admit the truth we all know. But imagine how satisfying it would be if President Biden said he was going to break off negotiations with Sen Manchin and Sen Sinema, and instead of inviting them to the Oval Office, he would instead invite the board of directors of ExxonMobil.
Because that’s apparently the only way to get things done in this version of America.