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And those vested interests are not the same as the interests of the vast majority of the American people, as outlined in Biden’s very popular Build Back Better agenda.
Joe and Kyrsten don’t like to talk about it much — the fact that they are “really not fighting for you” … hopefully some reporters will start asking them “Who in world ARE you fighting for?”
The West Virginia Senator Reaps Big Financial Rewards From a Network of Coal Companies With Grim Records of Pollution, Safety Violations, and Death
by Daniel Boguslaw — The Intercept, Sept 3 2021
Manchin’s claim that climate pollution would be worsened by the elimination of fossil fuels — or by the resolution’s actual, more incremental climate provisions — is highly dubious, if not outright false. What would unquestionably be impacted, however, is Manchin’s own personal wealth.
[...]
For decades, Manchin has profited from a series of coal companies that he founded during the 1980s. His son, Joe Manchin IV, has since assumed leadership roles in the firms, and the senator says his ownership is held in a blind trust. Yet between the time he joined the Senate and today, Manchin has personally grossed more than $4.5 million from those firms, according to financial disclosures. He also holds stock options in Enersystems Inc., the larger of the two firms, valued between $1 and $5 million.
Those two companies are Enersystems Inc. and Farmington Resources Inc., the latter of which was created by the rapid merging of two other firms, Manchin’s Transcon and Farmington Energy in 2005. Enersystems purchases low-quality waste coal from mines and resells it to power plants as fuel, while Farmington Resources provides “support activities for mining” and holds coal reserves in the Fairmont area. Over the decades, whether feeding tens of thousands of tons of dirty waste coal into the power plants in northern West Virginia or subjecting workers to unsafe conditions, Manchin’s family coal business has almost entirely avoided public scrutiny.
Manchin did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
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by Daniel Strauss, The New Republic — Sept 22, 2021
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Accountable.US, the liberal nonprofit group, has compiled a report of donations to Sinema from organizations like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and PhRMA, groups actively working to trip up the reconciliation package, a key pillar of Biden’s domestic policy agenda.
The report tallies that Sinema has received “at least $923,065 from the industry groups leading this charge against the Build Back Better budget or from the individual corporations these groups represent.” The report centers on five interest groups: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable, the RATE Coalition, the National Association of Manufacturers, and PhRMA.
“Super-rich corporations have given Senator Sinema nearly a million reasons to vote against making them pay their fair share in taxes,” Kyle Herrig, president of Accountable.US, said in a statement. “Make no mistake, if she sides with her wealthy donors and kills popular investments to jump-start the economy, everyday families—including across Arizona—will pay the price.”
[...] in May, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell reassured his Republican colleagues that Sinema is one of the key reasons they should hope there would not be any significant tax increases in the reconciliation package.
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The fact is Coal-barren Joe and Corporate-Kyrsten have other interests, of a more personal nature, that they are fighting to protect.
And those interests do NOT align with yours or mine, or the vast majority of the American working people. The fact that they have not been upfront about this, is a betrayal of the people who voted for them, and an affront to the Democratic Agenda.
They both ran as Democrats. They should both start acting like they care about Democratic priorities. Like the majority of American people do:
THIS is the Agenda that Manchin and Sinema want to sink —
along with it the long-term viable of the Party, THAT they claim to be a part of.
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