Throughout this whole dance surrounding the passage of the Build Back Better infrastructure bills, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have been allowed to get away with unspeakably shitty behavior because we have all hoped—deep in our hearts—that once they had had gotten enough TV time, enough lobbyist money, enough credit from beltway talking heads (who are always wrong) for "bucking the liberals" and "going their own way", that we would get a decent amount of money to help those who are struggling in this country, those who are hurting in the aftermath of a once-in-a-century pandemic, those who are barely getting by.
But we won't. You all know why as well as I do, and it's time to call them out on the real reasons for that:
1) They want to be able to say, "I stopped Congress from spending 3.5 trillion dollars when we're already in debt."
2) They absolutely refuse to take responsibility for a single dollar not going to someone who needs it. So they DEMAND that WE decide what the cuts are, so they can blame US for those cuts while THEY take credit for saving trillions of dollars.
If Sinema's and Manchin's objections were based on ANY sort of principles AT ALL, they would be happy to explain where we can't afford to spend money and why. That will NEVER happen. And there's only one explanation. They don't really care how or where the money gets spent. They don't care who gets hurt, or how badly. THEY ONLY CARE ABOUT THEMSELVES, AND THEIR OWN POLITICAL FORTUNES.
I completely understand why our leaders want to be gentle, to not offend them, to coax them along. But they are being played for fools. We need President Biden, Speaker Pelosi, Senator Sanders, Senator Warren, Representative Ocasio-Cortez, Representative Porter and every other person in our government who still actually cares about what happens to Americans to cry out, with a single voice:
"IF YOU WILL NOT TELL US WHAT MONEY YOU ARE UNWILLING TO SPEND, WHO YOU ARE UNWILLING TO SPEND IT ON, AND WHY, THEN YOU ARE DOING NOTHING BUT PLAYING PLAYING SELFISH POLITICAL GAMES WITH THE LIVES OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. YOU DO NOT DESERVE TO HOLD THE OFFICE THAT YOU DO, AND IF YOU DO NOT START LIVING UP TO YOUR OATH, WE WILL DO EVERYTHING IN OUR POWER TO MAKE SURE YOU NEVER HOLD ANY OFFICE OF TRUST OR PROFIT IN THE UNITED STATES EVER AGAIN."