This will be brief, as there is not much to say. McConnell has voted against funding the government to give his allies Sinema and Manchin (S&M) more leverage in forcing the bipartisan infrastructure bill before the $3.5T bill can be even finalized. We all know that bill will never succeed unless linked to the bipartisan bill. So
- Make it clear the $3.5T bill can not be finalized until S&M have given concrete objections that can be worked with
- Those objections will now come too late to finalize the bill before Friday’s deadline.
- Since the $3.5T bill can not be finished in time, make it clear neither can the “bipartisan” bill.
- Put through funding the government again solo but don’t use reconciliation.
- When that fails again, kill the Filibuster. Force S&M to choose government shutdown over losing the filibuster.
- We now have two (main) possibilities.
- If S&M cave and lose the filibuster, it makes it harder to keep pretending they care about it.
- If they shut the government down, let it ride the day then pass what you have to. But make it clear that S&M prefer the filibuster over a functioning government.