Heaven help us: It’s “bipartisanship” time with Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin and Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who appeared at the No Labels conference over the weekend to reaffirm their determination to work together and get things done despite the fact that the Republican-controlled House is blocking that even more fully than the Republican filibuster in the Senate has done over the past two years.
Even if House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was interested in working with Democrats and less-extreme Republicans, the 15 votes it took him to find the bribes necessary to get enough votes from the far-right of his conference mean he can’t work with anyone but the extremists without risking his title. Nonetheless, Manchin and Collins have to continue to pretend they’re going to achieve bipartisanship to preserve their outsized media profiles and perceived legislative significance.
Democrats are, of course, perennially willing to work with Republicans—usually too much so—but thanks to Republican intransigence, most of the most significant accomplishments of the past two years were passed through the reconciliation process, which allows bills to pass the Senate with a simple majority. That includes Manchin’s signature Inflation Reduction Act. By contrast, Collins not only can’t assemble Republican votes for most bipartisan efforts, she herself almost never votes against her party leadership in a meaningful way. Her “moderate” stance is a scam.
Manchin, on the other hand, seems to be a true believer in the face of all the evidence. Check this out:
“The center is still going to be where people are going to have to gather around in order to get anything done,” Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said Sunday. If Senate Democrats “can’t find basically nine centrist moderate, reasonable Republicans who want to accomplish something in the next Congress here … then it will be just basically a stalemate,” he added.
Campaign Action
Joe, Joe, Joe. It is true that over the past two years, Senate Republicans provided enough votes to break the filibuster on a few key things, including the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Respect for Marriage Act. But 1) the number of times that actually happened is tiny compared with the number of times Manchin earnestly proclaimed that surely this time nine or 10 Republicans were going to be reasonable and vote to accomplish something.
And 2) more importantly, in the year 2023, THE HOUSE.
Your problem, Joe, is not finding nine Republicans in the Senate. Your problem is the House being effectively controlled by the Marjorie Taylor Greene wing of the Republican Party. Kevin McCarthy is not leading anyone over there. He is being led around by the whims of people who cannot be reasoned with.
If Joe Manchin wants to spend the next two years earnestly trying to reach deals with Republicans and having them viciously rejected by House Republicans, that’s actually kind of helpful in highlighting how extreme House Republicans are. Go for it, Joe. It’s just hilarious to watch him continue to pretend that those reasonable Republicans exist in enough numbers to have any influence on their party. Yes, Joe, it will be just basically a stalemate for most of the next two years. Welcome to reality.
Listen to this episode of The Downballot for an in-depth analysis of the 2024 Arizona Senate race and the implications of Kyrsten Sinema's re-election decision. Special guest Victoria McGroary, the Executive Director of BOLD PAC, will also discuss the efforts to prevent losses among Hispanic voters and the fight against disinformation in Spanish language media.