EDITORIAL: Biden serves humble pie to 'Manchinema'

Oct. 6—When President Joe Biden was inaugurated, he knew he'd have to deliver the sort of agenda everyone would expect from a president facing a once-in-a-century crisis.

More than the sort of routine business like road maintenance that has been ignored for years by a derelict and dysfunctional Congress. Biden has a sense of history, and the 21st century's first adults have seen their world lurch from one crisis to the next, from 9/11 to the 2008 meltdown to the massive death tolls of the opioid crisis and COVID-19.

The compounded stress causes what economists call a "wage scar," leaving these young adults with permanently diminished earnings potential as they start raising families. Biden and the House Democrats behind his $3.5 trillion "human infrastructure" bill had this in mind when they crafted the legislation along with a companion $1 trillion bill in the Senate that would modernize transportation networks, sewers, the power grid and other infrastructure.

Biden's entire agenda has been imperiled at the last minute, however, by holdout Sens. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Arizona. With the Senate split an even 50-50, these two legislative masterminds announced just days after Biden's inauguration that they would not abolish the filibuster "under any condition" (Manchin) and were "not open to changing" their mind (Sinema). Days later, scorched-earth obstructionist Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, returned their favor with a pie in the face, ruling out any Republican cooperation whatsoever with Biden on his still-hypothetical agenda.

Manchin and Sinema preen and posture as independent thinkers, and Sinema fancies herself a spreadsheet-wielding policy wonk. But after commandeering infrastructure negotiations this summer — and seizing much of Biden's time and attention, to the chagrin of left-leaning House members — the two were exposed as policy lightweights who overplayed their hand. When invited to the White House to explain their specific objections, they seemed confused about what's actually in the House bill. Manchin has made noise about inflation, even though the bill would be paid for with taxes on the wealthy, not with deficit spending or Federal Reserve stimulus.

Manchin now claims he had warned Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer not to go beyond $1.5 trillion. In fact, Manchin has been inconsistent and evasive about what he might be willing to support. In September, Manchin called the $3.5 trillion price tag "insanity" — but in January, he called for up to $4 trillion in spending.

Bear in mind that this is over 10 years, so Manchin's $1.5 trillion means $150 billion a year, hardly enough for what Biden had in mind (New York state's budget this year alone was $212 billion). His other demands include giving the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, of which he is chairman, sole control over energy policy; no surprise from coal-lobby-beneficiary Manchin, a former state chairman of the fossil-fuel shilling American Legislative Exchange Council.

Left-leaning House Democrats, by the way, have been reasonable. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, the Senate budget chairman, has amiably compromised several times on his initial $6 trillion price tag to bring moderates on board.

Sinema's claim that she's a moderate is, like all things Sinema, all style and no substance. She entered politics as a far-left anti-war activist who as recently as 2011 called Republicans "crazy." But even as the GOP has drifted to the extreme right — and Arizona has shifted left — Sinema has waffled; she said in October 2020 she was still unsure whether to vote for Biden or Donald Trump.

"I don't understand (Sinema's) calculus," said Garrick McFadden, former vice chair of the Arizona Democratic Party, to Politico this week. "It's not like we're asking her to do the Bernie Sanders or the Elizabeth Warren agenda. It's the Joe Biden agenda."

It appeared that Manchin and Sinema might bring all of Washington to its knees. But Biden last week said a vote on their cherished infrastructure bill, which they wanted passed and signed into law immediately, wouldn't happen until they budged on the House bill. Sinema later released a statement complaining that her bill was being "held hostage" — as if that isn't what she and Manchin have been doing this entire time.

Sanders and the House Democrats behind the "human infrastructure" bill won't lose their seats if this whole thing collapses. But if Sinema and Manchin are now realizing that if they flake on their own signature legislation, it won't be easy to explain to their constituents.

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