Why one senator just blew up Joe Biden's presidential plans
CBC
A single U.S. senator has detonated a political bombshell whose wide-ranging blast radius has touched his political party, his country and his planet.
Let us sift through political wreckage over the horizon and count the effects unleashed by Sen, Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
He has, until further notice, killed President Joe Biden's hope of signing major legislation. Resurrecting the Build Back Better mega-bill could happen but it won't be easy and it's dead in its current form.
That time of death was Sunday, 9 a.m.ET. The place and cause? An interview on Fox News in which Manchin said he's done negotiating this bill.
Because he holds the 50th vote in a 100-seat Senate, Manchin's statement was a game-changer on multiple fronts.
It's rocked Biden's presidency, enraged the Democratic Party, imperilled about two dozen major initiatives affecting millions of Americans, undone economic forecasts, torched the U.S. climate plan, tossed into doubt a global tax plan, and, perhaps to Canadians' benefit, paused a major Canada-U.S. irritant, a potential violation of trade agreements.
His move unleashed recriminations within the Democratic Party as some of Manchin's colleagues castigated him; questioned his integrity; said he couldn't be trusted; and some even raised money in fundraising letters trashing his decision.
That acrimonious climate is hardly propitious to getting Democrats back to the negotiating table to try saving bits of the 2,468-page Build Back Better bill.
Why would a Democrat do this to his party's agenda? It's worth first acknowledging the old Washington adage that all politics is local.
There's no evidence any of this will hurt Manchin at home in West Virginia should he choose to seek re-election in 2024.
On the contrary: In Manchin's part of the country, it can be excellent politics to be seen antagonizing, thwarting and frustrating progressive Democrats.
His state can barely stand national Democrats, and it's a near-miracle it elected one in Manchin, a well-known former governor. The state's other federal Senate seat went Republican last year by 43 points.
So when Manchin was asked about threats from Democrats in a West Virginia radio interview on Monday his response, in effect, was: Bring it on.
Democrats from Sen. Bernie Sanders to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer have threatened to bring the bill for a vote anyway and dare him to vote against it.
