The Manchin On The Hill, Con't

Republicans continue to hold the country hostage, and President Manchin continues to do everything he can to assist them.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said on Wednesday that he remains opposed to changing the Senate’s legislative filibuster, dealing a blow to progressive hopes to use a rules change as an escape hatch from a fight over the nation's borrowing limit.

“I’ve been very, very clear where I stand on the filibuster. Nothing changes,” Manchin told a gaggle of reporters outside of his Senate office.

Manchin's comments come as the idea of an debt ceiling exemption from the legislative filibuster, which requires 60 votes for most legislation, has gained steam within the Senate Democratic Caucus.

Democrats discussed the idea, as well as other potential backup plans, during a closed-door caucus lunch on Tuesday, with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) confirming that talks were underway.

And moderate Democrats, long viewed as wary to a rules change, indicated that they would support it.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said he could support a “pause” on the filibuster for the debt ceiling vote.

“There ought to be some way to suspend” the filibuster for a debt ceiling vote, Warner said.

But changing the legislative filibuster even just for a narrow carveout on the debt ceiling was a heavy lift for Senate Democrats, given entrenched opposition to making changes to the 60-vote rule from Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.).

To invoke the "nuclear option," Democrats would need total unity from their 50-member caucus and Vice President Harris in the chair to break a tie. A spokesman for Sinema didn't immediately respond to a question on Wednesday about if she would support creating a carveout from the filibuster for the debt ceiling.

Manchin said as recently as Monday that he didn’t view changes to the filibuster as an option on the debt ceiling.

“The filibuster has nothing to do with debt ceiling. Basically, we have other tools that we can use and if we have to use them we should use them,” Manchin said at the time.

 

President Manchin continues to hold court and decree from his throne. Republicans make sure he can, but so do Democrats.

 

And nothing will improve until his power is removed by electing more Democrats in the Senate. The second Dems can get 53 or more seats, Manchin and VP Sinema become irrelevant.

 

But the odds of that happening in 2022 are rapidly diminishing. Manchin has no reason to cut his own throat by complying, and Republicans are 100% united on blocking everything.

 

Better Democrats, yes. But right now, we're learning that More Democrats are also necessary to keep the worse ones in line. 

In the back of the room, you can hear Mitch McConnell cackling.