Joe Manchin did the math Fox News chosen to give Joe Biden what is arguably the worst blow of his tenure to date. Manchin is a democrat, Biden is a democrat, Fox News on the other hand, the house broadcaster is the Republicans. As a Democratic Senator, when you have something unpleasant to tell the Democratic President, you are actually doing it personally and confidentially. In any case, you don’t do it on the TV channel that still mourns Donald Trump.
But that’s exactly where Joe Manchin was sitting on Sunday Fox News, on Fox News Sunday talk show, saying these sentences, “I can’t take part anymore. I can’t vote for this law, I just can’t.” The moderator needs a few seconds to notice that Manchin was about to deliver him a powerful headline on this otherwise news-poor 4th Advent. He wanted to know whether that meant that Manchin would finally oppose the social law planned by Biden. And Manchin confirmed that was exactly the case. “I’ve tried everything,” he says. “I can’t bring myself to do it. I say no.”
It’s a disaster for Joe Biden. The Democrats have 50 votes in the US Senate, Manchins is one of them. And each and every one of those 50 votes is imperative to pass the social package that would become one of the cornerstones of Biden’s political legacy. The president planned to spend around $ 1,700 billion over the next ten years to modernize and expand America’s social security system, to help families, not just the poor, but even those from the crumbling middle class, and to advance climate protection. But without Manchin’s vote, Biden has no majority. And on Sunday Manchin let Biden know that he would not get that vote.
The reaction of the White House was correspondingly excited, almost panicked. Biden’s spokeswoman Jen Psaki spoke up and accused Manchin of breaking his word with Biden. Just a few days ago, the senator expressed himself completely differently in discussions with the president and his staff. What he suddenly said was an “unexpected and inexplicable turn in his attitude”. But such accusations change nothing in the situation: Biden needs Manchin more than Manchin needs Biden. Yelling and shouting from the White House are unlikely to impress the unruly senator.
Manchin represents West Virginia, a reactionary corner of the world
Rather the opposite is the case: Joe Manchin represents the state of West Virginia in the Senate, a conservative to reactionary corner of the world where a good seven out of ten people vote for Republicans. The fact that a Democrat like Manchin has been able to hold out there so far, that he has won elections there, while Biden lost a huge loss in West Virginia in the 2020 election, is mainly due to the fact that he repeatedly opposes his own party.
The man about to destroy Joe Biden’s political legacy: Democratic US Senator Joe Manchin.
(Photo: J. Scott Applewhite / AP)
On Sunday, some people put forward a whole host of economic reasons why they could not support hundreds of billions in new social spending in times of high national debt, rising inflation and uncertain economic prospects. But an important reason is Manchin’s very selfish political instinct for self-preservation. Opposing Biden makes him more popular with his constituents at home than it harms him.
This does not necessarily apply to Manchin’s party friends in Congress. The anger towards Manchin is enormous, especially among the left wing of the Democrats. There you feel betrayed by the senator, and not without good reason: a few weeks ago the party left supported a major infrastructure law negotiated by Manchin, which will also cost hundreds of billions. However, the left only agreed because they were of the opinion that Senator Manchin had in return undertaken to approve the social package – climate protection and kindergarten places are much more important to the left wing of the party than new roads and bridges.
This counter-deal fell through on Sunday. “Senator Manchin not only broke his promise to the President and Congress today, but above all to the American people,” grumbled MP Pramila Jayapa, leader of the Left Democrats in the House of Representatives. “He always claims to keep his word. But he can no longer say that about himself.” This quarrel between the left wing of the party and the moderate wing of the party, which Manchin attributes to himself, may become ugly in the future.
Biden is facing an ugly present
But first, President Biden is facing an ugly present. He has had little political success since the summer. The corona pandemic, which he declared practically defeated in July, is just returning with full force. During Biden’s tenure, more Americans have died from the virus than during Trump’s, and the United States will soon exceed one million Covid deaths.
In addition, inflation is eating away at all the success stories about the economic recovery. The mood in the country is bad, Biden’s approval ratings are desolate. And now this: The president’s most important domestic political project, a social reform that should catapult him into the league of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson and make the USA a halfway modern welfare state, is as good as done.
Joe Biden goes into the Christmas vacation with a bitter realization: After less than a year in office, his political capital is so low and his influence on his own party so weak that he publicly participates Fox News is betrayed.