This should turn every Progressive’s head. Senator Joe Manchin seems to threaten AOC & Progressives with GOP votes for the bipartisan infrastructure bill in his very folksy tone.
Joe Manchin threatens AOC & Progressives on the infrastructure bill.
Progressives need to be very aware that they are currently at a dangerous moment. Republicans could unite with enough Democrats to play them. Nancy Pelosi holds the key.
We have not yet seen the bipartisan bill. But based on Republican values, one can imagine that they will have options for the private sector to milk the poor & middle-class via toll roads and private/public partnership. In other words, we pay for the risk, and they get our tax dollars as profits.
The $3,5 trillion human infrastructure bill is the only thing that makes a likely thieving bipartisan infrastructure bill palatable. But Joe Manchin is putting the scope of said bill in doubt under his folksy talk.
When told that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she had 10 Progressives who would not vote for the bipartisan infrastructure bill without the corresponding $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill, his answer was threatening. His tone may have beguiled some but should fool no one.
Joe Manchin, really?
“Well, you know, sometimes maybe you will have fifteen or twenty Republicans who see a good bill,” Joe Manchin said. “Maybe it might be a hundred Republicans in the House that says, ‘My God, I like this. Guess what. It takes care of my transportation, it is the greatest jobs bill we have ever had, it runs for five to ten years, it gives you total growth each year, to try to stimulate the economy.’ … I will take a win whenever I can get it.”
The Senator is right. That could happen. He is wrong because taking a win whenever he can get it always leaves the poor, the working class, and the lower-middle-class with crumbs. They are always asked to sacrifice. The American Rescue Plan proved that poverty is a policy issue. And we continue to fail. One hopes not this time. After all, it is the poor and middle-class who enrich the wealthy.