It’s one thing for Democratic lawmakers to object to parts of Joe Biden’s infrastructure agenda. There should be room for dissent in a healthy political party, however frustrating it can be at times. But if those against the legislation don’t make clear what it is, exactly, that they would be for, it is awfully hard for their counterparts to negotiate. Such has been the case with Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, the latter of whom has seemed particularly cagey about what her issues are with the social infrastructure legislation and what could get her to a “yes” vote.
While each has made clear they are uncomfortable with the $3.5 trillion price tag of the social policy and climate plan over 10 years, the pair of conservative Democrats have steadfastly refused to issue specific demands, vowing to hold the reconciliation bill hostage until after a narrower, physical infrastructure bill is passed. “This is the third time she said she has told the president, ‘I’m not there,’” a person who spoke with Sinema told Politico Wednesday, after the latest meeting between the Arizona senator and the White House. “‘I’ve been very clear with you from the start.’”
Manchin and Sinema have taken on outsize roles in Biden’s Washington, standing as self-appointed gatekeepers to the president’s agenda on a divided Capitol Hill. Their stands have often been somewhat incoherent, befuddling even their Republican counterparts at times and aggravating their Democratic colleagues on major issues, including voting rights. But this latest episode has been particularly maddening, both because of the sky-high stakes of the infrastructure bills and their refusal to meaningfully engage with their more progressive counterparts, who are often slurred as more unrealistic and unwilling to compromise than moderates. “What is it that you want? What is your final goal?” Illinois Senator Dick Durbin told CNN. “It’s time to stop talking around it and speak directly to it.”
“There has been no clarity in what they actually want, both Sinema and Manchin,” progressive Representative Ilhan Omar told the Washington Post on Thursday.
Both senators have been involved in discussions with the White House, which is playing an increasingly forceful role in attempting to navigate the pair of bills through Congress, where Democrats hold narrow majorities. Manchin has offered somewhat firmer positions on the legislation, though his most robust comments to date on reconciliation have been filled with nonsense about “vengeful” taxes and “wishful” spending. (Speaking to reporters Thursday, Manchin acknowledged his politics are further to the right than others in his party, saying that to get more votes on liberal priorities, Democrats should “elect more liberals.”)
But Sinema, who has drawn praise from the right for her obstruction, hasn’t even done that, continuing to play games with legislation that not only has massive implications for Biden’s agenda and her party in 2022, but the scores of Americans who would benefit from the bill. “This discussion has been going on for months—for months,” Senator Bernie Sanders, chair of the Senate Budget Committee, told the New York Times. “We need some definitive results.”
Sanders and his fellow progressives, along with the bulk of the Democratic party, have proven themselves willing to negotiate in good faith. Manchin and Sinema, for all their efforts to cast themselves as the adults in the room, owe it to Americans to do the same. “I was elected to create a strong and stable and globally competitive economy,” Representative Katie Porter said on MSNBC Wednesday, urging the Democratic holdouts to make their position clear. “I was not elected to read the mind of Kyrsten Sinema,” the California lawmaker continued. “Thank goodness, because I have no idea what she’s thinking.”
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What, Exactly, Does Kyrsten Sinema Want? - Vanity Fair
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