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OCTOBER 26, 2021

Meyerson on TAP

Manchin and Sinema May Be Dooming the Democrats in 2022

Compelling Biden to bend to their demands weakens him and their party
going into the midterms.

I'm not aware of any poll that has asked the question "Do you think
President Biden is being jerked around by two senators?" but I think a
large number of Americans, if asked, would answer that in the
affirmative. Of course, it's not just Biden but the entire Democratic
Party, root and branch, that's being jerked around by Sens. Manchin
and Sinema-and it's the entire Democratic Party that will likely pay
a price for this in next year's midterm elections.

We've been here before. During the initial two years of his
presidency, Barack Obama engaged in what seemed at the time like an
endless succession of negotiations with Republicans and centrist
Democratic senators over his proposed Affordable Care Act. In the end,
the Republicans flatly rejected it in any way, shape, or form, but
perhaps even more nettlesome was the determination on the part of two
Democratic senators in particular-Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus
of Montana and Connecticut's Joe Lieberman-to pare back the bill.
And pared it was, with Obama and his fellow Democrats forced to bow to
Baucus and Lieberman's demand to scuttle the establishment of a public
option that could compete with profit-driven, coverage-denying private
health insurance corporations.

As I've written
in the current print issue
of the

**Prospect**, time plays a crucial role in the public's assessment of
elected officials and their programs. A program that's slow to roll
out and slow to deliver its benefits to the public doesn't usually
benefit its authors in the election following its enactment. Similarly,
a president who proclaims a bold program, only to spend months being
compelled to hack away at it due to the obstinate resistance of a
handful of legislators who have the upper hand in the proceedings,
doesn't emerge unscathed from that process. Obama surely didn't,
though his inability to persuade some nominally Democratic renegades to
support the public good over their insurance industry donors was only
one reason why the Democrats bombed in the 2010 midterms, losing both
houses of Congress in the process.

My concern is that Joe Biden is trapped in the same dynamic that plagued
Obama, with his polling dropping precipitously as the two Democratic
renegades, similarly more in the sway of donors (and innumerate
economics) than the public interest, are prevailing over the president
and the rest of the party in paring back a long-overdue shift to
bolstering the fortunes of most Americans. Indeed, Biden has publicly
stated that with only 50 Democrats in the Senate, just one senator-or
in this case, two-effectively has presidential powers. What with
Manchin compelling his fellow Democrats to halve their proposals (or, if
he won't budge from $1.5 trillion, cut them to three-sevenths), and
Sinema rejecting an increase to tax rates on the wealthy and
corporations, they've clearly diminished the appearance and actuality
of Biden's power, whether that's their intention or not.

To be sure, there are other factors behind the erosion of Biden's
public support, as there was with Obama's, and there's a distinct
possibility that when the infrastructure and Build Back Better bills are
finally passed, and their programs promptly (one hopes) implemented,
Biden will rebound. But just as Baucus and Lieberman played a role in
dragging Obama down and giving the Congress over to the Republicans, so
Manchin and Sinema seem poised to have a kindred effect over the
fortunes of Biden and their congressional colleagues.

Sometimes, tragedy repeats itself as tragedy.

~ HAROLD MEYERSON

Follow Harold Meyerson on Twitter

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Introducing the 'Deus Tax Machina'

Sen. Ron Wyden's bid to rescue the Build Back Better Act's revenue
side is an audacious attempt to rein in billionaires and
mega-corporations. BY DAVID DAYEN

Democrats, Be Careful With the Medicaid Expansion

The Medicaid expansion provisions of the reconciliation bill risk being
overturned by the Supreme Court. BY PAUL STARR

A Silver Lining in the Story of Private Equity Killing the Press

The Provincetown Independent reminds us what a local paper is supposed
to look like. BY ROBERT KUTTNER

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