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Is President Biden’s Climate Agenda Toast? Say It Isn’t So, Joe
“We were close,” Senator Tina Smith (D-MN)
Introduction
There’s a jolly old soul in West Virginia who’s laughing his a** off today. Who is this laugh-master? Why it’s Old King Coal, of course; and, he just got off the phone with Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV).
On the call, West Virginia’s senior Senator told the old man he would be announcing his opposition to President Biden’s Build Back Better Act (BBB), otherwise known as budget reconciliation. To add icing to the cake, Man-chin thought he would do it a few days before Christmas on FOX Sunday News but only after sending an intern over to the White House less than 30 minutes before he was to go on informing the President of his decision.
The news ripped through Capitol City, registering 11 out of 10 on the political Richter scale. Although it ain’t over ’til it’s over, the Democratic politics of it all do nothing even to hint at the Democrats’ capacity to keep their majorities in Congress. Could this be the reason 22 House Democrats have announced their retirements?
Manchin’s opposition to the bill will profoundly impact US climate policy — possibly for the next decade. Why that long? Because to make that happen, the Democrats would have to take back their rule of the federal government…
