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How Should Biden Approach Joe Manchin?
The President certainly isn’t powerless.
I cannot say I was at all surprised when it was reported that none other than the Democratic Senator from West Virginia, Joe Manchin, publicly called for a “pause” on the reconciliation bill that has since come to be known as the budget bill. Since before Joe Biden even took office, Joe Manchin made it perfectly clear that he was more than happy to be the face of a broader obstructionist movement within the party to stop virtually any progress from being made. Given the context, can we really be surprised that Manchin intends to gut the reconciliation bill?
That said, Biden certainly isn’t powerless, and all of it begs the question: how should Joe Biden handle Joe Manchin? It’s easy to be cynical and angry about all of this, and justifiably so, but for the sake of being at least a bit more productive, it’s interesting to consider what I personally would do if I was in Biden’s shoes when dealing with Manchin.
If I were Biden, I would invite Manchin over for a meeting, maybe dinner as well, and ask him what it is that he wants for the state of West Virginia from this bill. What, exactly, does he need in order to please his voters? What sort of funding is he expecting for the roads and bridges in his state specifically, that might persuade him to vote for the…
