Member-only story
Mitch McConnell told us exactly who’s writing the reconciliation bill.
And we all saw it coming.
Well, here we are. The bipartisan infrastructure bill has been voted upon in the House of representatives, and the president is ready to sign it into law. The other piece of Biden’s legislative agenda, however, unfortunately still awaits its fate in the senate. Of course, there have been seemingly endless conversations about what progressives in the house in particular could have or should have done differently with their leverage, but nevertheless it is what it is, and all we can do is wait and see what the contents of the bill will look like. That is, if we even get a bill at all.
All that being said, we have heard from none other than Kentucky senator and senate minority leader Mitch McConnell about just who’s having the final say, and writing the final version of the bill democrats supposedly hope to be voting on by Thanksgiving:
Joe Manchin, and Kyrsten Sinema.
Bryan Metzger with Business Insider writes:
“Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said that the final version of the Democrats’ $1.75 trillion “Build Back Better” social spending bill will be “written by Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema,” the two moderate Democrats that have frustrated progressives with various objections to the legislation central to President Joe Biden’s agenda.
“The House bill will come over, [Senate Majority Leader Chuck] Schumer will offer a substitute, and the substitute will be written by Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema,” he said. “If there is no substitute, it would mean that neither of them got on board.”
…“Manchin, to his credit, is talking about inflation and questioning, I think, whether this needs to be done at all,” said McConnell. “The single biggest favor he could do for the country would be to defeat the whole thing.”
“That would take a lot of courage, and we’ll see whether he’s willing to go that far,” he added.”
Ah, democracy at its finest, right? Isn’t this what the American people voted for? Isn’t this what the people of Georgia moved mountains for in order to get the democrats the house, the senate, and the white house? I’m sure this is what they intended, right…
