Joe Manchin’s elusive hunt for a pony named ‘bipartisanship’
Eww, right?
So, the shrink asks, “What do you think you’re doing?” The boy, brimming with his characteristic optimism, replied, “With all this manure, there must be a pony in here somewhere!”
That punchline makes me think of Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), who has become a one-man roadblock to President Biden’s policy agenda on Capitol Hill because he insists that a pony named bipartisanship is stalking the halls of Congress just waiting to be found. And in his effort to find it, Manchin lowered the boom on abolishing or reforming the filibuster.
“There is no circumstance in which I will vote to eliminate or weaken the filibuster,” Manchin wrote in an op-ed in The Post this past week. He’s not a fan of the budget reconciliation process either. “I simply do not believe budget reconciliation should replace regular order in the Senate,” Manchin continued. “Working legislation through regular order in the Senate prevents drastic swings in federal policymaking.”
Regular order? Rep. Donna F. Edwards (D-Md.) served in Congress from 2008 to 2017. When she was asked about regular order on Washington Post Live’s “First Look” on Friday, Edwards said, “In the 10 years I served, we never had regular order. So, everybody called for it but we never had it.”
Manchin went on to say he wants to “usher a new era of bipartisanship where we find common ground on the major policy debates facing our nation.” Bipartisanship with the party of Donald Trump? Common ground with many of the same people who voted against the certification of the electoral college vote after insurrectionists invaded the Capitol to try to overturn the presidential election? For real?
The Post’s Olivier Knox pointed out this past week that “Manchin has long centered his political identity on his opposition to certain ideas.” Well, it’s time for the gentleman from West Virginia to show us what he’s for and with whom he’s working among Republicans to create this legislative nirvana he talks so much about.
After mass shootings in Georgia, Colorado and Texas, perhaps Manchin could start by reviving the Manchin-Toomey bill. He and Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.) crafted the 2013 legislation that would have instituted background checks for gun purchasers after the slaughter of 26 people, including 20 children, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in December 2012. Despite garnering 54 votes, the bill failed because it didn’t clear the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster. If Manchin got 60 votes to push this through, it would be a good example of his ability to effect positive change.
Manchin’s overall goal is right: getting Congress back in the business of solving problems instead of allowing its inaction to make them worse. The minimum wage must be raised. Voting rights absolutely must be protected. Our infrastructure must be improved and expanded.
In a perfect world, Congress could get all of these things done. But we don’t live in a perfect world. That’s why I’m willing to give Manchin some time to find bipartisanship. But not forever.
If, despite his efforts, Republicans remain recalcitrant or put forward proposals they know will be rejected by the president, then Manchin must leave them be. The American people and the Democratic Party base in particular want results, and inaction puts the razor-thin Democratic majority in the Senate at risk. Surely, Manchin wouldn’t want to be blamed for his party losing that majority because he spent more time looking for a pony that doesn’t exist than dealing with the reality of the pile of work right in front of him.
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