IIn Congress, slim majorities can herald strange times. Generation-defining bills and spending programs worth hundreds of billions of dollars can rest on the vote of a single senator from a state with a population smaller than a New York borough. York.
For some time that only senator was Joe Manchin of West Virginia. His refusal to support Joe Biden’s Build Back Better social spending plan, a central pillar of the president’s domestic agenda, gave him such outsized influence that he was equated with a “God Emperor,and earned the nickname “President Manchin.”
But absolute monarch Manchin shocked many in his own party on Wednesday night when he approved a $700 billion domestic spending bill after months of fractious negotiations with Senate Majority Leader Chuck. Schumer. With the stroke of a pen, Viceroy Manchin paved the way for hundreds of billions of dollars in spending on climate change, prescription drug reform and sweeping tax changes. He was nicknamed, of course, Build Back Manchin.
However, there is just one more obstacle in the way. Although he received the lion’s share of attention for blocking the bill, there is another senator on whose shoulders rests the fate of Biden’s agenda, and, given that the bill law represents the single largest climate expenditure ever passed in the United States, the world.
Move over Emperor Manchin, it’s Supreme Leader Sinema’s turn.
(Reuters)
Kyrsten Sinema, a first-term Democratic senator from Arizona and a self-proclaimed nonconformist who prides herself on being bipartisan and counts Republican John McCain as one of her political heroes, also refused to endorse the Build Back Better program. .
His reasons, when they could be verified, were different from those of his colleague from West Virginia. While Manchin worried about inflation, Sinema was unwilling to raise taxes on big business, ostensibly refusing to support “any tax policy that would stunt any kind of economic growth or impede the business and personal growth of American industries.”
It is therefore towards Sinema that the gaze of the world now turns.
So who is Kyrsten Sinema? Once a strident progressive, she now spends much of her time irritating her former left-wing travelers in the purple state of Arizona. Her opposition to Build Back Better and frequent blocking of the Democratic agenda fueled a well-funded effort to overthrow her in The Democratic primaries in 2024.
She is a marathon runner and the first sitting senator to complete a Ironman Triathlon. She speaks regularly with GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republicans in the chamber — so much so that she’s never far from rumors or jokes about change sides.
A more important question, however, is what does the Arizona senator want? The answer to this question is something that political journalists and philosophers have pondered for some time.
Sinema’s wishes and red lines have been elusive, often shifting. She has come out in favor of lower drug prices in the past, but seemed draw back provisions in the bill that would allow the government to negotiate lower prescription drug prices for millions of Medicare beneficiaries. She came out strongly in favor of protecting voting rights, but refuse eliminate the filibuster to pass landmark legislation on the matter.
In many ways, the deal Manchin and Schumer reached appears to address most of Sinema’s publicly expressed concerns, with one exception. In the past, Sinema has expressly opposed the removal of the carried interest loophole, which would tax profits derived from funds held by capital investment and venture capitalists are taxed as ordinary income, not capital gains. This provision remains in the bill, and Manchin is strongly committed to retaining it.
Sinema was not involved in negotiations between Manchin and Schumer and did not attend a Democratic caucus meeting on Thursday to discuss the bill.
It remains to be seen whether this will be enough to count it. Sinema typically avoids interviews and town halls with her constituents, leaving them guessing which way she will vote. Negotiations on this reconciliation bill followed a similar trend.
In a Saturday Night Live sketch of the heady days of October 2021, when the Build Back Better bill still had some hope of survival, Cecily Strong portrays a shy Sinema and asks, “What do I want from this bill? I’ll never tell!”
Thursday, it was not much more open. A spokesman for Sinema’s office said The Independent that the senator “reviews the text and must still review what emerges from the parliamentary process”.
The stakes are high. The bill Manchin and Schumer agreed to contains some $369 billion in energy security and climate spending over the next 10 years, making it “the biggest investment in climate solutions and environmental justice in the world.” history of the United States,” according to the former vice president and environmental activist. Al Gore.
It would also represent rare good news for Biden and the Democrats as they head into the midterms and into 2024. The President could claim a victory and deliver on his biggest campaign promise, which would help Democrats push back the fascist dystopia. what a second term would bring to Donald Trump.
All of the above hinges on the Senator from Arizona, or as she is now called: America’s Most Powerful Politician.
The Independent Gt