Democrats Agree To Let Joe Manchin Keep Destroying Their Agenda

Senate Democrats might be openly fretting about how to handle Joe Manchin, but at the end of the day they've decided they aren't actually going to do anything about him tanking their agenda. They claim that punishing Manchin could end up costing them even more in the future - like a forthcoming reconciliation bill that they need him to support - but there is no guarantee that he'll even be with them on that. The Party has now shown their hand, which gives all the power to Manchin, as Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains.

Subscribe to our podcast

Become a member today!

Support us by becoming a monthly patron on Patreon, and help keep progressive media alive!

Find our merchandise at Teespring

Spread the word! LIKE and SHARE this video or leave a comment to help direct attention to the stories that matter. And SUBSCRIBE to stay connected with Ring of Fire's video content!

Support Ring of Fire by subscribing to our YouTube channel

Be sociable! Follow us on:

*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

Well, here's some terrible news for everybody. It seems that Democrats in the Senate, even though a lot of them would like to punish Joe mansion for tanking president Biden's agenda, they just, according to a recent article from the hill have no appetite to do so. And part of the reason for that of course is because they say, well, we still need Joe mansion. If we don't have Joe mansion, we don't have 50 Democrats. And therefore the Republicans basically win, which is a very stupid argument because you already don't have Joe mansion. So Republicans are already winning. So I don't exactly follow your logic there because Joe mansion is already basically a Republican, but they say we need 'em in the immediate future, right? Because we're working on this Le uh, reconciliation bill that would allow for Medicare to negotiate drug prices on some drugs, not all drugs, just some of them, right.

A, a pre-selected list of drugs and insulin by the way is not even on there. So it's good that you can bring down the price of some of the drugs, but it's not good enough, but at the same time, yeah, you cannot pass that at all. If you do not have Joe mansion, they also worry about Joe mansion being up for reelection in 2024. And what if that seat goes to a Republican, oh, dear owe me. And to that, I say it wouldn't change a thing. See, this is the problem with the democratic party. You know, we have too many people there who are like, oh, I, I I'd love to do something to you. I'd love to just sock you right in the mouth. But you know, I still want to go to dinner with you later. So I'm not gonna do it.

If you want Joe mansion to get in line. If you want Joe mansion to start at least taking it seriously, you have to threaten him and you threaten him by saying, listen, Joe, I get it right. You wanna be more moderate because you think that's what your constituents need. And sure. You're the fifth most popular Senator in the United States, in your home, uh, uh, state. And that's something I think the, uh, more progressive folks need to understand. We hate Joe mansion. His voters do not. They like him again. He has the fifth highest approval rating in their home state for a sitting us Senator, but who has the highest? Oh, that's right. Bernie Sanders. Yeah. Progressive democratic socialist. Bernie Sanders is far more popular than anyone else in the Senate could ever hope to be. And that's why we need to pressure Joe mansion, to be more like Bernie and less like McConnell. But you do that by going up to him and saying again, listen, I get it. I get it. Your voters, like you, you're probably not in any real danger, but let me tell you something. You know how you like your leadership positions here in the

Senate? What if those disappeared tomorrow? Because I can make that happen. Not me personally. I'm, you know, Chuck Schumer, we can, we can strip you of everything. We can actually just straight up, remove you from committees. You have no power at all. How are your voters gonna react to that? So you can either fall in line, help us pass this agenda. Or you can go back to being a, nobody from Nowheresville that nobody cares about and lose your election in 2024, it's not gonna hurt us because you're already siding with the Republicans on everything. Anyway, the choice is yours, Joe.