Sen. Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat who has emerged as a power center in the evenly divided Senate, made clear in an op-ed for The Washington Post Wednesday night that he opposes eliminating or weakening the filibuster and is concerned about the repeated use of a maneuver known as budget reconciliation as a way to pass legislation by simple majority.
Together, those comments could represent an obstacle for Democrats as they look to pass a massive infrastructure package that has yet to garner any Republican support.
“If the filibuster is eliminated or budget reconciliation becomes the norm, a new and dangerous precedent will be set to pass sweeping, partisan legislation that changes the direction of our nation every time there is a change in political control. The consequences will be profound — our nation may never see stable governing again,” Manchin wrote.
Senate Democrats passed a $1.9 trillion Covid rescue package via the reconciliation process and are looking at using the same maneuver to push through Biden’s infrastructure package without the threat of a Republican filibuster. Doing so, however, would require the support of all 50 Senate Democrats, given the unlikelihood of any Republican backing.
“I simply do not believe budget reconciliation should replace regular order in the Senate. How is that good for the future of this nation?” Manchin wrote. “Senate Democrats must avoid the temptation to abandon our Republican colleagues on important national issues. Republicans, however, have a responsibility to stop saying no, and participate in finding real compromise with Democrats.”
White House officials told CNN that they were not alarmed by Manchin's article and that they expect the infrastructure package will be subject to months of negotiations, including talks with Manchin. "There is a lot of conversation between not only Senator Manchin's office and the White House but members all across the Hill," White House communications director Kate Bedingfield told CNN.
Manchin may have just burst liberals’ hopes: “With just 15 words,” CNN’s Chris Cillizza writes, “Joe Manchin ended the possibility that Joe Biden's first term would live up to the hopes that liberals had for it on everything from gun control to voting rights to even, possibly, the size and scope of the President's $2 trillion infrastructure bill.”
Manchin’s yearning for “a new era of bipartisanship,” the Post’s Paul Waldman writes, “is kind of like me saying, ‘The time has come to make me the starting point guard for the Washington Wizards, where I’ll average 35 points and 15 assists per game.’ I might like that to happen, but there are some pretty good reasons it won’t.” But given the current state of political debate around the filibuster and budget reconciliation, Waldman says, the outlook for the next couple of years of legislating boils down to this: “Either Joe Manchin gets to decide what bills pass, or Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) does.”
