‘Why the US Senate Is So Broken’: Manchin Vow to Preserve Filibuster Imperils Voting Rights and Much More

‘Why the US Senate Is So Broken’: Manchin Vow to Preserve Filibuster Imperils Voting Rights and Much More

“Manchin represents a state that is 1/22 the population of California and 92% white, yet he can singlehandedly block policies supported by 70-80% of Americans.”

By Jake Johnson

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia late Wednesday reiterated his opposition to abolishing—or even weakening—the 60-vote legislative filibuster, a stance that could imperil his party’s hopes of passing popular legislation to protect voting rights, reform the inhumane U.S. immigration system, raise the federal minimum wage, and more.

In an op-ed for the Washington Post, Manchin described the archaic Senate rule as a “critical tool” to uphold “our democratic form of government” and declared that “there is no circumstance in which I will vote to eliminate or weaken the filibuster.”

“‘There is bipartisan support for voting reform,’ Manchin writes, as Republicans introduce 361 bills to restrict voting rights in 47 states.”
—Ari Berman, Mother Jones

Manchin’s characterization of the 60-vote threshold runs directly counter to the argument from progressives—and a growing number of conservative Democrats—that the rule threatens democracy by giving the minority party inordinate power to tank bills supported by a majority of members of Congress and broad swaths of the U.S. public.

In a narrowly divided Senate, the existence of the filibuster in its current form also gives lone senators like Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.)—another strident defender of the filibuster—significant leverage to influence legislation.

“Joe Manchin represents a state that is 1/22 the population of California and 92% white yet he can singlehandedly block policies supported by 70-80% of Americans,” noted Ari Berman of Mother Jones. “This is why the U.S. Senate is so broken.”

Manchin claimed in his op-ed that there is “bipartisan support” for many of the Democratic Party’s top priorities—including infrastructure investments and some of the voting rights reforms proposed in the For the People Act—and expressed skepticism about using the filibuster-proof reconciliation process to pass major spending bills without needing Republican support.

But Manchin did not specifically explain how Senate Democrats can convince at least 10 Republicans to support key legislation when they have vocally opposed even the most basic elements of President Joe Biden’s recently unveiled infrastructure package and dismissed the For the People Act as a “partisan power grab.”

“Manchin is setting himself up to be Mr. Gridlock,” said Adam Jentleson, a former Senate staffer and an outspoken advocate of filibuster reform. “He’s putting himself on the hook to deliver 10 GOP votes on everything. When he fails, as he will, he’ll be the one blocking broadly popular policies that improve people’s lives and which Dems must pass to hold the majority in 2022.”

Manchin’s op-ed came as House Democrats continue to voice frustration with the Senate filibuster, which has consigned many popular House-passed bills to an increasingly crowded legislative graveyard.

After the Senate parliamentarian ruled Monday that Democrats can pass additional spending bills this year through the filibuster-proof budget reconciliation process, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) tweeted that “this is a temporary fix to a systemic issue.”

“Enough with the procedural hurdles—just abolish the filibuster,” Khanna added, embracing a position backed by a growing number of Senate Democrats in recent weeks. Scrapping the filibuster would require the support of the entire Senate Democratic caucus plus a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Kamala Harris.

Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), the third-highest ranking House Democrat, lashed out at Manchin over his position on the filibuster and the For the People Act in an interview with HuffPost last week.

“I’m insulted when he tells me that it’s more important to maintain a relationship with the minority in the U.S. Senate than it is for you to maintain a relationship with the minority of voters in America,” Clyburn said. “That’s insulting to me.”

“Since when do [the minority party’s] rights take precedence over your fellow Democrat [Sen. Raphael] Warnock, who saw his state just pass laws to keep him from getting reelected?” Clyburn continued. “And you’re going to say it’s more important for you to protect 50 Republicans in the Senate than for you to protect your fellow Democrat’s seat in Georgia. That’s a bunch of crap.”

While Manchin has refused to waver in his opposition to eliminating the filibuster, he recently voiced support for reviving the talking filibuster. Such a change would represent a dramatic break from the current no-show filibuster, which allows senators to obstruct legislation by sending an email.

The West Virginia Democrat did not mention that potential reform in his new op-ed.

Ezra Levin, co-executive director of progressive advocacy group Indivisible, expressed hope Wednesday that despite his latest comments, Manchin can still be moved on the filibuster issue with sufficient organizing and pressure.

“Manchin is right that democracy reforms have broad bipartisan support. Just not in the Senate,” Levin said. “Ultimately there’s not much new in his op-ed—it’s all talk until the vote is called. Like all politicians, he’ll stick his finger in the wind, and it’s up to us to change the weather.”

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Source: ‘Why the US Senate Is So Broken’: Manchin Vow to Preserve Filibuster Imperils Voting Rights and Much More | Common Dreams News

Dozens of House Dems and Progressive Groups Push Biden to Curb Militarization of Police

Dozens of House Dems and Progressive Groups Push Biden to Curb Militarization of Police

“It is absurd that the Pentagon has so much funding they can send their ‘excess’ weaponry to police departments around the country. We need to demilitarize our police and defund the Pentagon now.”

By Kenny Stancil

Backed by more than 50 progressive groups, dozens of House Democrats are urging President Joe Biden to issue an executive order to prevent the transfer of military-grade weaponry from the Department of Defense to federal, tribal, state, and local police forces.

In a letter (pdf) sent to the White House on Tuesday afternoon, 29 lawmakers, led by Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), argue that taking executive action to reform the Pentagon’s 1033 program “is a reasonable step towards demilitarizing our police forces while preserving the safety of our communities.”

“Decades of militarization of our nation’s law enforcement have led to some police departments looking more like an occupying army than a community-based regulatory arm of state and local government,” the lawmakers wrote.

Stephen Semler, cofounder of the Security Policy Reform Institute, highlighted the scale of the “military-to-police pipeline” in a Jacobin article published Tuesday: “Nearly $34 million in military equipment was sent to police in the first quarter of this year, according to the Pentagon’s latest figures on the 1033 program. Since its inception in 1997, the program has been a conduit for at least $1.8 billion in combat gear shipments from the Department of Defense to U.S. law enforcement agencies.”

“Not surprisingly,” Semler added, “arming police to the teeth makes them more violent. Law enforcement agencies that get combat gear through the 1033 program tend to shoot and kill more people than ones that don’t.”

In their letter to Biden, the House Democrats noted that “the inappropriate use of such weapons is incentivized by a perverse requirement that to keep the equipment transferred under the 1033 program, the receiving agency must utilize it within one year or it must be returned to DOD.”

Referring to the crackdown on nationwide protests against police violence that erupted last year in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, the members of Congress wrote that “law enforcement’s response to the civil rights demonstrations last summer show irrefutable proof of our police forces’ increasing aggression and brutality—images of local police in military vehicles, with military-grade weaponry trained on citizens exercising their constitutional right to peacefully protest.”

“Our neighborhoods need to be protected, including from dangers posed by the militarization of police,” they added. “This reasonable step falls squarely within your executive authority.”

According to Semler:

Permanently abolishing this militarization pipeline requires an act of Congress. Specifically, legislation that strikes the authorizing statute for the program (10 U.S. Code § 2576a) would have to pass both chambers. But nothing is stopping President Biden from effectively shutting down the program right away. He could issue an executive order that not only halts 1033 transfers but also forces police to return past shipments, including the 335 helicopters, 1126 “MRAP” armored vehicles, 2,921 Humvees, and nearly 60,000 assault rifles currently loaned out by the Pentagon.

Biden was vice president the last time an executive order recalled military equipment obtained through the 1033 program from law enforcement agencies. By the time it was revoked by Trump, 126 tracked armored vehicles and 138 grenade launchers had been sent back from police to the Pentagon under Obama’s Executive Order 13688.

Emphasizing that Obama’s actions “stopped short of full reform,” the Democrats’ letter asks Biden to issue an executive order using the “same language” found in the Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act, a bill that Johnson introduced last month in the House.

While the legislation’s provisions to ban the flow of certain military equipment to law enforcment agencies have already passed the House as part of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, they now face an uphill battle in the Senate, which is why progressives are calling on Biden to incorporate the 1033-related changes into an executive order that can be invoked immediately.

Jodie Evans, cofounder of CodePink, a peace group that signed the letter, said in a statement that “curtailing the 1033 program is an important first step.”

But achieving racial justice, she said, requires “eliminating the 1033 program altogether” to protect the working-class communities of color that “bear the brunt of police brutality in this country.”

Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.), one of the letter’s signatories, “plans to introduce a bill next week that would completely repeal the 1033 program,” according to The Hill, which obtained a draft of the legislation.

The 1033 program “is just one example of the many ways that our bloated Pentagon budget does nothing to create real safety and security in our society,” said Carley Towne, co-director of CodePink and coordinator of its Defund the Pentagon campaign.

“It is absurd that the Pentagon has so much funding they can send their ‘excess’ weaponry to police departments around the country,” she added. “We need to demilitarize our police and defund the Pentagon now.”

Read the full letter here:

Dear President Biden,

We write to urge you to issue an executive order to direct the Department of Defense to effectuate the revisions to the “1033 program” found in my legislation, the Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act (H.R. 1694), introduced March 9, 2021 in the House of Representatives. My bill would codify commonsense reforms to prevent the transfer of certain excess Department of Defense (DOD) militarygrade weaponry to federal, tribal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. We believe that utilizing this same language in an executive order is a reasonable step towards demilitarizing our police forces while preserving the safety of our communities.

Decades of militarization of our nation’s law enforcement have led to some police departments looking more like an occupying army than a community-based regulatory arm of state and local government. To date, DOD has transferred more than $7.4 billion in excess military equipment to over 8,000 federal, tribal, state and local law enforcement agencies across the country. Law enforcement’s response to the civil rights demonstrations last summer show irrefutable proof of our police forces’ increasing aggression and brutality – images of local police in military vehicles, with military-grade weaponry trained on citizens exercising their constitutional right to peacefully protest.

Studies have shown that the presence of military hardware in untrained hands increases the likelihood of negative outcomes. When a law enforcement officer is armed with a military-style weapon, they are simply more likely to use it. The inappropriate use of such weapons is incentivized by a perverse requirement that to keep the equipment transferred under the 1033 program, the receiving agency must utilize it within one year or it must be returned to DOD. This militarization of our police departments inherently decreases the trust that is crucial to the successful and necessary relationship between these agencies and the communities they are sworn to protect and serve. This program instead blurs the line between local police and an occupying military force.

Although President Obama issued an executive order to limit the transfer of military weapons and equipment, it stopped short of full reform and was ultimately reversed by President Trump in 2017. We believe that the provisions of my bill, the Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act, in the form of an executive order is a necessary step to implement commonsense reforms to the 1033 program. Only you, Mr. President, have the power to make this change immediately.

The language in my legislation has already successfully passed the House as part of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act in the 116th and 117th Congresses. It would prevent the transfer of equipment contrary to the safety purposes of local policing, such as military weaponry, long-range acoustic devices, grenade launchers, weaponized drones, armored military vehicles, grenades and other explosives. It would also require recipients to certify that they can account for all military weapons and equipment. This bill would prohibit re-gifting from one agency to another and add much-needed requirements to enforce tracking mechanisms that control transfers of the equipment.

During your campaign, you reiterated your commitment to stopping the transfer of weapons of war to local police forces. My legislation not only fixes what is broken but does so without compromising the integrity of the parts of the program that provide integral office and safety equipment to law enforcement agencies.

Our neighborhoods need to be protected, including from dangers posed by the militarization of police. This reasonable step falls squarely within your executive authority as President of the United States. We urge you to exercise this power immediately and sign an executive order that outlines the above before another small town is transformed into a war zone with gifts of grenade launchers and armored military vehicles.

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Source: Dozens of House Dems and Progressive Groups Push Biden to Curb Militarization of Police | Common Dreams News

Manchin Under Fire for Threatening to Block Infrastructure Bill Over Corporate Tax Hike

Manchin Under Fire for Threatening to Block Infrastructure Bill Over Corporate Tax Hike

“I think we need a grassroots movement that makes it clear to Joe Manchin… that the progressive agenda is what the American people want,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders.

By Jake Johnson

Senate Democrats late Monday received a green light from the chamber’s parliamentarian to pass additional bills through the arcane budget reconciliation process this year, good news for the party’s efforts to approve a multi-trillion dollar infrastructure package in the face of unified Republican opposition.

But several conservatives in the Senate Democratic caucus, with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W-Va.) leading the pack, are threatening to stand in the way of the infrastructure proposal unless they get what they want—namely, a smaller tax hike on corporate America.

“‘Centrists’ always try to neuter whatever is offered just to show how tough they are and own the left. It’s all performative and devoid of any sort of principle.”
—Krystal Ball, HillTV

In an appearance on a local radio show Monday, Manchin said he and “six or seven other” Senate Democrats “feel very strongly” about reducing the corporate tax rate proposed in President Joe Biden’s opening infrastructure bid from 28% to 25%, up from the current rate of 21%.

With their razor-thin control of the chamber, Senate Democrats can’t afford to lose a single vote if they opt to push the infrastructure bill through the reconciliation process, which requires a mere simple majority to pass legislation.

“If I don’t vote to get on it, it’s not going anywhere. So we’re going to have some leverage here,” Manchin said Monday. Parroting right-wing talking points on the supposedly counterproductive effects of higher corporate taxes, the West Virginia Democrat added, “We have to be competitive and we’re not going to throw caution to the wind.”

Progressives were quick to slam Manchin’s opposition to the proposed 28% corporate tax rate as disingenuous, given his previous support for a 28% rate. Political commentator Mehdi Hasan mocked the notion that Manchin “has put some super serious thought into the difference between a 25% and 28% corporate tax rate and isn’t just trying to split the difference between GOP outlier position and reasonable Biden proposal.”

Krystal Ball, host of HillTV‘s “Rising,” added that “‘centrists’ always try to neuter whatever is offered just to show how tough they are and own the left. It’s all performative and devoid of any sort of principle.”

Speaking to the press Monday afternoon, Biden dismissed the notion that raising the corporate tax rate would harm the U.S. economy.

“There’s no evidence of that,” the president said. “You have 51 or 52 corporations of the Fortune 500 [that] haven’t paid a single penny in taxes for three years. Come on, man. Let’s get real.”

As The Daily Poster reported late Monday, “Manchin’s proposed change would have a huge impact on how the Biden infrastructure plan is paid for, while largely preserving a tax policy that is delivering a disproportionately huge windfall to a tiny handful of executives at major corporations.

“Manchin’s move could also particularly benefit private equity firms that have converted from partnership structures to C Corporations to take advantage of President Donald Trump’s tax law, which dropped the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent,” the outlet noted.

Manchin’s comments Monday came hours before the Senate parliamentarian—an unelected official tasked with interpreting and offering advice on the chamber’s rules—said Democrats can use the filibuster-proof budget reconciliation process to pass additional spending legislation this year, giving the party additional flexibility as it attempts to maneuver around intransigent Republicans without heeding progressive demands to eliminate the 60-vote filibuster.

A spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said late Monday that the parliamentarian’s advisory ruling “allows Democrats additional tools to improve the lives of Americans if Republican obstruction continues.”

“This is what the American people want right now. And our job is to rally the American people in every state in this country to make sure that the government starts working for the working class of this country, not just the 1%.”
—Sen. Bernie Sanders

“While no decisions have been made on a legislative path forward… and some parameters still need to be worked out,” the spokesperson continued, “the parliamentarian’s opinion is an important step forward that this key pathway is available to Democrats if needed.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chair of the Senate Budget Committee, called the parliamentarian’s ruling “important” and stressed the need for an ambitious bill that addresses the nation’s pressing needs, from climate to core infrastructure to healthcare.

“In other words, right now, what this new reconciliation package is about is dealing with long-term structural problems,” Sanders said. “Everybody knows our physical infrastructure is collapsing. We know we can create millions of jobs, transforming our energy system away from fossil fuel. But also we have got to deal with human infrastructure.”

Asked Sunday about Manchin’s opposition to key elements of Biden’s roughly $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, Sanders said “I think we need a grassroots movement that makes it clear to Joe Manchin and everybody else in the United States Senate, including the Republicans, that the progressive agenda is what the American people want.”

“They want to raise the minimum wage to 15 bucks an hour; they believe that healthcare is a human right, should be universal; they demand that the rich start paying their fair share of taxes,” the Vermont senator continued. “These are not my ideas, this is what the American people want right now. And our job is to rally the American people in every state in this country to make sure that the government starts working for the working class of this country, not just the 1%.”

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Source: Manchin Under Fire for Threatening to Block Infrastructure Bill Over Corporate Tax Hike | Common Dreams News