On Sunday, ABC’s This Week was caught off guard with the news that Democratic Senator Joe Manchin (WV) is a "firm no" on the passage of President Joe Biden’s "Build Back Better" bill.
During a panel discussion on the Biden Administration’s plummeting approval numbers, fill-in host and chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl was left to break the bad news to the left-leaning panel which consisted of the CEO of Democracy for America, Yvette Simpson, Politico Playbook co-author Rachael Bade, Washington Post Political Reporter Robert Costa, and the lone right-winger in Dispatch political analyst Sarah Isgur: "Some breaking news, Senator Manchin has just said that he is a firm no on this legislation."
In response to that devastating news for the leftists on the so-called “powerhouse roundtable,” at least one audible sigh can be heard. Though it is unclear who it originated from since the camera was on Karl.
After breaking the news, Karl turned to Bade first and recalled that she predicted it was "not a matter of if, but when this legislation passed. What do you think now?" Clearly exasperated, Rachel Bade responded to Karl by bemoaning, "I think it's time to reassess that prognosis. Clearly, they've got a big problem here on a number of issues."
Number one, they sort of lost their greatest forcing mechanism to get this done. That was the Christmas deadline that Chuck Schumer set out in Congress, you know, that if lawmakers want to get something done, you bump it up right up against the holidays, and often that sort of clears the deck and gets things through. Well, that didn't work. Neither did the expiration of the enhanced child tax credit going into an election year. Democrats sort of saw this as something they had to pass to extend that child tax credit to keep making sure American families get these payments in an election year when they're facing you know an uphill battle, and then Joe Manchin just saying he's a no on Build Back Better. I mean look, this is a guy who has a fundamental, ideological problem with spending $2 trillion at a time when we have a $30 trillion debt and inflation is at a 40, you know, year high. This is going to be a big problem for him. He has problems with the structure of the bill and I'm not sure it can pass the way it is right now.
"They might have to totally rework this thing, and we don't know what it's going to look like or when or if it's going to happen," she lamented. Bade also admitted “Democrats, they have a huge political problem here” because of their failure to deliver on their campaign promises. Noting that they have been “overselling.”
One can always tell someone’s true colors by seeing how they react to news when they’re hearing it for the first time. And one can tell the panel was caught flat-footed and were clearly distressed by the news that Joe Manchin had killed any remaining hopes Dems might have of passing "Build Back Better" this year.
This segment of leftist journalists sighing over Democratic Party policy failures was brought to you by Wayfair. Their information is linked so you can tell them about the biased news they fund.
Read the transcript of the segment by clicking "expand":
This Week With George Stephanopoulos
12/19/2021
9:17:27 AM
JONATHAN KARL: By the way, some breaking news, Senator Manchin has just said that he is a firm no on this legislation.
(audible sighs from panel)
KARL: So let me ask you, Rachel, and I don't want to put you on the spot, but you had been saying for some time you thought it was a not matter of if -- I mean, not a matter of if, but when this legislation passed. What do you think now?
RACHAEL BADE: Yeah. I mean I think it's time to reassess that prognosis. Clearly, they've got a big problem here on a number of issues. Number one, they sort of lost their greatest forcing mechanism to get this done. That was the Christmas deadline that Chuck Schumer set out in Congress, you know, that if lawmakers want to get something done, you bump it up right up against the holidays, and often that sort of clears the deck and gets things through. Well, that didn't work. Neither did the expiration of the enhanced child tax credit going into an election year. Democrats sort of saw this as something they had to pass to extend that child tax credit to keep making sure American families get these payments in an election year when they're facing you know an uphill battle, and then Joe Manchin just saying he's a no on Build Back Better. I mean look, this is a guy who has a fundamental, ideological problem with spending $2 trillion at a time when we have a $30 trillion debt and inflation is at a 40, you know, year high. This is going to be a big problem for him. He has problems with the structure of the bill and I'm not sure it can pass the way it is right now. They might have to totally rework this thing, and we don't know what it's going to look like or when or if it's going to happen.
(...)
9:20:47 AM
BADE: Democrats, they have a huge political problem here and that is they have been overselling or saying that they can pass this bill for a long time now. Education, healthcare, climate change, um and now Joe Manchin is saying he's not there. If he gets his way and sort of re-works this bill, we might actually see a bill that maybe does one of these things, but not, you know, all of these things, and Democrats have specifically structured this bill so that they would only fund these programs for a couple of years, but they could do everything they wanted. But he's saying he doesn't want to do that. He wants to pick maybe one or two, and that's gonna really cause a problem for the base. I mean Democrats have been telling their own base that they're gonna get this done, that could decrease voter turnout in an election year. When they’re already facing this uphill battle to keep the House and the Senate. They have a real problem.
