Open wide and say, “ahhhh.”
With Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) refusing to back up the climate or tax provisions in President Biden’s latest budget reconciliation package, there isn’t much hope of it ever getting passed through the Senate. According to White House economic adviser Jared Bernstein per a recent episode of CNN’s “State of the Union”, Biden’s done waiting for Sen. Manchin to come around, and he’s ready to shove it down our throat anyway.
“I think the President is very much, and very compelled to get Congress to work with him on his climate agenda. He’s already taken unprecedented action, and I think this is important because if he can’t find a legislative path to clean energy, the urgency of the problem is so significant that, as he said on Friday, he will find an executive order and rule change path to get there.”
What Biden is failing to realize is that people are tired of how badly the “small” changes he’s already made are impacting them. The cost of everything is skyrocketing with this rampant inflation, the cost of fuel and energy bills are still hovering around all-time highs, and people are still out of work or underemployed in this economy. Many Americans are tired of it. If you talk to the liberal left, it’s either because of Trump or because we haven’t gone far enough with these radical new policies, so we are stuck in the growing pains phase.
Senator Manchin, on the other hand, not only gets it but he’s got anecdotes from people back in West Virginia. He goes back to those small towns, and he sees what is going on. He gets a feel for the situation, and he votes for what is best for his people. While he’s still a Democrat, he’s not as filthy politically as the rest of them. He takes what he does seriously, and wants what’s best for America; not leftist America.
Meanwhile, Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) went after Manchin as well while appearing on ABC News’ program “This Week.” Sanders’ attacks were very similar to the rhetoric he has become well known for along the campaign trail when he ran in the presidential primaries.
“The problem was that we continue to talk to Manchin like he was serious. He was not.” The hosts also asked Sanders about the climate agenda provisions in their bill. “It ain’t Democrats. It isn’t the President. It is the future of the planet… What this election must be about is whether or not we’re going to vote for candidates who are prepared to stand up for working people, stand up for the planet and have the courage to take on the billionaire class who dominates our economy and our political life.”
Given Biden’s recent trips to Saudi Arabia and his pitiful meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, it just played further into the idea of how bad things are. He went, met, and fist bumped the Crown Prince. Then, he comes back bragging about Saudi Arabia’s decision to up production by 50%, and since they are the tip of the OPEC spear, Biden’s people talk about it as if he got them to do something magnificent.
Problem is, oil is still sky high, as is gas. While the increase in Saudi production is helping to ease the market price somewhat, it’s not having the impact Biden’s people want to act like it is.
Rather, it’s dropping just enough to prove a few things. Mostly, it’s proving how much more we could do with more American drilled oil. It shows how much better off we could be if Biden would reverse his climate decisions on oil and energy production. He could focus on giving us reasons to want to switch to greener choices. That comes from one place: lower out-of-pocket costs.
