Joe Manchin’s a big hero of the Democratic party right now, but only because for a long time he wasn’t. He may have helped get a light version of President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” passed through Congress. But for ages, the West Virginia senator has been one of the thorns in his party’s side, being one of the only lawmakers holding up legislation that could help turn Biden’s agenda into a reality. The other is Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema, and together the two have been seen as a kind of anti-dynamic duo. But now that one of them has flip-flopped and helped their own party, the pair seem to be at odds.
As per NBC News, Manchin threw some shade Sinema’s way during a roundtable in his home state. He was talking about the newly enacted Inflation Reduction Act, the most sweeping legislation passed during the Biden era. Among other benefits, it allows Medicare for the first time to negotiate prices with pharmaceutical companies. Still, the bill could have been even better, and there was someone, he said, who put the kibosh on that.
“We had a senator from Arizona who basically didn’t let us go as far as we needed to go with our negotiations and made us wait two years,” Manchin said in a video of the event that was viewed by NBC News. “Those type of things — I don’t question anybody, everyone’s responding to their own constituent base. But we did get something. And it’s the first time we made a positive move in that.”
And which Arizona senator was this? It couldn’t be Mark Kelly, a Democrat who was always a bully for the bill. That leaves Sinema, who predictably kept her decision on how she would vote on the bill in the dark until the last minute. (She quietly voted yes.) Whereas Manchin is enjoying newfound love from Democrats — a big 180 from only a few weeks prior — Sinema’s popularity remains in the gutter.
(Via NBC News)