Showing posts with label Joe Manchin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joe Manchin. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 22, 2021

UPDATE: Joe Manchin: LIAR...HYPOCRITE...DESERTER...CORRUPTER

 

LATEST: Manchin received 36 donations from corporations in the last two months after announcing he would not support Build Back Better, and raised close to $260,000 in that time period.

Joe Manchin, the Senator from West Virginia is all of those and more, looking more like Donald Trump every day. Taking them one by one, LIAR: He told Pres. Biden he would back the Build Back Better bill, then backed out. On Fox News. HYPOCRITE: Acting like a Democrat, voting like a Republican. DESERTER; from the Democratic Party, most of all his constituents at home. CORRUPTER: Shares this with daughter, Heather Bresch

On Sunday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki issued a statement re. Manchin's bail out on the bill designed to benefit Americans in a number of ways, one of the most important decreasing the cost of your medical prescriptions. Of course Manchin would oppose this because of the fiasco with his daughter's pharmaceutical company, Mylan, Inc. which donated at least $200,000 to her father's campaign during five election cycles. Here's the scenario...

"Manchin’s daughter, Heather Bresch, was the president and chief executive officer of Mylan Inc., a pharmaceutical company that specialized in generic drugs. The company raised the price of a two-pack of EpiPen from around $124 dollars in 2009 to $609 in 2016. Bresch left the company in 2020 after Mylan merged with Upjohn, Pfizer’s generic division, in November 2020, to form Viatris Inc. Bresch began working at the company in 1992, and became CEO in 2012."

I did a post back in June asking the question, "Is Joe Manchin a Senate plant

serving Chas. Koch's conservative group?" The answer, an unequivocal YES! The White House is bending over backwards to work with Manchin, a Democrat that should understand the value of Build Back Better to the American public, particularly West Virginia needy. Apparently he doesn't, prompting this from Jen Psaki...

"In the meantime, Senator Manchin will have to explain to those families paying $1,000 a month for insulin why they need to keep paying that, instead of $35 for that vital medicine. He will have to explain to the nearly two million women who would get the affordable day care they need to return to work why he opposes a plan to get them the help they need. Maybe Senator Manchin can explain to the millions of children who have been lifted out of poverty, in part due to the Child Tax Credit, why he wants to end a program that is helping achieve this milestone—we cannot."

The fact is, he doesn't care about his constituents, or he would be supporting BBB. West Virginians are desperately in need of what this bill offers. Let's take a look: $400B Pre-school for all 3 and 4-year olds; $200B Child tax credits; $200B 4 weeks of paid family and medical leave; $165 billion on healthcare spending;  $150 billion to expand affordable home care; $150 billion for affordable housing; $555 billion to fight climate change.

Yes, a lot of money, but is there anything you see in the above that is not justified by the needs in this country? And how is it paid for...

"Democrats say the spending package will be paid for by tax increases on high earners and corporations, but the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found on Thursday that this will only raise around $1.5 trillion over 10 years—just short of the $1.75 trillion in 10-year spending.

"The CBO findings are at odds with the White House’s pledge to fully pay for the Build Back Better bill, which is now expected to increase the federal budget deficit by $160 billion over the next 10 years."

 A pathetic Joe Manchin Says He Won’t Vote For Biden’s Build Back Better Bill...


Like White House Press Sec. Jen Psaki asks in her statement, how will Joe Manchin explain to his West Virginia constituents that he voted down these benefits: child welfare, medical leave and healthcare spending, affordable home care and housing, and a fight against climate change that could save even more lives. The answer, another resounding YES, Democrats are spending but on the right things that will help homelessness, those in poverty and a general shot to the economy.

Contrary to what Manchin says, some aspects of BBB could counter current inflation as reported by NBC...

"The White House and Democratic leaders have rebranded the legislation as an antidote to widespread price hikes, arguing that it would lower the cost of prescription drugs, childcare and overall expenses related to raising families."

 Republicans are harping on increased inflation and consumer prices did jump 6.2% last month. Biden and Chair of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, as well as Treasury Sec. Janet Yellen, are working on the problem. But thanks to the fact that Joe Manchin blew off the Build Back Better bill, Goldman Sachs has issued a gloomy prediction for the economy. Surprise. It always seems to be traced back to the blockhead senator from West Virginia.

And, because of the latter, Manchin has the country on edge, allowing Republicans to plunder our democracy. It is so fragile that this kind of chaos, added to the Covid-19 pandemic, could soon bring on a GOP autocracy, all thanks to Joe Manchin and cohort Krysten Sinema.

More Joe Manchin below...

WATCH Bernie Sanders put Manchin in his place.

WaPo's Jennifer Rubin's take on Joe Manchin.

Manchin bottom feeder ‘refused’ a call from W.H. before killing BBB

Coal miners want Joe Manchin to reverse opposition to Build Back Better

Friday, November 5, 2021

JOE BIDEN Will Not Let REPUBLICANS Destroy Our Democracy

 

Since Donald Trump's 2016 election, the left has been wading through a cesspool of GOP anti-democracy, designed to tear this country apart and inaugurate an autocratic government. When you mix that with the radical right's willingness to use racism to fight it battles, like in the recent Virginia gubernatorial election where Salon said voters were "drunk on racist hysterics..."

Democrats are in the fight for their life and the life of this country to protect the democracy of America. They are doing it sophmorically and need a dose of the book, It's Time to Fight Dirty: How Democrats Can Build a Lasting Majority in American Politics by David Faris and Mike Chamberlain, et al. Here's some of its description...
"The American electoral system is clearly falling apart - as evidenced by the 2016 presidential election. In It's Time to Fight Dirty, David Faris offers accessible, actionable strategies for American institutional reform which don't require a constitutional amendment, and would have a lasting impact on our future."

Well, okay, maybe we don't actually have to get down and dirty, but we can no longer allow the radical right to run rampant over all the left stands for. Jennifer Rubin, in the first paragraph of a Washington Post opinion piece says...

"President Biden is on the verge of accomplishing more in his first year than any president in recent memory despite unremitting obstruction from an unhinged opposition."

Yet his poll numbers are plunging and now the Dems suffered a big loss in the

recent Virginia gubernatorial election, both added to the fact that Biden has to fight with his own people, fellow Democrats West Va. Sen. Joe Manchin and Arizona Sen. Krysten Sinema. Both have fought him, repeatedly challenging his agenda. In most cases, neither makes sense with their objections, considering they are both supposed to be Democrats.

President Joe Biden's accomplishments in less than a year, as documented by Rubin:

  • Biden’s watch has created nearly 5 million new jobs, reducing unemployment to 4.8 percent.
  • Despite the right wing’s effort to spread deadly disinformation about vaccinations, 80 percent of American adults — including 98 percent of those older than 65 — have had a least one coronavirus vaccination. Among those age 12 and older, 78 percent have had at least one shot.
  • Biden passed $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan (including a major increase in the child tax credit that reduced child poverty in half).
  • Set to pass both a $1.2 trillion infrastructure plan and a $1.75 trillion package including investments in green energy, universal prekindergarten, a generous child-care subsidy, improved senior care, expansion of Affordable Care Act subsidies, an extension of refundable child tax credits, a significant housing investment, hearing benefits for Medicare and possibly even a prescription drug cost reduction for patients on Medicare.

So why are Biden’s poll numbers down? The cesspool of Republican anti-democracy I cited earlier continues at a frightening pace that would tend to overshadow almost any opposing efforts. Especially when most of the big mouths leading the radical right are in the lunatic fringe. People like Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert, to name only a few. But this lunatic fringe must have its followers and there are many.

Dan Rather, in the Huff Post, "blasted the anti-Joe Biden chant “Let’s go Brandon” as a sign of the Republican Party’s contempt for democracy." In case you haven't heard...
The phrase has become popular in right-wing circles since a sportscaster, interviewing NASCAR Xfinity driver Brandon Brown at a race, mistook a chant of “Fuck Joe Biden” for “Let’s go Brandon.”

It is this kind of mentality that is driving the GOP in its quest to replace democracy with their imperious style of government that allows their primal instincts to have everything their way. We mustn't let this happen and Joe Biden is the man who can stop these would be despots. 




















Friday, October 22, 2021

MANCHIN daughter HEATHER BRESCH totally corrupt as father

 


My blog post yesterday portrays a U.S. Senator, Joe Manchin from West Virginia, as the heartless lowlife he is for gutting Joe Biden's Child Tax Credit Program which critically affects the children and families at the poverty level in his state. There are a lot of them but the murky Manchin has chosen to favor his fossil fuel friends and donors and let his constituents suffer. I titled the post, "JOE MANCHIN Throws West Virginia Children UNDER THE BUS," 

If you go there you will see some of the most distressing figures you'll find on child poverty in this country. Yet, Joe Manchin continues to oppose everything in Joe Biden's agenda that is designed to help these Americans. Like the Infrastructure bill, which is a bit hefty and Pres. Biden is now negotiating, but with Manchin still holding a heavy hand. This is not what the left is all about and, apparently, Manchin just recently indicated a possible exit from the Democrats. GOOD!

And here is something even more ludicrous, Manchin's daughter is just as bad with this headline in Jacobin Mag: "Meet Joe Manchin’s Appalling Daughter." Apparently the fruit falls right under the tree in the case of this family...
"As if his own record weren’t bad enough, former coal baron and current West Virginia senator Joe Manchin’s daughter Heather Bresch — who doubles as a major donor to Joe — is a price-gouging drug profiteer who has played a central role in her father’s destructive political career." 

Bresch has a record of success, but, then, so does her father, and look at what he has become. Liza Featherstone, author of this article in Jacobin, adds, "Bresch has had a remarkably horrible impact on society, even by the usual standards of American capitalists." Here's more...

"In the case of West Virginia senator Joe Manchin, however, his daughter’s former job — she was president, top lobbyist, and CEO of Mylan, a drug company — represents such a massive conflict of interest, with implications for policy that are shocking and disqualifying even by normal Washington, DC, standards. She’s not only the senator’s daughter, she’s a major donor."

Watch damning evidence against Joe Manchin’s daughter Heather Bresch...


 You may not agree with the politics of Jacobin, but you cannot deny the truth. The time has come to start identifying these threats to our democracy, and its sources like Jacobin that aren't afraid to publish the facts. All I can say is 'Give us more!' 






Thursday, October 21, 2021

JOE MANCHIN Throws West Virginia Children UNDER THE BUS

 

According to a West Virginia state site, there are 14,104 adults and children receiving welfare, 137,000 children receiving food stamps. The child poverty rate is 25%, compared to the overall rate of 16% in the United States. There are 4,200 families receiving childcare subsidies, and 213,023, the number of children enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP.

Yet, Joe Manchin wants to cut back drastically on Joe Biden's Child Tax Credit program.

Visit one of the poorest places in America...in West Virginia, of course...


Why do the voters of West Virginia continue to elect this demagogue
when it is clear that he doesn't give a damn about his constituents, rather seeks out the power to help his big donors like the Chas. Koch gang?

Wednesday, October 20, 2021

KYRSTEN SINEMA should go to the Republicans with Joe Manchin

 

Arizona Sen. Kyrsten [the enema] Sinema continues to string along with West Virginia's coal king and Chas. Koch's pocket change, Joe Manchin, to block Pres. Biden’s Build Back Better agenda. Sinema's crusade to try and establish herself as the destroyer of everything Democrat is succeeding as she continues to alienate her base in Arizona. But a liberal polling group, Data For Progress, this month published the following report...
The survey of likely voters for her 2024 Democratic Senate primary showed just 25 percent approval for Sinema's performance in office, as opposed to 85 percent for Arizona's other Democratic senator, Mark Kelly, and President Biden himself. Tellingly, she trailed all four of her hypothetical primary opponents by 29 points or more.

In addition to drinking wine, her other pastime is running, and politically speaking, at this particular time she is headed in the wrong direction. The mock Senator has missed appointments and important meetings for congressional legislation and just recently held her own fundraising get together with industry groups opposed to Biden’s agenda. She might as well have given the President the finger. Sinema loves big pharma, possibly blocking Biden's drug pricing legislation...

Politico and The Daily Poster report that Sinema raised over $1.1 million between July and September, with 90% of the campaign donations coming from outside Arizona. At least $100,000 of those contributions came from individuals or entities linked to the pharmaceutical and financial services industries.

Judy Woodruff at PBS talks to Manchin and Sinema...


Even the Koch gang has recently stepped in to rave about her opposition to taxing the rich, which Chas. Koch definitely is. She's also against increasing taxes on large corporations which is holding up her party's budget reconciliation package. It's hard to find anything Sinema is for on the left side of the aisle, which is prompting calls for the Senate's latest egoist to step across to the other side of the aisle. Might as well considering her voting record.

It has been said that Kyrsten Sinema is attempting to mimick John McCain in his position of maverick Senator. This new kid on the block should realize she comes nowhere close to McCain in any political way I can ascertain. I voted for her, simply because she is a Democrat, or, at least I thought so. Her politics were questionable but we thought she would grow into the job. She didnt! Now it is definitely time to dump this liability as soon as possible.

Wednesday, September 22, 2021

UPDATE...AZ Sen. Kyrsten Sinema takes Pharma $ then nixes Biden Prescription Plan...UPDATE

 

UPDATE: Increased amount AZ Sen. Kyrsten Sinema took from pharmaceutical and medical device industries is more than $750,000 in donations.  READ MORE

She's against Biden's $3.5 trillion infrastructure Bill, for the filibuster and against $15.00 minimum wage, as well as recently opposing Pres. Biden's Prescription plan to negotiate Medicare drug prices. AZ Sen. Kyrsten Sinema has taken all these positions in defiance of issues that are basic to Joe Biden's agenda. Okay, maybe the $3.5 T is negotiable but not the rest. As an added fact, in the last couple of years Sinema received $358,452 in donation from the pharmaceutical industry.

Kyrsten Sinema loves filibuster...

That's a major amount and her fight for Pharma coincides with West Va. Sen. Joe Machin who is in the pockets of fossil fuels giant Chas. Koch. She has even talked directly to Biden...

"Sinema met with President Joe Biden on Sept. 15 to discuss the social spending package, in which party leaders hope to include the Medicare prescription drug pricing proposal. Sinema has made her resistance to the current House prescription drug negotiation proposal clear to the White House, according to one of the sources, but it’s unclear if she’s completely immovable."

Joe Manchin has called for a pause in the Infrastructure Bill, vigorously opposed by AOC and her people. On the other hand, some Democrats disagree...

"Some in the party have called the bills even more necessary as parts of the country are ravaged by wildfires or affected by flooding."

The left is known for its spending, mostly in needy projects, where Republicans resist to the extent of putting the country in jeopardy. Like right now as Moscow Mitch is refusing to increase the debt limit. This could mean the U.S. goes into default and financial markets experience turbulence. We are certainly not in normal times, especially considering the Covid-19 pandemic, thus, the need for extra revenue. 

Sinema votes against $15.00 minimum wage...


And Republicans also must face up to the fact that many of the problems America faces today were caused by one of their own, the former White House maniac, Donald Trump. The fact that the right seems to be doing absolutely nothing about Trump's current bizarre antics is further burden in getting our nation back in order. It's bad enough when you have to deal with an unreasonable opponent, but when you have to fight with fellow party members it becomes absurd.

Sinema does have company within the party, and this does raise questions re. the amount of the Infrastructure Bill. Sen. Bernie Sanders wants the full amount, and he believes even more is needed. I am still a loyal supporter of the Bern, but at the
same time wonder if there are parts of the legislation negotiable that would appease the standoff Democrats...
"Congressional Democrats warred with each other on Tuesday over the price tag and policy scope of their roughly $4 trillion economic agenda, raising the potential for a stunning, self-inflicted defeat as the House prepares to vote on one of the measures next week."

It is beyond me how anyone in Congress could oppose Medicare's negotiation for the price of drugs for their constituents. Canada regulates their drug prices and they are 50% to 80% lower than in the U.S. Okay, we've known for years donations buy the votes of Congress. In the beginning, Big Pharma thought they had a friend in the junior Senator Kyrsten Sinema. Now the senior Senator of Arizona, they were definitely right. 

Monday, September 20, 2021

Republicans accept global warming - Paul Krugman proves them wrong

 

The GOP calls the obvious threat of global warming "fake news," a hoax. Paul Krugman explains the Republican strategy of picking their denial, based on the issue. Krugman says...
"That’s what we’re seeing now, as conservatives argue against the Biden administration’s push for climate-friendly public investment. As it happens, this push is taking place against a background of unprecedented heat waves, huge forest fires, severe drought in some places and catastrophic flooding in others — phenomena that scientists have long warned would become more common as the planet gets hotter."

In some cases the GOP is backing off slightly from its denials...

"Senator James Inhofe, the author of 2012’s “The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future,” is now claiming that he never called climate change a hoax."

 In a recent post, this headline from Business-Insider, "The companies polluting the

planet have spent millions to make you think carpooling and recycling will save us." My comment was that Chas. Koch, one of America's most profound polluters, was no doubt standing in the front to donate from his ill-gotten gains. As always, supporting Koch to the hilt was the Senate's great protector of slimeballs like Koch, traitor emeritus, Joe Manchin.

Here's a video from seven years ago [still appropriate] featuring Richard Branson taking Chas. Koch to task saying he just "isn't listening" when it comes to global warming...



In closing, Paul Krugman is pessimistic, professing...
"If experience is any guide, this new willingness to accept the reality of global warming won’t last; the next time America has a cold snap, the usual suspects will go right back to denying climate change and attacking scientists."

America must remember that it is clearly Republicans that are leading our country to this catastrophe! 



Thursday, June 10, 2021

Is Joe Manchin a Senate plant serving Chas. Koch's conservative group?

 

Joe Manchin is naive, possibly, but is there another underlying reason he is opposing President Biden's flagship programs like eliminating the filibuster or the For the People Act? The former will eliminate the possibility of Republicans halting future Biden legislation without a hearing. The latter is an Act to expand Americans' access to the ballot box, in effect, a means to quell the GOP's continuing attempts to block certain voters with state laws.


And who has regularly fought this legislation with PACs like Americans for Prosperity? Here's a quote from a March press release from AFP urging Manchin to work with the organization's grassroots: 

"Sen. Manchin has promised to prioritize policies that work for the Mountain State and push back against harmful, partisan policy coming from Washington that threaten shared West Virginia values. AFP-WV’s new effort encourages Sen. Manchin to keep that promise through digital and radio advertising and its signature grassroots activism."

The West Virginia Senator has done that by dooming the filibuster and For the People Act with his promise of no votes. Here's a statement from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., she...

"suggested that Manchin's opposition to the proposal and filibuster reform may really be about measures in the bill aimed at cracking down on lobbyists and dark money."

Most anyone in politics knows the king of dark money is Charles Koch who, by the way, is the founder of Americans for Prosperity. Joe Manchin is a lost cause to Democrats.

 

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