(ThyBlackMan.com) Opposition and disparities in politics are commonplace. In a country as diverse and divergent as the United States, everyone holds different beliefs, views, and opinions on any subject matter in existence, and the same applies in the political scene. However, the last thing any incumbent president would ever expect in his tenure is internal opposition from members of his own party. This is exactly what President Joe Biden has found himself playing against barely a year into his tenure as the 46th president of the United States.
Standing in Biden’s way are two members of his party, Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin. With a Senate that has been equally divided between the Democrats and the Republicans, these two senators have made themselves a roadblock in the President’s path towards enacting social reforms by refusing to vote on the bill of Biden’s reforms that he had promised in order to win the seat of power in which he is presently installed.
Kyrsten Lea Sinema is an American politician, former social worker, and lawyer, currently serving as the senior United States Senator from Arizona. Notably, during Republican president, Donald Trump’s term of office, she voted in agreement with him 50.4% of the time, and she ranks third-highest in the historical record of Democratic senators that have supported Republican presidents this way.
Joseph Manchin III is an American politician and businessman currently serving as the senior United States senator from West Virginia, a seat he has held since 2010. The former Governor of West Virginia is currently one of the most influential members of his party with an eccentric history of support and opposition in Congress. While he often opposed President Obama’s reforms such as the former president’s energy policies including the restrictions and reductions on coal mining (it is not a coincidence that his son owns a coal brokerage company and he owns $1 million of its shares), Manchin has also been observed to repeatedly vote against attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). And while he constantly voted in agreement with Trump during his tenure (for instance, Manchin supported Trump’s immigration policies), he was also noted to have voted to convict President Trump in both of his impeachment trials.
Both Sinema and Manchin are members of the Democratic Party and also both identify as “conservative Democrats”—a sect of the Democratic Party that possesses conservative political views, or views that are comparatively more conservative than those held by other members of the Democratic Party. Manchin has frequently been identified as the most conservative Democrat in the Senate. He has displayed relentless opposition against policy proposals from the progressive or left wing of the Democratic Party, including “Medicare for All”, eliminating the filibuster, increasing the number of justices on the Supreme Court, increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, and attempts to defund the police. He has also continuously called for the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan and opposed most military interventions in Syria. He and Sinema have now set themselves up as barricades in the way of President Biden’s Build Back Better framework.
Still, Manchin continues to maintain that he is not against Biden’s wish to enact social reforms. President Joe Biden has collated his reforms into the Build Back Better bill, the framework of which is designed to facilitate the empowerment of middle-class American families through huge investments in infrastructure, investments in child care for preschool children below the age of 4, expanding access to high-quality home care for older Americans and people with disabilities, increased efforts in combating climate change, extension of affordable healthcare to more American citizens, and significant endeavors to improve the affordability and quality of life, specifically among the middle class.
Biden is looking forward to advancing these reforms as soon as possible, so that America can commence its healing process against the damage that was done right up to the January 6th attack on the Capitol by Trump’s supporters. However, Senator Manchin has expressed he does not approve of the $3.5 trillion initial cost of these reforms. He has indicated reluctantly that he would be more comfortable with sanctioning a $1.5 trillion budget, and therefore, in September, urged his fellow party members to pause on the vote for more negotiation to be conducted. But unlike Manchin, Sinema has not specified publicly what aspect of the $3.5 trillion bill she is objected to.
The pair are essentially selfishly obstructing the President from doing what needs to get done urgently. These were the very issues he campaigned on. Real people are facing real challenges in the United States and their willfulness and inflexibility in a bid to promote centrist politics substantiate a lack of care for the plight of “everyday people” in the words of R & B icon Sly Stone.
It comes as no surprise that the progressive wing of the Democratic Party is in full support of Biden’s agenda and is now locked in a frustrating stalemate with these two right-wing senators over the price tag of Biden’s reforms. Everyone is waiting for Sinema and Manchin to get on board so that things can get done. Over time, this can dish a hard blow to Biden’s legacy, and the gag…? It won’t even be a blow coming from the opposition party but from Biden’s own political faction.
Already, it has been disclosed that decisions have been made to cut in half the Build Back Better budget from $3.5 trillion to $1.75 trillion. As a result, several initiatives have been dropped off the list, including plans for paid family leave, lower drug prices for the elderly, and tuition-free community colleges. In the face of this impediment, Biden has maintained a bold visage, and according to The Guardian, stated in an address from the White House, “No one got everything they wanted, including me, but that’s what compromise is. That’s consensus. And that’s what I ran on. I’ve long said compromise and consensus are the only way to get big things done in a democracy, important things for the country.”
While the President upholds that his reforms still stand for the largest investments ever made in climate change and grand developments in the nation’s healthcare system, it has been revealed through public opinion polls that many of the policies that were axed off after the budget cuts were highly popular amongst the American people, from all political stripes; not just liberals with bleeding hearts! This writer found particularly interesting the prospect of paid leave for new mothers and medical leave for sick workers. The two senators have successfully compelled the presidency and their progressive counterparts into bending to their self-seeking desires, and are effectively reducing the chances of their party to be able to hold on to the majority in Congress at the midterm elections next year. The political savvy of people of color was quite instrumental in bringing this about. Let’s take it seriously!
With the American Senate already divided, and the Republicans already an antagonistic block on their own, Sinema and Manchin and their unpredictable voting patterns have come to hold the fate of Biden’s presidency in their hands. However, for Joe Biden’s agenda to move along, the Arizona and West Virginia senators must stop solely working towards their selfish interests and get on board for the success of Americas agenda!
Staff Writer; Stanley G. Buford
Feel free to connect with this brother via Twitter; Stanley G. and also facebook; http://www.facebook.com/sgbuford.