Sanders, exasperated with Manchin's demands, presses senator for specifics on Biden's domestic agend

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Washington Post

By Seung Min Kim

For some time, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has refused to discuss at length Sen. Joe Manchin III’s demands relating to President Biden’s proposed $3.5 trillion domestic spending package, appearing visibly annoyed as reporters peppered him with questions about the moderate Democratic senator’s conditions.

On Wednesday, the gloves came off.

Sanders, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee and leader of the progressive movement, took direct aim at Manchin’s statements and positions on the wide-ranging legislation that would invest in climate change, expand and shore up health-care programs, and overhaul the nation’s social safety net.

In particular, Sanders targeted Manchin’s view on the role that the government should play when it comes to health care, child care and other programs, criticizing the senator’s comments uttered hours earlier that he “did not believe that we should turn our society into an entitlement society.”



Sen. Bernie Sanders departs after a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on Oct. 6. (Win Mcnamee/Getty Images)

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-agenda-sanders-manchin-senate-democrats/2021/10/06/96fdee98-26e3-11ec-a6ad-9ee7deda7f34_story.html

[Mike Nelson]

1. I think...

... Biden should invite Sanders, Manchin, and the other leaders on each side... to the White House for meetings. They can meet until a deal is done. Their next media engagement should be "we have a deal." All this other stuff should stop.

[PSPS]

2. It's kind of like this

[CentralMass]

3. A few more quotes from Bernie.

"The time is long overdue for him (Manchin) to tell us with specificity — not generalities, but beyond generalities, with specificity — what he wants and what he does not want, and to explain that to the people of West Virginia and America.”

He later added that “it’s not good enough to be vague” and that a few outliers in the Democratic caucus should not have such power to sway what most Democratic lawmakers and what Biden want.

“I could, in five minutes, go to Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, and say, ‘Chuck, I can’t support this bill unless you have a Medicare-for-all provision.’ But I’m not going to do that,” Sanders said. “It is wrong and it is really not playing fair that one or two people think that they should be able to stop what 48 members of the Democratic caucus want, what the American people want, what the president of the United States wants.”

[Tom Rinaldo]

5. Must read for thoe who doubt Bernie being a team player n/t

[sakabatou]

4. That's what it feels like