We finally have a little bit more
insight into what Senator Joe
Manchin wants in the reconciliation
bill, basically nothing.
Or at the very least, he'd be
satisfied with nothing and that's
not just me reading his behavior,
his whole total vibe, and all that.
This is what he
is saying to other senators.
So he and Bernie Sanders apparently
squabbled behind closed doors
on Wednesday, with Manchin using
a raised-fist goose egg
to tell his colleague he can live
without any of President Biden's
social spending plan.
And we're finding this out because
other senators were there too,
Jon Tester, Chris Coons.
So Tester said Joe said,
I'm comfortable with nothing,
while Bernie said we need to do
three-and-a-half trillion dollars.
The truth is both of them are in
different spots, said Tester.
Thank you, Senator Tester,
we had not known that in detail
over the past few months.
But apparently, yeah, Manchin said,
I'm comfortable with zero and
did the old goose egg.
The great thing about that is
that Joe Manchin is free to just
say that behind the closed doors.
He can cut the programs, but
he never has to go across
West Virginia stopping at the homes
of people struggling in a variety
of ways.
It's a place of great poverty and
tell them all I'm happy if you get
zero, door to door zero,
that would be fine with me.
And so look,
we've known that he has problems
with a lot of these programs and
we're going to run through a bit of
the specifics of what he wants cut.
But I just love the call that,
yeah, he is comfortable with zero,
he doesn't need it.
He is literally a millionaire,
Nina Turner.
>> John, I mean, he is set for
the rest of his natural life and
so are his children and most likely
his children's children and
children's children.
This is just fragrant indifference,
just straight out indifference to
the suffering of people in
this country, even especially in
his own district.
As you know, the state of West
Virginia is the sixth poorest state
in the United States of America,
lots of poverty there, struggle.
And we know at one point,
the coal miners were striking, they
may still be striking right now.
But a lot of needs are there,
so he can just have this cavalier
attitude about the social programs
that The President is trying to
push, because it's no skin off his
nose, so to speak.
Yeah, Francesca?
>> Yeah, I mean, this is his heart.
This is his empty little heart.
That's what the goose egg is.
It is like, nothing there, like so
many Republican senators, right,
except he's a Democrat.
And this is what Democrats,
and actually,
this is what conservatives, whether
it's a conservative Democrat or
it's a conservative Republican
hold over progressives and
other Democrats who actually care.
And independents who actually care,
every single time which is,
we could also do nothing.
[LAUGH] How about that?
How about everyone dies and starves
instead of just a few people?
And so then progressives are sort
of crawling back to the table and
the negotiating table like
Bernie Sanders is,
he can't walk away, right?
Because Sanders actually has
a moral compass, right?
And he's one of the few senators
holding it, it's very shaky.
Everyone wants to pry your soul
from your hand in the Senate.
And it's hard or
super easy if you just don't take
a bunch of corporate money, and
have actual principles.
>> Yeah, yeah, although we should
put out with Manchin, he has a
special added layer of corruption.
I mean, the vast majority of them
are corrupted by their never ending
quest for more and
more of campaign finance donations.
But for Manchin,
he's literally making money off
of coal himself, it's amazing.
And so I'm glad that we're focusing
on his zero.
But we should also focus on the six
zeros you'd need to get to
the millions of dollars that he's
personally earned from his own
coal company.
And while there has been some
intermittent reporting of that,
that's a fundamental conflict of
interest.
I was doing reading for
this story where they were talking
in particular about, for instance,
the $150 billion to incentivize
power plants to switch from fossil
fuels to clean energy.
And most of them, the vast majority
of them talked about, well,
you can't get it because Manchin's
not in favor of it.
They never said coal company owner,
Joe Manchin, would prefer if we
keep burning coal.
It's the most obvious
corruption imaginable,
but it doesn't really hurt him,
because what percentage of his
constituents do you think know?
That know that that's why we're not
going to have it,
know that he owns that.
And Nina, you mentioned those
who were striking,
coal miners who were striking.
He supposedly loves coal,
where's he been?
I haven't seen him at that.
So he does care about coal but he
cares about the end result of it,
not the black stone.
He cares about the green bills
at the end of it.
And he's made so much money off
that, I just wish that that was
a bigger part of this conversation.
>> Well, we're making it a bigger
deal and yet, people should have
that little asterisk,
read the small print.
How on the medication commercials
and it's read the small print.
We should be reading the small
print here,
which is simply Senator Joe Manchin
is controlled by his owner donors.
And he will not cross them at all,
for fear of not getting
the donations that he needs on
the one side, on the campaign side.
And on the other side,
to continue to enrich himself in
a way that causes pain to others,
that is the small print.
And so we've talked about this
before, and Cenk has
certainly mentioned this as well.
In order to get him and
also Senator Sinema to move,
we should just go ahead and
negotiate with the owner donors.
because they're not making any
moves without the approval and
the blessings of the people who
control them.
And they don't care
about the voters- >> 100%.
>> Or the residents in their
states.
>> No, exactly.
I'll just say two things.
One, it makes me rethink what's in
the paired down infrastructure
bill, right, like the roads and
bridges infrastructure.
If he's so
against the social infrastructure,
the Build Back Better Act and
everything in it,
and that's being stripped for
parts as we speak.
Then what's in the very,
very minimal actual infrastructure
bill?
Who's making out on that bill?
Which donors, which private no bid
contracts are getting funneled into
the fine print of that?
It makes me actually more dubious
of the thing that is bipartisan
rather than the thing that we're
working towards, so
it's super suss and suspect.
The second thing I'm going to say
and I've been racking
my brain about Manchin for so long,
I'm so sick of talking about him.
I'm so sick of having to run around
and figure out what's he thinking,
what's in his heart,
nothing as we've gone over.
And it's the following.
It's that it actually
doesn't matter.
In fact, it doesn't matter that our
senators are corrupt.
It doesn't matter
that they're bought and sold.
And all the rest of it,
all the window dressing that a lot
of media likes to do of,
how do we come to the table and
all the negotiations?
At the end of the day,
corruption is part and
parcel of our political system.
And it's a painful pill to swallow,
you guys.
And absolutely, it moves us to take
bigger and bolder action when it
comes to getting something done.
because we can't always rely,
definitely can't rely on
Democrats to do it.
>> Yeah, I certainly agree.
I have the same questions about the
the bipartisan infrastructure bill.
We've effectively assembled to
the course of this year,
progressives have assembled a club
sandwich of compromises.
The initial 3.5 was already
a massive,
I guess that's one piece of bread.
The fact that we just said
basically, you can have your
bipartisan one, which privatizes
some infrastructure and
a variety of other things that
are not progressive priorities that
actually go against our values.
That those are the compromises
we already made, and now they're
cutting additional trillions.
What have they had to give up?
What has Sinema, or Manchin, or
any of them had to give up?
Effectively nothing, and
you're totally right about
the baked in corruption.
The little bit that you might
hear through all of your schooling
about corruption is about bribery.
And you get this image of somebody
using their foot to move a bag
filled with hundreds under
a bathroom stall to a person.
And it's ridiculous that if
Joe Manchin, if I handed a bag with
$3,000 in it to Joe Manchin,
he was like, [LAUGH] yeah,
he could go to jail for that.
But if he stops legislation, so
that he can make millions
of dollars, that's cool.
That's just part of the system.
I almost swore,
isn't that messed up [LAUGH] that
that's the way that it works?
But that is the way that it works.
And corruption occasionally gets
talked about very briefly.
There was a congressional cycle
years ago,
where because of Duke Cunningham.
We talked about it a bit, but
almost every single one of those
representatives who are campaigning
on it was at least as corrupt.
They've just legalized their form
of corruption and they all point at
the one person who was stupid
enough to make it personal.
>> Because it's
a showstopper, John.
Once we talk about that, if we had
an honest conversation about who
has been bought and sold in elected
office, it's a showstopper.
Suddenly, we understand we don't
have the greatest democracy
on earth.
We progressives already knew that,
but it's like well, what do you do?
So you kind of continue the circus
act as if everyone's operating in
good faith and
they're absolutely not.
>> Yeah. >> Yeah, so true and
just follow the money, I mean, not
only follow the money in the budget
to see where priorities are, but
follow the money.
The trails and trails of money that
lead to these elected officials.
It is absolutely legal in
the United States
of America to bribe politicians.
You gotta do it a certain way,
John, as you laid out,
one way gets you put in jail.
But the other way,
let's go overseas and
raise money across the waters and
not deal with the policies
that need to be dealt with.
Senator Sinema, let's
have fundraisers in wine caves and
multi, multi extra wealthy
people can just pour money and
have their will done.
Even if the overwhelming majority
of the American people
who are siding right now with both
the hard infrastructure and
the soft infrastructure plans.
But that is not going to
be the reality, because the owner
donors do not agree.
And this conversation has certainly
reminded me of something that
Mother Jones once said when she
visited somebody in jail and
she asked the man what was
he in jail for?
And he said I stole a pair
of shoes.
She said if you had stolen
a railroad, you'd be a senator.
>> Mm-hm, yeah.
>> That is the reality today.
>> Yeah, that's a great point.
Yeah, don't hand over a bag
with $3,000.
Have a bag with $300,000 a year
waiting for them as soon as they
get out of office.
They just have to do what you want
before then, it's amazing.
Anyway, they say that some
sort of deal might be possible,
some of them were saying
within a day, Manchin says
that's not going to happen.
Maybe he's had a change of
heart and he wants more,
that'll be fun to see.
But at some point,
maybe there will be a thing.
And so I want to make sure
that before we go into the weekend,
people have an idea of our current
best understanding of what might be
in and out of it.
So I'm going to list
all these things
that I want to hear your reactions.
So originally there was going to be
12 weeks paid family and medical
leave, which would be by no means
any sort of international record.
But don't get excited, it's gone,
it's down to four.
So four if you get horrifically
ill, if you have a child,
you better get that bonding in in
that one month,
because that's all you get.
A one year extension of the child
tax credit,
isn't that nice of them?
It's incredibly popular,
cuts childhood poverty,
they're going to give it to you for
one more year.
They will do universal pre-K for
three and four year olds.
I hope that they get very well
educated during those two years,
because the free community
college is out,
they're not going to do that.
But don't worry,
they are going to be making
it a little bit more affordable.
So if you're a low income student,
instead of about, I think,
$6,000 a year in Pell grants that
you could have gotten,
you can get $500 more dollars.
So I don't know what you're worried
about paying for college for.
They're going to give you $500
more dollars.
And Bernie Sanders wanted to have
dental and
vision coverage added to Medicare.
They're not going to do that, but
they are going to give you an $800
voucher for dental.
That's nice, you know it's
good because it's a voucher.
And the clean electricity program,
one of the largest single
components to deal with
the climate crisis is likely out
very specifically because
Joe Manchin owns a coal company.
I will never get tired of saying
that, I hope that you never
get tired of hearing it.
And that is currently what it
looks like.
There's also another thing
that's not in it.
We're going to be talking about
that a little bit later on in terms
of how they're paying for all this.
But that is the current shape of
it in rough terms.
>> Crumbs, crumbs.
I mean, we went from progressives
pushing for 10 billion.
And let us remind folks who are
with us, this is over ten years.
So it's not all who won,
over ten years.
So progressives said,
let's do 10 billion, or
10 trillion, excuse me,
let's do 10 trillion.
Then the point was,
okay, let's do 6.
And now, then it was 3.5,
let's agree with that.
And remember, at one point,
Senator Manchin said 4 trillion for
infrastructure should be
a starting point.
I wonder what changed his
mind on that.
So now we went from,
10 from progressives, 6,
everybody was kind of letting that
marinate to 3.5 trillion,
now to about $1.9 trillion.
It is absolute crumbs and
you know what is going to
happen once that negotiation is
settled and everybody kind of gets
on the same page.
They're going to be out
there celebrating this foolishness.
And I want to say another word,
it begins with a S.
They going to celebrate this,
once again selling out the American
people, the poor, the working poor,
and barely middle class.
And asking people to get giddy and
excited about the crumbs from
the table.
Yeah, I mean,
I am heartened that at least,
universal pre-K was not cut.
I wonder if there's a diploma after
those two years instead of
the free community college is just
a very cute diploma, and mini one,
very durable.
But if there are just a few things
that we can actually defend and
expand, universal pre-K is a start.
It is just things like Medicare and
Medicaid, once they are enacted,
its very difficult to roll
them back.
In fact,
we want to expand them if anything,
they're incredibly popular.
My question is, if this goes
forward with the crumbs, right?
But like hey,
it's a pretty good grind, a little
chocolate chip in that crumb,
maybe half of one, right?
Is it going to be implemented in
time before the political
shenanigans and
machinations start in, right?
Meaning, are Democrats going to
actually since they've done kind of
a bad job selling this, I mean,
especially the President.
I know we're going to talk a little
bit about Biden later on, but
he hasn't done a good job of
selling it thus far.
If it passes, how are you going to
actually tell the American people,
guess what?
This is what we've done and
we are doing, and
if you can't get your kid enrolled
this year, it'll be next year, or
is it going to be in six years?
You know what I mean?
The implementation is really key
and the narrative and the language
and the rhetoric around it and
how it's really being discussed.
I mean,
we can't even roll out a vaccine in
a way that feels compelling enough,
a life saving vaccine.
And granted, it's largely thanks to
the erosion of any kind of medical
trust thanks to Trump, as well as
a privatized medical industry.
But still, right, this
administration still needs to show
that they've got the language and
the tools to really just put that
final seal on this and
make sure the American people
know what's in it.
>> Yeah, you're right.
It's also entirely possible that in
a couple of years,
we'll have Republicans opting out
of free pre-K because it makes
their kids magnetic or something.
By the way, you make a good point
about taking whatever is left of
these crumbs and then selling to
the American people.
So why does that matter?
Well, politically,
not substantively, politically it
matters, because we're going to
have midterms and we're going to
have a presidential election.
It also matters in another way, and
I'm going to end this segment on
a kind of a down note,
that I literally have not heard
anyone talking about,
I don't understand why.
So Nina was totally right,
let's say it's $1.9 trillion.
That's over ten years.
That's assuming you get ten years,
because if you do nothing with
the mandate you've been given and
if the Republicans take control,
who is to say that they
can't use reconciliation to defund
the programs that Biden is funding
via reconciliation?
Why are we assuming that
if the Democrats don't maintain
control, the Republicans won't just
kill all of this anyway?
I don't know, maybe it's unlikely.
I think it's really weird that no
one is talking about that though.
Because before we're even at
the halfway point, we could
potentially have President Harris,
or President AOC, or
President Marjorie Taylor Green.
These are all possibilities we
should be thinking about as well.
Maybe that's getting
into dark territory.
>> So true.
>> Yeah. >> That's not
going to happen.
>> Well, I hope not.
Tucker Carlson will
defund it though.