The most powerful Joe in America has struck again! The climate change provisions of the BBB are now dead. Progressives are distraught, as well they might be, given that the Supreme Court is waiting to kill any new regulations on carbon; putting money in the budget to fund innovation was the only way forward to prevent environmental disaster.
Three observations are pertinent here. First, since Manchin is effectively an independent, he has every right to tell the left where to go, but his habit of stringing out negotiations and moving the goal posts is incredibly annoying. He doesn’t have a right to do that. Second, this episode should make it clear even to the most diehard progressives that Joe Biden is not their problem–the lack of 50 real Democrats in the Senate is. Third, the best way to deal with Manchin is not to scream at him or drive him into the GOP; it is to make him irrelevant by electing more progressives in states that are bluer than West Virginia.