In an op-ed in the Charleston Gazette-Mail, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, of West Virginia, explains why he will vote against the “For the People Voting Act” bill. There are two quotes that stand out in his rationalization:
(1) “Today’s debate about how to best protect our right to vote and to hold elections, however, is not about finding common ground, but seeking partisan advantage.”
(2) “. . .congressional action on federal voting rights legislation must be the result of both Democrats and Republicans coming together to find a pathway forward or we risk further dividing and destroying the republic we swore to protect and defend as elected officials.”
Manchin’s fallback position on damn near everything is “bipartisan.”
Meanwhile, there’s Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, who said on May 5, “One-hundred percent of our focus is on stopping this new administration. We're confronted with severe challenges from a new administration, and a narrow majority of Democrats in the House and a 50-50 Senate to turn America into a socialist country, and that's 100% of my focus.”
So let’s look at this. Whether it is the filibuster or the voting rights act, Manchin claims that somehow the country will be riven if the Democrats do things that they were elected as Democrats to do if the Republicans don’t come along with them. Presumably the Republicans are Republicans because they believe Republican things, not Democratic things. And vice versa. But apparently not in Manchin’s case.
Then there’s McConnell. The minority leader knows what he’s there to do, and damn it, he’s going to do it.
“One-hundred percent of our focus is on stopping the new administration.”
Not 50%. One hundred.
Clearly the man is not particularly interested in “coming together to find a pathway forward.”
Rather, McConnell is saying, in effect, “My way or the highway.”
Common ground?
The same day that Manchin’s op-ed was published, there is an above-the-fold story in The Washington Post with the headline: “FBI inquiry of USPS chief DeJoy threatens bipartisan overhaul bill.
The lede of the story: “The FBI investigation into Postmaster General Louis DeJoy threatens to fray a fragile bipartisan and cross-industry coalition that supports financial relief legislation for the U.S. Postal Service, opening a new vein of turmoil for the embattled agency.”
Briefly, DeJoy is being investigated because it seems that when he was running New Breed Logistics it may be the case that he was violating campaign finance laws.
DeJoy is something of a bête noire because his efficiency plan for the U.S. Postal System that he instituted last fall, before the 2020 election, included things like removing sorting equipment from post offices and reducing the number of post boxes on street corners. This makes me wonder how the man could have run a logistics company because it is fairly obvious to anyone that by reducing things like that cause bottlenecks. And it is no surprise that mail service timing dropped precipitously.
DeJoy’s apparent argument was that this was to save money. The Democrats response is that it was done to put roadblocks in the way of mail-in voting. Mail-in voting is something that Donald Trump (a) used and (b) whined about in his speech in North Carolina on June 5 — guess some people can have it both ways.
(Ask Trump voters if they were happy when the Christmas cards from their grandkids came late or when their Christmas cards to their grandkids were delivered late. Or the paperwork from Medicare. Or the credit card bills that were suddenly due. No joy there.)
The thing is, this whole notion of trepidatiousness when it comes to offending the other party — well, at least, it seems, if you’re a Democrat and you are not falling in line with Republicans — is completely bizarre.
Aren’t there two parties because there are two points of view?
How often is McConnell criticized for his intransigent position?
One could make the case that Manchin’s position of wanting all people to agree is in some ways a laudable one. But is it realistic? Or is it a craven play to placate a sufficient number of people in West Virginia happy so that he can keep his job?
According to the most-recent stats from the West Virginia secretary of state, 35.59% of registered voters in the state are Democrats. . .and 37.83% are Republicans.
Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.
News & Notes
TUESDAY, JUNE 8, 2021 —– GEORGE ORWELL’S 1984 PUBLISHED, 1949
Can President Biden and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-WV, reach a deal on infrastructure? As negotiations founder, The Hustings is debating an alternative infrastructure plan winding its way through the House of Representatives. Craig Fahle from the left column, and pundit-at-large Stephen Macaulay from the right column, debate the INVEST in America Act, https://thehustings.news.
Harris vs. AOC on Immigrants at the Border – Vice President Kamala Harris’ warning to Guatemalans, “do not come, do not come” echoed across all manner of broadcast news Monday afternoon as the Biden administration pushed back against criticism, mostly from the right, that the president’s reversal of Donald Trump’s draconian immigration policies had created a crisis along our Southern border.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, called Harris’ comments “disappointing,” Newsweek reports. The vice president said in an address before Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei Monday, “there are legitimate methods by which immigration can and should occur,” but emphasized that the U.S. will enforce laws and secure the border.
Note: AOC’s comments simply pile on the open rift growing between the centrist Biden administration, as it pushes for a bipartisan infrastructure bill far less expansive than the president’s FDR-like $2.3 trillion initial proposal.
•••
Capitol Police had Warnings Weeks Ahead of January 6 – Capitol Police had clear intelligence at least two weeks ahead of the January 6 insurrection by MAGA supporters that the invasion was not going to be a typical Donald Trump rally, The Washington Post reports. The joint report by two Senate committees – Rules and Administration and Homeland Security and Government Affairs – says a series of omissions and miscommunications kept the intelligence from front-line officers the “stop the steal” rioters targeted.
“The attack was, quite frankly, planned in plain sight,” Sen. Gary Peters, D-MI, Homeland Security and Government Affairs chairman, told reporters Monday.
Recommended changes coming out of the committees include giving the Capitol Police chief power to call in the National Guard for such attacks, and combining three intelligence units in the Capitol Police into one.
Note: This is the sort of report Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, says negates a need for another layer of 1/6 investigation. But Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-MN, told NPR the joint report is not a substitute for a 9/11-style commission, that the report considers law enforcement mistakes made January 6 without studying such root causes for the attack as white supremacy. Peters, the Homland Security and Government Affairs chairman told reporters Monday, “There’s still a lot of work to be done.”
•••
Not Fastly Enough – Dozens of websites, including several major media outlets using the cloud service company Fastly, were shut down briefly about 6 a.m. Eastern time Tuesday, the AP reports. Those affected include The New York Times, The Guardian, CNN, some Amazon sites, Twitch, Reddit and the United Kingdom government’s home page. Fastly, of San Francisco, said it is “continuing to investigate” what appears to be an internal glitch.
•••
Ransomware Attack Hits House Constituent Services – Neary 60 House Democratic and Republican offices have been victims of a ransomware attack on iConstituent, which provides outreach services, Punchbowl News reported Tuesday morning.
•••
Twenty-Five Richest Americans Pay 3.4% Tax Rate, ProPublica Says – The 25 richest Americans, as measured by Forbes magazine’s annual list, paid an effective income tax rate of 3.4% between 2014 and 2018, investigative journalists at the non-profit ProPublica report Tuesday morning. Combing “secret IRS files” covering more than 15 years, the report says that, for instance, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, now the world’s richest man, paid zero income taxes in 2007 and 2011, and the world’s second-richest man, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, paid zero in 2018.
ProPublica also called out Michael Bloomberg, Carl Icahn, George Soros, Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch and Mark Zuckerberg.
“It’s about income tax avoidance through regular means,” particularly when wealth gains are not counted as income, one of the report’s three authors, Jesse Eisinger, told NPR.
The median American household income of $70,000 per year garners a tax rate of 14%, ProPublica says, and the new upper rate for 2020 is 37% for couples earning more than $628,300 per year. Meanwhile, the 25 richest Americans (per that Forbes list) paid $13.6 billion in taxes between 2014 and 2018 on wealth gains totaling $401 billion -- which is how the watchdog organization arrived at the 3.4% rate.
Note: Coincidentally, over at The Wall Street Journal, it’s time for the newspaper’s “annual ranking of pay & performance for leaders” of the Standard & Poor 500 companies. So, guess what? Elon Musk “reported zero pay” in 2020 while raking in stock options worth $32 billion – yes, with a “b” – last year “under his landmark 2018 pay package.” Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was paid $1.40 in ’20, one penny for every character allowed in a tweet (cute). Steven Kean, CEO of gas pipeline company Kinder Morgan, made $1.
Corporate mucky-mucks who didn’t get the ProPublica memo include Paycom founder Chad Richison, whose pay package last year was valued at more than $200 million, making him the number-one earner last year. Seven CEOs were awarded compensation of more than $50 million in 2020, compared with two such CEOs in 2019 and three in 2018. The Journal says 24 S&P CEOs were scraping by with less than $5 million in compensation in 2020, down from 28-33 CEOs “in recent years.” -- Edited by Todd Lassa and Nic Woods