Democrats are planning to making as big a scene as possible tomorrow if they can get Joe Manchin with them on their phony voting rights act – which is actually named the For the People Act, but is better known as the federal takeover over elections bill.
They are planning a vote sometime tomorrow and want to use that vote to further their political arguments to get rid of the filibuster. But they need Manchin to vote for this horrible bill, which is uncertain at the moment. Here’s what Axios writes:
The Democrats’ massive voting rights package — and in turn, the debate over eliminating the filibuster — will be brought to the forefront Tuesday through a procedural vote.
The vote on the For the People Act will be a key indicator of whether Democrats will move forward with their most controversial — but highest priority — legislation, or will be forced to retreat.
If all 50 Democrats get on board, then the conversation about how to proceed — including calls for abandoning, or at a minimum revising, the filibuster — will ramp up.
Preserving voting rights is expected to be a flashpoint for the midterm elections — for both parties.
And many Democrats fear that if they don’t eliminate the filibuster to pass their agenda while in control of both chambers of Congress and the White House, their supporters will retaliate at the polls, or by not voting at all.
This is all about getting rid of the filibuster and they want to make the midterm elections about this very issue, linking it to this phony ‘voting rights bill’.
It continues:
The view among Democratic leaders and the White House is they can’t set up bypassing the filibuster until they get everyone together on a voting rights package.
All eyes are on Sen. Joe Manchin (R-W.Va.), who, as of now, has not been clear about whether he’ll vote to advance the For the People Act for further debate.
Regardless of how he votes, the motion will fail because it has no shot of getting the 10 Republican votes needed to achieve the 60-vote threshold for major legislation.
That’s the catch. The vote will fail regardless of how many Democrats vote for it because Republicans will filibuster it. Passage isn’t the outcome they want right now. They simply want all 50 Democrats to back the bill so they can sell it to the American people as something that is passable with ’51 votes’ if they dump the filibuster, which would obviously mean Kamala stepping in.
But if they can’t get Manchin onboard, it makes it a much tougher sell. And according to Politico, Manchin is going to be tough to convince:
Sen. Joe Manchin declined on Monday to commit to advancing Democrats’ sweeping elections bill, saying he would need more assurances that his proposed changes would be adopted.
It may seem like a picayune matter given that no Republicans support the bill and the GOP is expected to filibuster the effort on Tuesday. But Democrats want to send a political message, and they need Manchin’s vote to paint a more vivid contrast with Republicans’ blockade.
The West Virginia Democrat opposes the Democrats’ sweeping elections bill but is undecided on whether to vote to start debate on it. All other Senate Democrats have co-sponsored the legislation.
Manchin has proposed a compromise bill focused on expanding early voting and ending partisan gerrymandering; it would cut some of the bill’s other elements, like publicly financed elections. He told reporters on Monday he’s still working on his compromise with fellow Democrats and that “there’d have to be an agreement to get on the substitute.”
“I hope they make some changes, agree with some changes,” Manchin said. “We put out an awful lot of changes that hopefully the country will agree with.”
We’ll see what happens tomorrow, but I would expect Democrats to run with this ridiculousness regardless of whether they can get Manchin to vote for this monstrosity.