Our elected officials believe they have carved out a bill that everyone in Congress can agree on. This bill is the product of Sinchin (Sinema and Manchin, ) Scissorhands. Neither of the two will raise taxes on corporate America or the wealthiest 1% of the population, even though the 25 richest Americans paid little to no taxes.
I understand the items listed above are a start; we have to have a budget now. We might recover what we lost, when, if we can expand the Democratic Congressional majority in the next election. That said, I am furious at Joe Manchin—who is responsible for the elimination of vision and dental coverage from the Medicare expansion bill. This is not acceptable.
In 2018, 290,510 West Virginia voters elected Joe Manchin. Now, he denies vision and dental insurance to 442,837 West Virginia voters who rely on Medicare. I hope they’re paying attention.
On Medicare expansion:
“I have hard time increasing benefits.”
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia
Beyond West Virginia, 63 million Americans rely on Medicare for their insurance needs. None will receive dental or vision care because Manchin “has a hard time increasing benefits.” He has been spared his moral dilemma by giving in to demands for hearing aid coverage.
The Link between Malnutrition and Poor Oral Health in Older Adults
Fun fact: Senator Sinema campaigned on a promise of making healthcare affordable. But, she received over $750k from Big Pharma and, in exchange, voted against putting any limitations on what they can charge. The U.S. pays at least twice as much as Canada for the same pharmaceutical drugs and more than 250% times more overall than those in 32 other countries.
More than two-thirds of Congress cashed a pharma campaign check in 2020, new STAT analysis shows
Fun fact: Joe Manchin’s daughter was the Mylan CEO who raised the price of the life-saving EpiPen by 461%, then rewarded herself for a job well done by raising her pay by 671%.
Big pharma is draining Medicare coffers by obscene price gouging. Had Sinema, Manchin, and the GOP reigned them in, there would have been sufficient funds to cover dental and vision care, family leave, and free community college. Theirs is the most disgusting kind of greed—at the expense of the poor and elderly.
On paid leave, Manchin said given the debt:
“It doesn’t make sense to me.… I just can’t do it”
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia
Manchin, (who was elected by fewer than 300k voters,) decided 167 million women shouldn’t have paid family leave. Odd that it makes sense to other countries. How does the U.S. Stack up to other countries for weeks of paid family leave?
- UK: 39
- Ireland: 26
- Finland: 23.5
- Australia: 18
- Denmark: 18
- France: 16
- Switzerland: 14
- USA: Zero
Joe Manchin claims that he doesn’t want to saddle his grandchildren with debt, and that’s why he’s fighting the bill. During Trump’s reign of terror, the deficit increased by $11 trillion in four years.
Fun fact: Joe Manchin’s brother had to sue him to recoup a $1.7 million loan.
On raising taxes on billionaires to cover the cost of proposed items on Biden’s agenda, Manchin replied:
“I don’t like the connotation that we are targeting different people”
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia
The irony is that, according to “Forbes,” no billionaires live in West Virginia. His votes are paid for by out-of-state billionaires.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_the_number_of_billionaires
“I’m not interested in hearing what this country can or cannot pay for when Elon Musk added $36.2 billion to his net worth just yesterday. A billionaire tax is sorely needed.”
Senator Ron Wyden
Fun fact: Our defense budget is $768,000,000,000.
There may be more cuts on the horizon. Even this bill has yet to pass.
A lot from Lydia 
I am disgusted with all that has been cut from this bill. I will give Manchin that he is at least up front on what he feels about this bill (even though what he says is crap), but WTH is up with Sinema? She is such a freaking bigshot that she can not even LOOK at a reporter, let alone answer a question?! This is so messed up.
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I can’t stand it. And the worst part is that neither Manchin nor Sinema is up for election until 2024.
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it figures, right?!
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“Sinchin Scissorhands” is brilliant. By all accounts, Manchin and his spawn appear to be corrupt and heartless, only concerned with what goes into the family coffers. It’s truly amazing what politicians can get by with these days thanks to their uneducated, Kool-Aid drinking constituents.
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Thank you. I wonder if weak willed people are drawn to politics, or if they start out with good intentions and are corrupted by greed after they’re in office. Our only hope is to pass an election reform bill. If we manage that and increase our majority enough to make the two Senate sellouts irrelevant, we have some work to do.
We have to get the money out of politics to will repel the self-serving. But more importantly, we have to change our entire system of government- (I know, don’t ask for much.) Gerrymandering and the electoral college have to go, and we need equal representation in the Senate. By having two senators for each state, regardless of population, sparsely populated states have an imbalance of power.
We are barely a democracy as it is, but we might be one election away from authoritarianism.
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There’s so much to do as you say. I agree 100% about the ridiculous nature of the Senate. Why should Wyoming have the same amount of representation as California in that all important chamber? Absurd and totally undemocratic.
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