On the Republican side of the Senate, there are a few members who could give the Democrats a winning margin on various pieces of legislation.  Among the so-called moderate pack are Senators Mitt Romney (Utah), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Susan Collins (Maine) and Ben Sasse (Nebraska).

The fact that they stuck together on the overly-expensive and partisan-targeted so-called Stimulus Bill is evidence of just how outrageous and irresponsible the $1.9 trillion spending bill was.

It turned out to be a 50 to 49 vote because Republican Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska was called away on a sudden personal emergency.  Sullivan would have voted “no” – but his absence did not affect the outcome since Vice President Harris would have cast the deciding vote in favor of passage.

On the Democrat side, there is only one senator who could occasionally vote contrary to his party’s leadership and Democrat colleagues.  That is West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin.  His more moderate stance is understandable when you consider that he represents a state that voted twice for President Trump by a very wide margin.

In the evenly divided Senate – with Harris as the tie-breaker – Manchin controls the fate of virtually all the Democrats pet legislation.  Of course, that assumes that Republicans stay united – and that is a very dangerous assumption.

Manchin had expressed his concern about several items in the Bill – and the amount of the package. He also said that to be credible with the American people, it must have bipartisan support.

The Bill never got the bipartisan support because NOTHING the Republicans had requested in their own $680 billion package was given a moment of consideration.  Oh sure, President Biden had a few of the moderate Republicans over to the White House for what was called a negotiating session by Democrats – but not by the Republican participants.

The $15 minimum wage was removed because it violated the rules under the Reconciliation Process – which circumvented the 60-vote supermajority requirement.  The unemployment benefit was reduced from $400 per month to $300 – but the duration was extended, so it had no impact on the cost of the Bill.

If Manchin had followed through on his statements and promises, Democrats would have had to have held real negotiations with Republicans – and the Bill would have been significantly changed.  A lot of the Democrat’s wish list expenditures could have been eliminated – items that had nothing to do with the Covid-19 Pandemic but compose 90 percent of the spending.

Democrats pointed to a 60 percent approval rating by the American public. But that was largely based on the four or five popular and necessary items that were given all the attention.  Thanks to a corrupt and biased media, the public was never told of all the egregiously wasteful items in the Bill – and that 90 percent of the spending had nothing to do with the Pandemic.

One can only speculate what the public would think if they knew that $1400 stimulus checks were going to people like Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon bomber, and Dylann Roof, the guy who murdered nine Black parishioners at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Manchin had the opportunity to create a real debate over ALL the expenditures.  But in the final analysis, he voted with his Democrat colleagues for the biggest boondoggle legislation in American history.

Now, Manchin says that he will not support President Biden’s future trillion-dollar infrastructure and energy legislation unless there is a real bipartisan negotiation and Republican support.  He said he would approve the use of Reconciliation to enable passage by a simple majority.

Biden’s infrastructure bill is estimated to cost between $2 and $4 trillion dollars – and is expected to be a gift to organized labor.

We will have to wait and see what Manchin does with these out-of-control expenditures. But so far, Manchin’s words have not been met by his actions.

So, there ‘tis.