 So, at first, it seemed as if all systems were go when it comes to Joe Biden's infrastructure plan, because President Joe Manchin, I think it's appropriate that we can call him that, he said, you know what, I'll give it my stamp of approval, thumbs up, we can do the infrastructure plan. The issue, however, is that now President Manchin is getting cold feet because there's a provision in Joe Biden's plan that is kind of making President Manchin's donors a little bit anxious. So, what provision does Joe Manchin want removed? Well as Bloomberg reports, President Joe Biden's 2.25 trillion economic plan ran into trouble Monday with a key Senate Democrat, West Virginia's Joe Manchin, who demanded changes to tax provisions in order to secure his crucial support. Manchin told a local news outlet he wouldn't support raising the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28% as Biden proposed to pay for increased infrastructure and social welfare spending. Manchin said he would be in favor of closing tax loopholes that benefit the wealthy and could support an increase to the corporate tax rate to 25% which he said is the global average. Quote, if I don't vote to get on it, it's not going anywhere, Manchin said, it's more than just me. There are six or seven other Democrats that feel strongly about this. We have to be competitive and we are not going to throw caution to the wind. This whole thing has got to change, he said. Okay, so immediately there's two things that I want to point out. The first is how insufferable and smug Joe Manchin is. Whenever he has the chance, he's reminding everyone, look, if this bill doesn't have my support, it's effectively dead on arrival. He loves it. He loves it. And in some ways, I'm actually envious of the way he's that effective. He knows how to wield power and I wish that other progressives in Congress and even Joe Biden would learn how to be this persuasive, this ruthless because if you actually are really ruthless and you don't back down, then you get what you want. And so in a way, like I admire it, but he doesn't care that he's playing with people's lives and that all of this that he's doing, it's hurting Americans. But it's all at the behest of his corporate donors. That's the only thing that he cares about. Now the second thing that I want to point out about that article, and you would all know this if you watched my fantastic interview with Steve Grumbine of Real Progressives is that taxes don't fund spending. So should Joe Biden raise the corporate tax rate? Yes, he absolutely should because these large multinational corporations are not paying nearly enough. Having said that though, we don't need that to fund anything. The United States government has its own sovereign currency. They are the sole issuer of the dollar. So if they want to pay for something, they automatically have the money to pay for that period end of story. If you know about modern monetary theory, then you'll know why this is the case. So Joe Biden doesn't have to do that, but if he actually wants to appease someone like Joe Manchin, we all know exactly what he's going to do. He's going to water down his own legislation, which is why when I talked about Joe Biden's infrastructure plan, I argued that if he truly wants to get everything passed in this small 2.2 trillion dollar package over 10 years, then at least shoot for 10 trillion. And then by the time your bill gets watered down, you're at least still a little bit closer to your target. But I mean, he is going to believe that he has to raise taxes in order to pay for this. So if he does what Joe Manchin says or wants rather, there'll be less in here. And we all know what proposals will get taken out. The progressive proposals, the more progressive proposals. Now what's interesting is that Joe Manchin is a total flip-flopper on this issue because as CNN reporter David Gellis explains in 2012, Manchin supported Obama's plan to drop the corporate tax rate from 35% to 28%. In 2021, Manchin now says Biden's plan to raise it to 28% is too high. Yeah. So first of all, I just have to speak to Joe Biden's weakness. You are the president of the United States. You are the most powerful politician in the world. And you have completely failed to use your bully pulpit to hold your caucus accountable. And yes, some of the burden lies with Chuck Schumer, right? He should be whipping his caucus, making sure that Joe Biden and the president has the votes needed to get his agenda accomplished. But I mean, if Chuck Schumer isn't effective, then you replace him or you use your bully pulpit yourself to fight these folks. But Joe Biden has proven that he's a pushover. And so whatever Joe Manchin wants, Joe Manchin gets. And this really speaks to a broader issue. And I want to point to a tweet from Good Politics Guy who explains how this is basically the perfect demonstration of the ratchet effect. He says Trump cut the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. Biden's plan is to raise it back to only 28%. This is the ratchet effect, not Biden being a progressive. And the way that the ratchet effect works is Republicans draft right wing policies and pass right wing policies that Democrats ultimately refuse to undo. And little by little over time, Republicans have effectively shifted the Overton window further and further to the right. And the modest gains that Democrats make back in the opposite direction when they get power, they seem like victories when in actuality, Republicans are still the winners because we're still operating based on what they want. They've shifted the entire spectrum to the right. And if you move 10 points to the right, for example, and Democrats only move back two points, who's the winner overall? It's Republicans. They're the ones getting what they want. And while we're talking about Good Politics Guy, I've got to plug his channel, definitely subscribe to him. He's one of the best newcomers in indie media. And it's really difficult to thrive as a political commentator in 2021. So any support that newcomers can get is going to help. So definitely subscribe to him. Love his content. He's doing a phenomenal job here. But yeah, I mean, the story, I think, speaks for itself. If something is going to get passed, it has to have Joe Manchin's approval, not necessarily because he's that important. But because out of all of the people in the Senate, this idiot somehow managed to find himself in this lucky position where he is right between Democrats and Republicans and is the last say on every single thing. So if Democrats want to pass something, they're more likely to get him than a Republican, a single Republican. So he's in this position to where he can make all these demands. And people are too afraid to push back against it. But I think that if Democrats, like Joe Biden, actually wanted to achieve any of their agenda, you have to fight people like him. Even if it means you have to do some wheeling and dealing and say, look, I can include pork for West Virginia in this next package that I passed so long as you support this progressive policy proposal or this moderate proposal, even that would that would make a difference. But you know, the issue is that Joe Biden, he's not just weak. He likes having someone like Joe Manchin there for plausible deniability, because Joe Joe Biden himself is actually a conservative Democrat. So if he has an excuse as to why his policies aren't getting passed, if it's Joe Manchin or the Senate parliamentarian, he's going to use that because he doesn't actually disagree that much with the Republicans, at least when it comes to economic policies. So I mean, I'll leave that there. It's deeply frustrating that one of the dumbest members of the US Senate, Joe Manchin, is in this position of immense power and influence. It's just frustrating. And in spite of the Democrats narrow majority, I promise you, it doesn't actually have to be this way, but that would require Democrats actually fighting and wanting to fight just in general, which I don't believe Joe Biden wants to fight. I think he's perfectly fine with Joe Manchin dictating the terms of policies that his administration passes. Yeah.