 On October 15th, the New York Times reported that the climate change provisions included in Joe Biden's Build Back Better Act would likely be removed in order to appease West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin. Now if you're wondering what's the likelihood that this will actually happen, what's the likelihood that the White House would gut one of the core provisions from its own agenda, well, very likely considering that White House staffers have already begun rewriting this legislation to exclude climate change. Now it's worth noting that this isn't a panacea. It's not a Green New Deal. It's not the end LBL. In fact, I would argue that the climate change provisions in the Build Back Better Act are woefully inadequate. But it's better than nothing. It's the bare minimum. And if you can't even do that, then I don't even think this legislation is worth supporting. I mean, this is the one chance that we'll have, the last chance that we'll have, I should say, in a very long time to actually do anything meaningful as it relates to climate change. And if the White House is willing to bend over backwards to appease a modern-day coal baron who rakes in $500,000 per year from the coal industry, then there's really no point to any of this. If you can't do the bare minimum, then if I'm a progressive in Congress, I'm going to torpedo everything at this point. That's how mad I am about this. So thankfully, I'm not alone in my feelings because one senator has spoken out loudly about this, Ed Marquis, and he made it very clear. If this is, in fact, the case, I'm not going to support it. No climate, no deal. So he wrote an op-ed in Common Dreams saying that he's going to hold strong. And yes, him as well as other progressives will torpedo the entire proposal if climate change is not addressed. He writes, we will not compromise away the future of our young people in the planet they will inherit. We must keep climate action central to the budget reconciliation package. I was proud to stand with young change makers last week before the steps of the US Capitol to make it clear to those who want to weaken the president's agenda. No climate, no deal. New polling from Data for Progress finds that equitable climate investments, the kind that deliver economic and environmental benefits to frontline communities, are overwhelmingly popular among voters. The support grows even stronger among younger voters under the age of 45. Four in five think these kinds of clean energy investments are important, especially in low income communities, communities of color and other communities that have borne the worst impacts of our climate crisis. Voters also support establishing a civilian climate core included in the Build Back Better Plan, a new transformational national service program that would create hundreds of thousands of jobs and help communities across the nation respond to climate change and transition to a clean energy economy. Voters and younger voters in particular are calling on their leaders to support popular provisions of the Build Back Better Plan. The time is now for Congress to deliver on climate action with equity and justice at the center. We must prove to the American people and to the rest of the world that we are serious about climate action. This is the promise we make to the young people demanding such action and to our nation's workers whom we cannot and must not leave behind. No climate, no deal, perfectly said. Now he also included a lot of figures and polls showing just how popular these policies are. These are all from data for progress. And I mean, this is what the American people want. So when you see all of this, why is it that the overwhelming majority of the American people don't get what they want? But in oligarch like Joe Manchin, who's just operating on behalf of his donors, he gets what he wants. I mean, it's him versus the overwhelming majority of Americans. It shouldn't even be a question. Of course, he should bend to the will of the people and to the will of his party, quite frankly. And I've got to say, I really appreciate what Ed Markey and Bernie Sanders are doing in calling out Joe Manchin. But the thing is that it really would be nice if the president of the United States would come out for once and actually forcefully advocate for his own agenda. These are the things that Joe Biden ran on. So to just sit back and let everyone else do your work for you when you have the power of the presidency, you have your bully pulpit and you're not using it, it's frustrating because the president actually can make a difference. You can do a lot to persuade Joe Manchin, but Joe Biden has basically done next to nothing that's meaningful to actually persuade people in his party who are holdouts, Kirsten Sinema, Joe Manchin. This is his legacy and it seems like Bernie Sanders and Ed Markey care more about this than Joe Biden does. So it's really frustrating because at this rate, nothing is going to get done because Manchin and Sinema, they're continuing to water it down more and more and more and more. And they're also delaying, which in and of itself is a tactic Manchin just said that there's no way this is going to be finished by Halloween. It's just it's going to take a lot more time. Why? Well, because people like him refuse to support it. They want to make changes to it. They want to water it down. So at first this was supposed to be done by the end of summer and then September. And now it probably won't get done in October because of Joe Manchin and Kirsten Sinema when we don't have to keep doing what they want. You don't have to keep going along with these two folks in your party who is holding everyone back and holding the country back. In fact, there's multiple strategies that you can use to bring them onto your side and get them to support this legislation without actually giving them every single thing that they want. In fact, David Sirota in an op-ed for Jacobin explained that there's one really powerful thing that Democrats can do to call their bluff. He writes it's time for Democratic leaders to make Joe Manchin, Kirsten Sinema and every other senator vote and not on some gutted half measure, but on a real 3.5 trillion dollar bill. So what David Sirota is arguing here is to have Democratic Party leadership call Joe Manchin and Kirsten Sinema's bluff. Force them to go on the record and deny all of these things to their constituents. I mean, you don't want this on your record. You don't want to have to explain to a Democratic Party primary opponent why you voted against Universal Pre-K and an expansion of Medicaid and climate change legislation. You don't want to have to explain that. So if Democratic Party leadership really wanted to play hard bulb, there are several things that they can do, namely holding a vote on this to make Kirsten Sinema and Joe Manchin prove that they're really going to deny these things to their constituents, prove that they're that brazen. So David Sirota lays out this argument and what he's saying makes sense. He argues the interminable delay of an up or down Senate vote on President Joe Biden's agenda serves no one other than Sinema, Manchin and their corporate donors who want the bill gutted or killed. Every day Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer stalls a vote on an already scaled back 3.5 trillion dollar reconciliation bill. Senate Democrats become more complicit in the trail of their party's campaign promises, the evisceration of the working class, and the destruction of the climate. If this is a grand game of poker, both Manchin and Sinema have so far played their hands masterfully, bluffing a six trillion dollar proposal down to four trillion, then to 3.5 trillion, then down to 1.9 trillion and potentially on its way to two bucks and a used Casio wristwatch. Now they are doubling down on their strategies expecting nobody in power to call and make them show their cards. But if Schumer and Biden and their party actually wants to pass a real reconciliation bill that isn't gutted, granted that's a big if, then they should remember that old adage about rigged games. The only winning move is not to play. One way to stop playing the game Manchin, Sinema and their corporate sponsors are playing is to schedule a vote on a bill and to really up the ante Democratic leaders should add a bunch of programs that will target aid and investment to West Virginia and Arizona. So this is what I think would actually make a difference. It's not a guarantee that this strategy will work, but simply giving Joe Manchin every single thing that he wants. That's not working out in your favor as well. Joe Manchin is not the president. So Joe Biden actually needs to do what David Sarota is recommending here. Call his bluff, put in a lot of pork barrel projects for West Virginia and Arizona, provide a lot of things that people in Arizona and West Virginia specifically would want and then brag about it and then say your own senator just voted against this. I mean, they're not going to want to be put in that predicament. I mean, Kirsten Sinema, she's basically, in my opinion, a sociopath, but even she wouldn't want to deal with that much wrath from her constituents because the blowback would be huge. So if Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer actually played hardball to this extent, I mean, again, it's not a guarantee that it's going to work, but it's better than what they're doing now, which is basically capitulate, capitulate, capitulate. That's not working. And to the extent that it does work, it's not working out in your favor. It's working out in his favor. Now, there is a caveat. There actually needs to be a robust messaging campaign behind this effort. So every single Democrat needs to go on television and say, listen, this is what we're going to do. We want to hold a vote on this particular reconciliation package before the end of October. And there are provisions for people in West Virginia and Arizona and all over the country. Here's what the people of West Virginia are getting. Here's what the people of Arizona are getting. And here's what the people in America are getting. Everyone has to be consistent and unified in their messaging. And on top of that, Biden has to utilize a strategy that has worked before for presidents. It's called bullying and specifically using your bully pulpit to bully these senators into submission. Sorota continues, Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson are still rightly celebrated for bullying, intimidating and cajoling conservative Democrats into supporting the New Deal and Medicare. But today's Democratic politicians, Democratic voters and Democratic aligned media voices have been inculcated to get the vapors and have fainting spells any time one Democrat pressures another Democrat. The 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, a historical aversion to any robust conflict proved that. And the legislative debate is so far proving it as well with potentially horrific consequences for the economy and the environment. Those consequences are not preordained, at least not yet. There is still time to avert a disaster, but only if the party that controls the lawmaking process is willing to use hardball tactics and have a long overdue fight with itself right now. And he is exactly right. So again, I want to reiterate that I really appreciate what Ed Markey is doing here in pending this op ed saying, we're going to torpedo this legislation. I appreciate Bernie Sanders paying an op ed in a West Virginian news outlet, calling on Joe Manchin explaining to his constituents what they are denied if Joe Manchin doesn't support this. But ultimately, nothing is going to matter if the president himself doesn't come out and forcefully advocate for this policy. I mean, right now, Joe Manchin and Kirsten Sonoma, they make a demand and Joe Biden gives them what they want. At what point is Joe Biden going to make a demand and Kirsten Sonoma and Joe Manchin are forced to give a little bit as well because right now it really seems like Joe Manchin and Kirsten Sonoma, they're dictating all of the terms they're holding everyone back in their party and the country. And this is only happening because Democratic Party leadership are letting it happen. Again, maybe there's nothing you can do to win over Kirsten Sonoma and Joe Manchin, maybe there's just lost causes. I don't believe that's the case with Manchin. Sonoma, who knows? But you've got to do more. What Joe Biden is doing with Joe Manchin in continuously capitulating and even removing climate change out of this human infrastructure bill, it's unacceptable. And in the event, nothing changes and Manchin really does get everything he wants and climate change is removed along with more means testing for other policies. Progressives, they absolutely should vote against everything torpedo infrastructure torpedo this because it's not worth it to have that bipartisan infrastructure, which is basically a corporate giveaway pass. If what you're getting isn't even crumbs, I mean, this is the bare minimum for climate change. So if you can't even expect that the party is useless and it's really incumbent on Democratic Party leadership to make sure that the bare minimum that they ran on gets accomplished, gets passed. So, you know, I don't think that Joe Biden and the Democratic Party's leadership anytime soon is going to be playing hardball. But if they truly wanted this agenda to get passed, they try something different other than bending over backwards to appease Joe Manchin and every single demand that he puts forward.