It’s been a week since the Schumer–Manchin tax and spending bill was sprung on Congress, and Democrats are worried that Senator Kyrsten Sinema has kept complete radio silence on what she thinks of the bill. According to The Hill:
Manchin left Sinema a message on Monday in hopes of talking to her and explaining why he struck the deal and why she should support it. He tried to catch her on the floor for a conversation during the Monday evening vote, but without success.
Manchin finally tracked down his colleague on Tuesday when she was scheduled to preside over the floor, a duty routinely assigned to more-junior members of the upper chamber.
Television cameras caught Manchin kneeling on the chamber’s blue carpet next to the presiding officer’s desk, seemingly trying to cajole Sinema.
“We had a nice time. We had a nice time. Next?” Manchin briefly said to reporters afterward.
Let’s hope Sinema holds firm despite the excruciating pressure she is being subjected to.
Sinema was purposefully excluded from the negotiations that resulted in the bill, but progressives now expect her to march lockstep with them in voting for it. Pointing to her 2024 primary for reelection, Democratic Representative Raul Grijalva, a fellow Arizonan, menacingly says that Sinema “politically doesn’t have a choice” but to support the bill.
That’s not true. John McCain, Sinema’s role model for independence, lost Republican voters in his 2016 primary for reelection in Arizona. He was saved by independents and Democrats who crossed over and voted for him in the open primary. Sinema could pull off that same type of feat in her Democratic primary in 2024.
Her concerns about the Manchin–Schumer bill are genuine. She has been open to many of its provisions. But she has worried that the bill’s 15 percent minimum corporate tax would mostly hit manufacturers who use tax deductions and credits for capital investments and R&D. Sinema has said she won’t vote for tax changes that cost Arizona jobs.
Other Democratic senators share her concerns. The Hill reports that, “A half-dozen Senate Democrats have privately shared concerns about the minimum tax with industry lobbyists, (but) none have publicly come out against the proposal.”
If Sinema forces Schumer and Manchin to reexamine the bill, it won’t be the first time she has allowed her male colleagues to — in her words — “hide behind my skirts.”