Rightwing Democratic Senator Joe Manchin just cheated hard working laid-off Americans, many with families to support, out of billions of dollars of enhanced unemployment benefits.
A traitor to his own party, Manchin sabotaged Biden's COVID relief bill, dubbed "The American Rescue Plan." The House of Representatives previously passed the bill in its prior form. Now the House is having the Manchin-vandalized version shoved down its throat.
What a venal character.
Bad enough that MOST unemployed people are NOT getting ANY benefits. On top of that, most states provide extremely skimpy benefits to workers who lose their jobs through no fault of their own. (Workers who quit or are fired "for cause" are not entitled to a red cent in state support. This forces workers to put up with horrible jobs, including health-destroying ones. Nor are workers labeled "independent contractors," including under the "digital economy" label "gig workers," eligible. Those who are legally eligible are forced to leap over a variety of hurdles designed to prevent them from receiving benefits. And as if THAT weren't enough to cheat workers, hundreds of thousands are falsely accused of fraud by their state's government agencies. See the reference at the bottom.) Biden's Covid Relief Bill would have added $400 to the state unemployment insurance payments, through the end of September 2021.
"Centrist" Joe Manchin found this unacceptable and insisted on $300 only, PLUS ending the top-off September 7. (The Power Establishment's propaganda system insists on calling Manchin a "centrist" habitually attaches the adjective "moderate" to his name. What's he in the "center" of? Hard line reaction on one side and conservative status quo "liberals" on the other? And if he's "moderate," that makes anyone to his left immoderate, extreme. Detect any anti-progressive media bias there?)
$300 is only HALF the additional $600 per week the unemployed got from the Federal government LAST year under TRUMP!
Rather than the other 49 Democratic Senators blasting Manchin and insisting he support the party and his own party's president, Manchin got his way. Probably because they didn't really object.
This extortion was only possible because the Senate is divided, 50 Republicans who virtually always constitute a solid reactionary bloc, and 49 Democrats plus the Independent Senator Bernard Sanders of Vermont, who lines up with the Democrats most of the time.
So in order for the bill to pass, Manchin's vote was needed. Thus this creepy extortionist robbed around 10 million Americans of billions of dollars. Just do the math. $100 stolen off every check to 10 million people is a billion bucks. That's on every single payment, so the theft adds up to tens of billions, including the bulk of September where the robbery is $400 per check. (A 50-50 tie vote would be broken by the vice president, Kamala Harris.) (As of this writing, the U.S. Department of Labor on its website puts the number of people receiving unemployment compensation at 10.1 million people. Most of whom in turn support family members. So probably around 30 million people are partially or wholly dependent on these payments.)
Manchin benefits personally from his mass theft from millions of people. Manchin, like every U.S. Senator, represents the business interests of state. U.S. business benefits from keeping workers insecure and without recourse to significant state aid. It forces them to accept whatever wages and working conditions are dished out to them. This is called 'labor discipline" in capitalist economic terminology. And with only an insignificant fraction of the non-governmental labor force represented by unions (like 8%), workers have little leverage and scant bargaining power with companies and their bosses. The virtual destruction of organized labor in the U.S. was a project of the ruling elite spanning decades that has been hugely successful. Even assassinations were used in this magnificent achievement.
Manchin doesn't benefit personally from his attack on the welfare of tens of million of people just because his donors are pleased, and the local media (the propaganda arms of the capitalist elite) will continue to promote him, he also benefits very directly as half owner of a local hotel, where the workers are paid $8.81 an hour. Remember what I just explained about "labor discipline." Indeed, reactionaries have been screeching that "too generous" benefits will "discourage people from working," i.e. from working for miserly pay and little or no benefits.
West Virginia, the state that miserly Manchin "represents," is a poor state. As we see, Manchin is directly attacking the economic welfare of many of "his own" constituents.
And yet they vote for this bastard.
What is the explanation for such masochism?
Rank stupidity, I suppose. And the effects of years of establishment media lies and brainwashing and gaslighting, in particular letting Manchin get away with posing as a local Everyman to his "fellow West Virginians."
Since I am not a leftist, I don't have the leftist bias of putting "the people" on a pedestal and making excuses for the masses. To leftists, the millions who vote for reactionaries and con men are being tricked somehow, and "we" just need to "educate" them to enlighten them.
Well lefties have been yakking away at people for centuries in the U.S., and it has mostly been futile. The truth is, people are fundamentally irrational, and that is why they are immune to persuasion with mere facts. As the fascist Ronald Reagan once notorious said, "facts are stupid things." The Higher Truth of ideology trumps facts.
The power establishment's national propaganda system habitually designates Manchin as a "moderate." This is their deceptive lingo for rightwing but not fascist.
So meet the new boss of the U.S. Senate, same as the old boss. Before it was Mitch McConnell from the primitive state of Kentucky who ruled the Senate as Republican Majority Leader, or Fuhrer. Now it's Joe Manchin from the primitive backwater state of West Virginia, a state so mired in the past that people there refuse to let go of the coal industry- a criminal industry that has systematically destroyed the environment of the state
An acknowledgement of Manchin's grotesque power (but NOT a condemnation or criticism of it) came from long-time NPR figure Mara Liasson, who said "You're not gonna get rid of the filibuster or reform it without Joe Manchin on your side." [1]
I guess that means the Republicans will continue to have a veto over most legislation, since the "filibuster rule," an invention of racist Southern Senators in the 19th century intended to protect slavery- as if it needed more protecting- requires 60 votes out of 100 to do most ANYTHING in the U.S. Senate. (An exception was carved out for "budget reconciliation" bills, and the Democrats used that to push through the Manchin-crippled Covid Relief Bill.)
By the way, it was a BIG DEAL that took YEARS to "achieve" to change the filibuster rule from requiring 67 votes for "cloture." a fancy term for ending "debate," as if Senators actually debate.
"300 BUCKS A WEEK, AND NOT A PENNY MORE!" "Moderate" Manchin decides what you deserve.
1] "Brian Lehrer Show," Radio station WNYC, New York City, March 8, 2021, wnyc.org. NPR is National Public Radio, a creation of the U.S. government funded by the government and by corporations and private foundations. It is disseminated through a nationwide network of "public" radio stations, and of course on its website, npr.org.
The best overview of the awful nature of unemployment insurance in most of the U.S. was done by a comedian- a British comedian at that. The U.S. has so many "news" organizations, but since virtually all of them are run to protect and promote bourgeois class interests, they strive to keep much of reality invisible. Thus people think what they personally experience is unique to them and are brainwashed to believe that their economic problems are entirely their own fault. Make sure you watch Unemployment Last Week Tonight with John Oliver- March 8, 2021.
For U.S. Department of Labor statistics, click here.
