Manchin says no. Build Back Better appears to be indefinitely stalled in the U.S. Senate, with Senator Joe Manchin today issuing a statement that he would not vote for the bill. Sinema also recently gave an interview where she would not commit to voting yes, despite the package being massively popular in Arizona. This means that Congress will go home for the holidays without having passed anything more for working families than a glorified highway bill in the last several months.
Asymmetric warfare. Senator Sinema is once again defending her position on the filibuster, arguing that it prevents the country from “repeated radical reversal in federal policy”. Voting rights advocates point out how ridiculous this logic is, given that Republicans are continuing to gut voting rights state by state. In effect, Sinema is destroying any hope of passing federal voting rights legislation for the foreseeable future.
Omicron variant. Cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 are increasing in Arizona as hospitals struggle with capacity, with unvaccinated patients taking up ⅓ space in ICU’s. Meanwhile, Doug Ducey quietly issued an executive order restricting the state and other localities from issuing vaccination mandates. Read more about what we know about Omicron here.
Bernie’s reaction. Watch Senator Sanders’ response to Manchin’s announcement that he will not vote for Build Back Better.
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