Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) had enough of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) focus on Wall Street instead of on the health and financial well-being of the American people and their families, going so far as to call him out to his face on the Senate floor.
Manchin has been frustrated with the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic from the beginning, especially after President Donald Trump touted West Virginia for not having a case yet (at the time of his boast) despite the fact that the state lacked tests.
But Manchin had even more reason to be ticked off after Senate Republicans tried to pass a bill this week that hands billions of dollars to corporations that was sure to be blocked by Democrats rather than a bill focusing solely on getting healthcare workers and American families what they need.
After McConnell blamed Democrats for the bill not passing, Manchin used his time to skin the Kentucky Republican alive.
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“You can throw all the money at Wall Street you want to,” Manchin began. “People are afraid to leave their homes. They’re afraid of the healthcare. I’ve got workers who don’t have masks. I’ve got healthcare workers who don’t have gowns. And it looks like we’re worried more about the economy than we are the healthcare and the well-being of the people of America.”
McConnell interrupted by urging swift passage of a bad bill.
“The American people are waiting for us to act today!” he said. “We don’t have time for this! We don’t have time for it! In what way would the Democratic Party be disadvantaged?”
It’s not that the Democrats are “disadvantaged,” it’s that the bill Republicans crafted themselves with no input from Democrats gives $500 billion to corporations that don’t need bailouts. The American people need a bailout more. But Republicans are trying to fleece taxpayers out of more money for corporations while not giving any aid to those who actually need it, and that simply is not tolerable.
Manchin pointed out that McConnell could use the nuclear option and pass the bill via majority vote, but he wants Democratic support because bipartisan passage would take some of the heat off Republicans when the public discovers that they’ve been swindled again for the sake of Wall Street getting richer.
McConnell attempted to respond, but Manchin reclaimed his time and continued hammering away.
“We just have a little different opinion about this,” Manchin said. “You can’t throw enough money to fix this if you can’t fix the healthcare. My health care workers need to be protected. But it seems like we’re talking about everything else about the economy versus the healthcare. That doesn’t make any sense to me whatsoever. It seems like we’re more concerned about the healthcare of Wall Street. That’s the problem that I’ve had on this.”
Here’s the video via YouTube:
Featured image via screen capture
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