West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin’s opposition this week to a controversial Federal Reserve nominee was just the latest example of the centrist Democrat’s willingness to stand in the way of his party’s most liberal impulses.
Manchin’s announcement Monday that he would not vote to confirm Sarah Bloom Raskin, President Joe Biden’s pick to oversee banks at the Fed, was the death knell for a nominee whose history of left-wing positions had already drawn scrutiny from Republicans.
Democrats have for months made Manchin a target of their frustrations over Biden’s stalled agenda.
FIVE OF THE MOST SCATHING DEMOCRATIC ATTACKS ON JOE MANCHIN
The White House had initially responded to Manchin’s latest opposition by saying it would continue to pursue the votes for Raskin’s confirmation, just as White House officials have in the past attempted to move bills and nominations forward in the face of Manchin’s previous objections.
But Manchin’s will again prevailed, with Raskin withdrawing from consideration just one day after he said he would not support her.
Here are some of the most recent roadblocks Biden has thrown in front of his own party.
SARAH BLOOM RASKIN
Biden’s Fed nominee had faced an uncertain future for weeks due to questions about her past climate-related statements, but it wasn’t until Manchin formally announced he would not back her that the path forward for Raskin’s confirmation collapsed.
Raskin had previously made comments about the importance of shifting the economy toward a green agenda that made Republicans worried she would use her position overseeing banks to pursue liberal climate change policies.
She’d also faced scrutiny for her work at a firm that received favorable treatment from the Fed after she joined it.
Manchin said Monday that Raskin had “failed to satisfactorily address my concerns about the critical importance of financing an all-of-the-above energy policy to meet our nation’s critical energy needs.”
His objection meant Democrats had to find a Republican to cross the aisle and support Raskin’s nomination in the 50-50 Senate. But when centrist GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine also emerged in opposition to Raskin on Monday, the chances of Raskin proceeding plummeted.
AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN
While Manchin ultimately voted to pass the $1.9 trillion stimulus package that Democrats said was necessary to ease the effects of the pandemic, he extracted concessions from his colleagues when they worked to pass the bill early last year.
Manchin fought to lower the income threshold at which Americans could claim stimulus checks, for example, making only those earning less than $80,000 eligible rather than those earning less than $100,000.
He also successfully pushed to impose modest limits to the enhanced unemployment benefits the federal government was then offering to states, advocating for an earlier expiration date for the benefits as well as a lower price tag.
BUILD BACK BETTER
Manchin’s most infamous obstruction of the Biden agenda to date came when he pulled the plug on negotiations over the Build Back Better Act, a sweeping spending proposal that had already been significantly whittled down in an effort to earn his support.
The West Virginia lawmaker first began signaling he could not support the package that was then taking shape last summer, when Democrats set out to pass a bill that would cost several trillion dollars and include expansive social and climate programs.
By mid-December, Manchin had grown openly frustrated with the White House and its attempts to pin the blame for delays in passing Build Back Better solely on him.
Manchin said in a statement at the time that inflation and economic uncertainty had driven him to oppose the bill outright rather than to continue seeking middle ground with the rest of his party.
Beyond the massive price tag, Manchin also opposed specific elements of the bill that came together during negotiations, including an enhanced child tax credit that came with no work requirement or limit on who could claim it.
VOTING RIGHTS
Democrats have flirted with significant voting reforms at several points since Biden took office, but Manchin helped to derail their first and most ambitious attempt to pass such a measure.
In June last year, Manchin came out against a sprawling election and campaign finance reform bill that had attracted intense criticism from Republicans.
He wrote in an op-ed for a West Virginia newspaper at the time that passing the For the People Act would not protect democracy, as Democrats were arguing, but would instead hasten its destruction.
“Voting and election reform that is done in a partisan manner will all but ensure partisan divisions continue to deepen,” he said.
The For the People Act would have gone well beyond expanding access to the ballot box and would have made changes to the way political groups report their donations and how states can draw their congressional maps, among other things.
FILIBUSTER REFORM
Liberal Democrats and the White House openly suggested modifying the filibuster last year in order to pass voting reforms and other partisan bills that had no chance of attracting the 60 votes necessary to pass through regular order.
Manchin was not the only Democrat to oppose changing the Senate rules. Fellow centrist Sen. Kyrsten Sinema also said she would not support lowering the bar for passing legislation despite enormous pressure from the Left for her to do so.
But Manchin continued to be the face of opposition to a procedural change that liberals fiercely demanded last year, and advocacy groups also heaped pressure on him to change his position on the filibuster.
NEERA TANDEN
Biden’s first choice to lead the Office of Management and Budget withdrew from consideration last year after she failed to attract 50 votes and faced opposition from, among others, Manchin.
Neera Tanden was among Biden’s first wave of nominees announced after the inauguration, and her role as the president of the Center for American Progress, a prominent liberal group, appealed to many on the Left.
But her past tweets deriding fellow Democrats and Republicans quickly became a problem during her confirmation process.
Manchin said in February last year that her social media behavior disqualified her, in his opinion, to become the next budget director.
Tanden pulled out of the process several weeks later when two of the most centrist Republican senators, Collins and Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, also said they would not support her, denying Democrats the chance to compensate for Manchin’s opposition by picking up a Republican vote.
Biden did not choose another permanent nominee to lead the OMB for months. His eventual pick, Shalanda Young, was confirmed Tuesday.
ABORTION PROTECTIONS
Manchin was the lone Democrat to break with his party and join Republicans in voting against debate on a bill earlier this year that would have created a federal law protecting the right to abortion.
While Democrats fell well short of the 60-vote threshold they would have needed to pass the bill, Manchin’s opposition allowed Republicans to characterize opposition to a federal abortion protection as bipartisan — something that has often irritated Democrats about Manchin’s constant alignment with the GOP.
Manchin is one of the few anti-abortion Democrats in Congress.
