The Twitter Machine blew up last night with news from Axios that House Boat Owning Senator Joe Manchin threw another bomb into the Biden Legacy:

NEW: Sen. Manchin has told the White House the child tax credit must include a firm work requirement and family income cap in the $60k range, Axios has learned.

These demands would dramatically weaken one of Biden's signature programs. https://t.co/ZL5PHUfpBY

— Axios (@axios) October 17, 2021

Manchin is having a moment. He also dropped this:

Manchin is specifically demanding to eliminate the single most effective climate policy in the bill. https://t.co/B2E9o4gGvI

— David Roberts (@drvolts) October 16, 2021

The Clean Electricity Performance Program (CEPP) is key to fighting that little problem of climate change, and given there are parts of the bill that take into consideration the transitional issues that regions that rely on fossil fuel face, one wonders why he might feel this way. Oh…of course.

Not to pick on Old King Joe, because he’s not exactly the only poster child for why we need to get money out of politics. Manic Pixie Dream Senator Krysten Sinema does indeed support the CEPP, but on health care, she’s quite awful. See her mysterious opposition to the reconciliation bill’s prescription drug plan.

I wonder why she’s so against it? Oh…of course.

To be fair to Senator Felt-Cute-Thumbs-Downed-$15-Minimum-Wage, there is a handful of Democratic Congresspeoples who are also against lowering prescription drugs. And also receive big donations from pharmaceutical companies.

I would say how blatant this all is, as if they think we’re all stupid. But, it is working. They get called “common-sense thinkers” and the “adults in the room.” They rarely pay any sort of price for this sort of open cow-towing to donors. This is despite most Americans being against the influence of money in politics.

So, not doing anything about it, we’re in a world where the actual common-sense set of solutions for extremely pressing issues is in danger of not happening due to the money and power of a select few. It’s destroying the legacy of a man, Joe Biden, who seems to see the giant problems we all face in the future and is driven to try to fix them. Problems that likely will lead to great suffering if not properly addressed. If anyone thinks this is over-the-top hyperbole, ask the ghosts of people who drowned in their New York City basement apartments thanks to the remnants of Hurricane Ida last month.

The last word goes to the Minneapolis Royal.