Senators Joe Manchin and Bernie Sanders were filmed walking together after meeting outside the US Capitol.
As reporters descended upon them they stopped for a photo op.
"Why don't you get a picture of us, huh?" Manchin said
Manchin said, "We're talking." Bernie replied, We're talking."
A reporter asked, "Will you have a resolution by the end of the week?"
"We're talking, we're gonna make some progress."
"Keep fighting, Bernie." Manchin said, in what appeared to be a friendly jest.
Makes you wonder what they are discussing? Why isn't Manchin negotiating for families in West Virginia that would see great returns from the Biden agenda?
All of Manchin's objections to the plan, Build Back Better is very good for his state as a whole.
Popular Information writes,
"A report published by the Harvard School of Public Health found that passing a Clean Energy Standard would, by 2050, avoid 14 premature deaths per 100,000 people in West Virginia — more than “any other state except Kentucky.”
Paul Krugman explains that WV reliance on coal is dwindling and will continue to do so because "basically West Virginia stopped being coal country a generation ago."
And Manchin's people need help.
Adults in their prime working years are substantially less likely to be employed in West Virginia than in the nation as a whole. That’s not because West Virginians are lazy; it’s because economic change has stranded substantial parts of the U.S. heartland, leading to a loss of job opportunities.
Growing regional economic disparities are a serious problem, with no easy solutions. But given that they exist, it’s sheer cruelty to refuse to help children unless their parents take jobs that may not exist — and the cruelty is most intense in a troubled state like West Virginia.
Let's hope by the end of the month Sen. Manchin comes around. Not only does this country need the Biden agenda to pass, but West Virginia is in desperate need of its help too.
