Daily Verse | Hebrews 13:8
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Monday’s Reading: James 1-5

Happy Monday and finally — FINALLY — a moment of sanity from a Democrat. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) told Fox News Sunday that he would vote “no” on Biden’s Build Back Better (BBB) monstrosity of a spending bill. Assuming he’s telling the truth and not trying to strong-arm other concessions by threatening to vote no, that effectively kills BBB.

This of course sent liberals into hyperventilation mode about the end of democracy as though “democracy” is somehow dependent on trillions of untamed spending to stay alive.

Also, we’re a constitutional republic, not a democracy.

Responses were vicious.

A couple of Manchin’s colleagues took turns ripping him on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., started by accusing Manchin of lacking the courage to stand up to pharmaceutical companies, and an outraged Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., said the West Virginia senator was obstructing the president’s agenda.

Well, yes, Rep. Pressley, he is. He’s allowed to do that. Note that not all Republicans vote in lockstep, either. They had a chance to repeal Obamacare when Paul Ryan (*spit*) was speaker of the House with a Republican majority in both the House and the Senate and a Republican president — and they couldn’t get it done.

It’s insanity, the stuff the Democrats want to spend money on — money we don’t have, by the way.

Either way, even if something reemerges from the rubble, it is not going to be anything along the lines of the “transformational” type of legislation liberals envisioned earlier in the year. The idea was to augment the role of government in every aspect of individuals’ lives — with subsidized child care, a government takeover of preschool, more financing for college, a more generous Obamacare, and an expanded Medicare. Not to mention hundreds of billions of dollars in investments toward the Green New Deal. That magnitude of legislation is no longer in the cards, even if Manchin warms up to passing something.

Manchin’s a Democrat, but he’s a reasonable Democrat, probably the last of the species. (Well, there’s Kyrsten Sinema and Tulsi Gabbard. It’s a dying breed.) He has considered the enormous costs of the bill and can’t justify voting for it.

“I’ve always said this, Bret: if I can’t go home and explain to the people of West Virginia, I can’t vote for it,” Manchin told guest host Bret Baier. “And I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation. I just can’t. I’ve tried everything humanly possible. I can’t get there.”

He also cited other factors that helped him with his decision.

The senator said that the rise in inflation, the national debt and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic helped him come to his decision on the massive social spending bill.

Me? I’m so relieved that I’m thinking of writing a thank you note to Manchin. He just sank an incredibly irresponsible bill that would add a massive amount of debt to an already massive amount of debt.

America owes him a debt of gratitude.