Bipartisan Infrastructure Talks Recall Heated Health Care Summer of 2009 nytimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from nytimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Maddow Blog | Max Baucus wants Dems to learn from his Obama-era experiences MSNBC 1 hr ago Steve Benen
Asked this week about prolonged infrastructure talks, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) suggested he didn t much care about dragging out bipartisan negotiations. This is the long game, it s not a short game, the conservative Democrat told reporters.
As we discussed yesterday, Senate Dems took a similar approach 12 years ago on the Affordable Care Act. Indeed, there was a Gang of Six a group of three Democratic senators and three Republican senators, led by then-Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) which was ostensibly focused on crafting a bipartisan health care reform package. The gang invested months into fruitless negotiations, in which Democrats pleaded for GOP votes that did not, and would not, materialize.
"I doubt you're going to see much bipartisanship in the end," the Montanan said. "Frankly, a lot of Republicans would rather not see a bipartisan bill."
The familiar flaw in Joe Manchin s long game on infrastructure
In 2009, Max Baucus wasted precious time begging for GOP votes on health care. In 2021, Joe Manchin is making the same mistake on infrastructure.
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., presides over a confirmation hearing for presidential appointments on Capitol Hill on May 18, 2021.J. Scott Applewhite / AP
May 26, 2021, 3:20 PM UTC
BySteve Benen
It took about a year for Democrats to pass the Affordable Care Act, but that wasn t the timeline then-President Barack Obama had in mind. On the contrary, Obama wanted to see the health care debate wrap up in 2009, creating possible windows of opportunity in 2010.