We Need To Change How We Talk about the Standoff in Washington.

It’s a common refrain: Democrats lose the messaging war. That certainly feels apt in today’s political climate, where the conversation revolves around a “massive $3.5 trillion budget bill” and a “divide” between the “progressive” and the “moderate” wings in the Democratic Party. Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are wrongly portrayed as the last bulwarks against Democratic largesse, as if they have been consistent and disciplined budget hawks.

A quick reframing of the issue shows that there are much better—meaning more accurate and compelling—ways to talk about the current budget impasse and those who are creating it. Democrats are beginning to discover these in their talking points, so today I wanted to highlight three.

This would cost less than half the Pentagon’s annual budget.

When lawmakers talk about the Biden reconciliation bill, the total price tag is often used as shorthand. That’s $3.5 trillion over 10 years. But this number doesn’t really feel real or understandable to most people. It also assumes that future congresses won’t cut back the number, which is a big assumption. That’s why it’s far better to talk about how much it spends on programs like childcare, eldercare, climate change and prescription drug cost relief in a year and how small a part of the total picture this is.

Spread out over its 10 year lifespan, the budget bill spends $350 billion annually. That’s less than half what the Pentagon spends (somewhere north of $700 billion a year). Yet the Pentagon’s budget sails through with barely a discussion, while we are left fighting over the scraps. And they really are scraps: The total expenditures by the federal government were $6.6 trillion in 2020. Spending another $350 billion, though not negligible, is akin to tipping around 5% more on a restaurant bill of $66.

So we need to stop pretending this is some massive, unprecedented amount of money that is going to break the bank. The question is whether we will tip our hardworking staff 5% or 2% more on the dinner bill.

The Democrats Are Not Divided

If 96 percent of the country was in favor of something, you’d say we have rare unity—nearly unanimity—around it. The four percent holdouts would be the irrational ones. No one would say we are a country that’s divided. 

But when it’s 96 percent of our Democratic lawmakers in favor of Biden’s budget and agenda, somehow the party is in “disarray” and is “split.” This is misleading. There are not “wings” that comprise dozens of dissenting Democratic Congressmembers. There are two senators and a handful of House members. The only reason they have any power at all is because the Congress is evenly split and they are taking advantage of that, not because the Democrats lack unity.

Moreover, the plan under consideration isn’t the “progressive” plan, it is the Biden White House plan. The Progressive Caucus certainly is willing to fight for it by threatening to scuttle the infrastructure bill that the holdouts have championed, but this is the only leverage they have, and they are doing so in support of the president and his agenda. It is wrong to frame it as some far-left progressives trying to get their wish list. It is President Biden’s wishlist. It is what he ran and got elected on. We are fulfilling campaign promises with the budget bill.

Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema Are Corporate Obstructionists

Reading the headlines you’d think Manchin and Sinema were the sensible, consistent and principled ones who want to keep Democrats from spending money like it’s free. Never mind that the Biden budget is fully paid for by repealing much of the Trump tax cuts on corporations and the wealthy. This makes the plan immensely popular, even in conservative places like West Virginia. 

The truth is, Manchin said he was in favor of a $4 trillion infrastructure bill back in January right before Biden took office. Now his offer, added to the hard infrastructure bill he pushed for, is just half that on the “soft” expenditures. And Sinema used to tout her progressive bona fides, calling for free community college, using reconciliation to pass healthcare reform, pressing for the closing of tax loopholes so the rich pay their fair share, and even condemning the influence of secret corporate money in Congress—all before she became a sitting senator.

Big corporations and wealthy taxpayers are now cheering Manchin and Sinema—and they’re also lining their pockets. Manchin meets regularly with the fossil fuel industry lobbyists, and his son owns an energy firm that provides half a million in dividend income to Manchin yearly on top of the $65,000 Manchin’s campaign received from Exxon. Sinema took $750,000 from pharmaceutical companies and suddenly is against measures to reduce prescription drug prices. 

This isn’t hard to see or understand. But we have to frame this corruption correctly. These two senators are in the pockets of the very corporations who stand to lose if the Biden budget is passed. That’s why they want it cut by more than half. They aren’t centrists. They aren’t moderates. They’re corporate cronies and obstructionists.

In the coming days and weeks, negotiators will be hard at work, but so will the press. The White House and fellow members of Congress can’t come out and say bad things about Manchin or Sinema out of fear of disrupting the talks, but we the public certainly can voice our criticisms. We should do so loudly and consistently enough for the framing to shift.