Chuck Todd loves the debt-ceiling deal - because it's "bipartisan"
So does Joe Manchin because of that and also because he got his pet Mountain Valley Pipeline project as part of the deal
The surest sign the debt-ceiling deal was a disaster for Democrats: Chuck Todd praised it to high heaven on Sunday.1 For its Bipartisanship, of course. Bipartisanship in Chuck’s world of corporate journalism means “Republicans win.”
West Virginia coal baron Joe Manchin, who sunk Biden’s Build Back Better Bill and a new Voting Rights, Act and who refused to raise the debt ceiling while the Democrats still held the House, thinks the Bipartisan (i.e., Republican) victory on the debt ceiling fight is just awesome. Chuck does give him a softball question about Manchin’s own big present to his fellow polluters, the Mountain Valley Pipeline.2 On NBC, that passes for cutting-edge journalism.
Republican Sen. Mike Rounds basically mocks ole Chuck in the immediately following interview, telling Chuck, “You worked Joe over pretty hard there,” with a mocking grin on his face.
Rounds begins by saying his top concern in the agreement was to make sure the defense budget keeps going up and up and up. Mission Accomplished, Mike!
Mainstream pundits and virtually all ÚS politicians at the moment, it seems, don’t even want to allude to the scandalous waste and pork-spending in the military budget these days.3 And NBC wouldn’t want to endanger advertising from arms manufacturers by making a big deal of such concerns.
Meet the Press full broadcast — June 4. NBC News YouTube channel 06/04/2023. (Accessed 2023-05-06).
Facundo, Jarod (2023): Manchin’s Pipeline Payoff Strangles Future Permitting Reform Negotiations. The American Prospect 06/02/2023. <https://prospect.org/economy/2023-06-02-manchin-pipeline-payoff-future-permitting-reform/> (Accessed: 2023-03-06).
Is Congress Captured by the Arms Industry? Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft YouTube channel 03/15/2023. <https://www.youtube.com/live/PR9GjyL3QVI?feature=share> (Accessed: 2023-05-06).