Will Democrats Let Joe Manchin Throw Women Under The Bus?
A year ago, I did not have the following items on my 2021 Bingo Card: Kate Winslets perfect Eastern Pennsylvania accent; Lakers out in the first round of the playoffs; President Joe Biden moves to undo Hyde Amendment. But at the end of last month, Biden released his budget plan, and, sure enough, there was a proposal in there to end the Hyde Amendment, a 44-year-old law that bars federal funds (like Medicaid) from paying for abortion care, with rare exceptions. Were still a long way from having Hyde tossed ontoto misappropriate a Mike Pence-ism, which is itself a reappropriated Reaganism, which in turn was a misquoted description of medieval Romethe ash heap of history, but color me surprised that weve even arrived here, with President Biden taking a progressive stance on an issue that had long seemed unwinnable to many pro-choice advocates. Of course, none of this is settled yet. Presidents budgets are little more than litanies of things a president wants voters to think he wants, with the understanding that its Congress, and not the president, that ultimately has the power of the purse. Biden was a staunch proponent of the Hyde Amendment until 2019, when he found himself the odd candidate out in a crowded field of Democratic presidential hopefuls and changed his tune. But, while Im heartened by the fact that Biden stuck to a campaign promise to oppose Hyde if elected, Im still feeling cynical that Hyde is on its way out: in negotiations like this, it always seems like the first people who get things negotiated away from them are marginalized women and children. As we approach a summer of frustrating back-and-forth over issues like health care access, support for care infrastructure, and family leave, I worry that, once again, marginalized women and children will be left out in the coldonly to be told, once again, that the only way theyll get anything they need is in 2022, by voting for a party all too eager to negotiate them away from the table. In 2010, President Obama signed Executive Order 13535, a commitment to enforce the Hyde Amendment, much to the dismay of abortion rights groups that helped get him elected. The order was drafted and signed to appease a group of anti-abortion lawmakers in the House, in exchange for getting the Affordable Care Act passed. The Hyde Amendment has always been a measure that dissolves into stupidity under any close examination. Pregnancy and parenthood are expensive. Youd never see a congressman arguing that the only health conditions that the government should cover are freak accidents that werent the result of any questionable decisions, and youd never see a congressman arguing that a person who receives money from the government in other wayssay, writing mortgage interest off their taxesshouldnt be allowed to use that money however they wish, except in the case of women on Medicaid who have consensual sex and become pregnant as a result. And yet, How about no money for abortions? has been a bargaining chip in negotiating all manner of government compromises, many of which have nothing to do with reproduction or birth at all. Which brings us to now. NoManchin, as the perennial moderate polyp in the tubes of democracy, is implying that he may well use his position on the Senate Appropriations Committee to refuse to allow any budget to move to the floor of the Senate unless Hyde is preserved. Manchin says that this stance comes from the fact that hes a lifelong Catholic, an ideology that never seems to come up when Manchin is arguing against taxing the rich more heavily in order to fund social services for the poora group that Jesus was a pretty big fan of. Advertisement  But its not all bleak. This week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that, since negotiations with Republicans have failed, Democrats will go about passing President Bidens infrastructure package alone, through budget reconciliation. Schumer was careful to point out that the American Families Plan component of the packagewhich would provide aid for the care economy, universal pre-k, and paid family leavewas an essential component to the package and would not be left behind. Its going to be a long, annoying summer.