Bernie wants answers from Manikin

Yes Manikin, as in a lifeless tool for the rich to hang their bribes on. He said the likes of Build Back Better was making our country "an entitlement society." Weird coming from one of the most entitled people on the planet. So Bernie asks him to answer these questions. I don't expect any answers, as there are no good ones after a comment like that.

"Does that mean that we end the $300 direct payments for working class parents which have cut childhood poverty in half in America? Is protecting working families and cutting childhood poverty an ‘entitlement’?

"Does Senator Manchin think we should once again have one of the highest levels of childhood poverty of any major country on earth?

"At a time when millions of seniors have teeth in their mouths which are rotting, when they can’t afford hearing aids to communicate with their grandkids, when they can’t afford a pair of glasses to read a newspaper, does Senator Manchin believe that seniors are not entitled to digest their food and that they are not entitled to hear and see properly? Is that really too much to ask in the richest country on earth?

"Does Senator Manchin not believe that seniors and people with disabilities are entitled to stay in their homes, rather than be forced into expensive and understaffed nursing homes? If that’s what he believes than let him tell us that.

"Does Senator Manchin not believe that we have to end the absurdity of paying, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs - sometimes ten times more for a particular drug than any other country?“Does Senator Manchin believe that we should be the only major country on earth not to guarantee paid family and medical leave? And that working mothers should not be able to stay at home with a sick kid? Are workers not entitled to that?

"Does Senator Manchin believe that working class parents in Vermont and West Virginia should have to pay 25 or 30 percent of their incomes on childcare so that they can go to work and make sure that their kids are decently taken care of? 

"Are the children of this country not entitled to high quality childcare and pre-K education?

"Does Senator Manchin not believe that working families in this country are entitled to affordable housing and that we should not have some 600,000 people in America including many veterans who are homeless?

"Does Senator Manchin not believe that at a time when we have a major labor shortage because our young people lack the skills they need that they are not entitled to at least two years of free community college?

"And, perhaps, most importantly, does Senator Manchin not believe what the scientists are telling us that we face an existential threat regarding climate change, and that it is absolutely imperative that we move boldly to cut carbon emissions?

"Are our children and grandchildren not entitled to live in a healthy and habitable environment?

"Senator Manchin has been critical of the $3.5 trillion proposal that many of us support.  But the time is long overdue for him to tell us with specificity what he wants and does not want and explain that to the American people."