Biden can save his Build Back Better agenda by just listening to Manchin

If you look really hard at Sen. Joe Manchin's statement on President Joe Biden's Build Back Better bill, you can find a tiny loophole. "I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation," he said.

This piece of legislation. But what if it changed? It’s time for Biden and Democrats to listen to Manchin’s longstanding demand to do less, and do it better and more permanently.

I say this as someone who until now was in the "do everything, just do it shorter" camp. History is littered, as they say, with scuttled deals and wrongheaded decisions that could have saved today's political parties from massive headaches and, more important, could have done all kinds of good for people, families and the economy. I completely understand the determination to try to fix all of these legacy messes in one massive bill.

'We should have jumped on that'

For instance, the late Sen. Edward Kennedy is remembered as a health care champion, and he racked up the accomplishments to prove it. But even he admitted that to his great regret, he failed to seize the moment when President Richard Nixon proposed major health reforms in the early 1970s. “We should have jumped on that,” he said decades later.

In 1974, when Kennedy was holding out for national health insurance, Nixon laid out a plan that would require employers to offer insurance and replace Medicaid with a government insurance program for the low-income, the unemployed, the disabled and other groups.

"It will cost no American more than he can afford to pay,” Nixon told Congress. “It uses public funds only where needed and requires no new federal taxes.”

Maybe Nixon was just trying to divert attention from the Watergate scandal, but so what? This would have been a major step in the right direction, with bipartisan buy-in.

Kennedy obviously could not foresee the brutal tribal politics that would brand President Barack Obama's similar yet less sweeping plan as a socialist plot. But he should have recognized even back then that progress is almost always incremental – a series of steps built one upon the other.

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Small changes, missed opportunities

Social Security covered less than 60% of American workers when it was enacted in 1935. Workers’ dependents and survivors were added in 1939, agricultural and domestic workers in 1950 and 1954, and a disability program in 1956.

Likewise, civil rights were not embedded in law in a single giant package. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned discrimination in employment and public places; the Voting Rights Act of 1965 banned literacy tests and authorized federal oversight; the Fair Housing Act of 1968 banned discrimination in housing; the 24th Amendment outlawed poll taxes in federal elections; and the Supreme Court banned poll taxes in state and local elections.

The other great "what might have been" that continues to dog America is the failure of the House to even bring up a landmark bipartisan immigration bill passed by the Senate in 2013. Imagine if Speaker John Boehner had just said yes, even knowing that his Republican base would be livid and that House Democrats would provide the bulk of support for it.

Obama ultimately took executive action to offer temporary, renewable work authorizations to young undocumented immigrants brought to America as children. Since then, immigration rhetoric and policy have descended into cruelty, injustice and incompetence. The Obama program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, has broad bipartisan support – but Congress repeatedly has failed to pass it as a standalone bill, and the Senate parliamentarian has said no every time Democrats try to put DACA and other changes to help immigrants into the Build Back Better Act.

Build Back Better is also a vehicle Democrats want to use to repair terrible damage from a 2012 Supreme Court decision that allowed states to reject a Medicaid expansion in the Affordable Care Act. The ruling has left millions of working poor and others in a coverage gap – they have too much income to qualify for the original Medicaid program and too little to afford private insurance on the ACA marketplaces.

Democrats should do all they can to avoid the tragedy of regrets like Kennedy's. Manchin wants 10-year programs that are fully paid for, instead of a grab bag of shorter programs that expire at different times. As he said Sunday, “We should be upfront and pick our priorities.”

He’s far from alone in that view; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said the same thing in October, and House moderates prefer that approach. Rep. Suzan DelBene, chair of the moderate New Democrat Coalition, described it Sunday as a “potential path forward.”

Democrats have a record to run on

That path, and those choices, seem fairly obvious at this point.

Research shows there are big payoffs when you invest in the young. That argues to include 10-year funding for universal pre-K and a child tax credit that is bigger than it used to be, refundable now for low-income families that don’t pay taxes, and is a monthly instead of annual payment. It has already cut child poverty but will expire this month unless it’s extended.

Democrats should also keep their fix for the Medicaid expansion gap – offering a subsidized federal alternative on the ACA marketplace – and fund it for 10 years. And they should hold firm on Build Back Better provisions to lower prescription costs, including allowing Medicare to negotiate prices. It’s good for consumers, it will save nearly $300 billion over 10 years, and Manchin supports it.

As for the important goals that must be let go, Democrats should pursue a bipartisan paid leave bill next year; some Republicans want one and might work with them. They should also propose a seniors package – adding dental, vision and hearing benefits to Medicare and strengthening the home health care workforce. If these initiatives fail in 2022, run on them.

Above all, as the campaign for Congress begins, perspective is vital. From COVID-19 vaccines and support for children to an "unbeatable" pandemic-era economic performance and a historic bipartisan infrastructure law, Democrats already have a record to run on. Whatever Build Back Better looks like in the end, it will be an addition to that record worth celebrating.

Jill Lawrence is a columnist for USA TODAY and author of "The Art of the Political Deal: How Congress Beat the Odds and Broke Through Gridlock." Follow her on Twitter: @JillDLawrence

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Joe Manchin reminds Biden that Democrats need him to build back better