Sinema Explained

To win Ms. Sinema’s support, Democratic leaders agreed to drop a $14 billion tax increase on some wealthy hedge fund managers and private equity executives that she had opposed, change the structure of a 15 percent minimum tax on corporations, and include drought money to benefit Arizona. (Source)

Here's a Dem who really cares about the little guy. 

Update 8/8/22: I realize this is how politics work, but really--

Mr. Manchin’s recent surprise agreement to back the Biden administration’s historic climate legislation came about in part because the senator was promised something in return: not only support for the pipeline in his home state, but also expedited approval for pipelines and other infrastructure nationwide, as part of a wider set of concessions to fossil fuels.

It was a big win for a pipeline industry that, in recent years, has quietly become one of Mr. Manchin’s biggest financial supporters.

Natural gas pipeline companies have dramatically increased their contributions to Mr. Manchin, from just $20,000 in 2020 to more than $331,000 so far this election cycle, according to campaign finance disclosures filed with the Federal Election Commission and tallied by the Center for Responsive Politics. Mr. Manchin has been by far Congress’s largest recipient of money from natural gas pipeline companies this cycle, raising three times as much from the industry than any other lawmaker.

...A spokesman for Mr. Manchin said the Mountain Valley Pipeline “will help bring down energy costs, shore up American energy security and create jobs in West Virginia.” An official in Mr. Schumer’s office said the pipeline deal “was only included at the insistence of Sen. Manchin as part of any agreement related to this reconciliation bill.”

Good for Shumer for making the deal because it's a net positive, but what both Manchin and Sinema show is how the Senate works, which is to make it cheap and easy for big-money interests to thwart good legislation. They don't have to bother at all with the Republicans; all they have to do is pick off one or two venal Dems with bribes made legal by Citizens United. BTW, when people talk about blue-dog Democrats or moderate Democrats, they don't mean reasonable Democrats, but more often they mean those who like Manchin and Sinema are bribable by moneyed interests--fossil fuels, Wall Street broadly understood, and pharmaceuticals being the most notorious.