Former West Virginia Blue Team Senator Joe Manchin told CNN's Michael Smerconish that the filibuster enabled the Senate to produce better legislation by including the minority.
Smerconish credited Manchin and Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema for saving the filibuster under the Biden administration. The filibuster specifically saved private equity underwriters' (PEU) preferred "carried interest" taxation for what feels like the tenth time.
Bondi's founder noted:
Washington DC is the modern day Rome, it’s the epicentre of politics, and Joe Manchin has been in the middle of it for more than two decades....
The Manchin decades saw the meteoric rise of PEUs, whose founders learned how to steer government policy while mining Uncle Sam's wallet.
Three months after leaving the collegial U.S. Senate Manchin joined the Ramaco Resources Board of Directors. Ramaco is 25% owned by Yorktown Partners, an energy focused PEU. A Ramaco proxy statement from April 30, 2025 noted:
Joseph Manchin III, age 77, has served as a director of our Company since April 18, 2025. He has served on the Board of Athene Holding Ltd. since February 2025 and is a member of Athene’s legal and regulatory committee. Senator Manchin has served as an adviser to Apollo since February 2025.
Politicians Red & Blue love PEU and their new TechGod/CryptoBro brethren. Increasingly, more are one. Manchin chose "the public servant to PEU advisor" route at the age of 77. Others choose to bring their greed and leverage skills to the federal government.
If the filibuster is being used to keep this power dynamic in place I would have to disagree with Manchin. It does not produce better legislation for the common citizen, who they ostensibly are there to serve.
