Manchin Raises Hopes Biden’s Big Bill Will Fail
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
After listening to Senator Manchin at the WSJ CEO Council yesterday, I believe more than ever that President Biden’s extraordinarily costly Green New Deal bill is going to be paused, then paused some more, and then killed next year.
Mr. Manchin essentially blitzed the big-government, socialist so-called triple-B spending bill, which gives me hope beyond hope. Save America, kill the bill.
Among the key points the senator made was asking: “You want me to go back to West Virginia and say, ‘Boys, if you can just stay unemployed for a little longer, you’ll get a raise’? None of this makes sense to me.”
On inflation, Mr. Manchin said 17 Nobel laureates “were wrong.” He called for “a strategic pause for spending and money creation,” adding that there have been “huge changes in our tax structures, social services, and energy. If we get any of those wrong, we’re in trouble.”
The West Virginian also said he does not want universal healthcare, and on the climate he said America is the only nation that has decreased its fossil fuel use (by the way, that is a point that I keep making). To boost the economy, we need more, not less energy of all kinds, he said.
The senator also criticized the Federal Reserve chairman, Jerome Powell, on quantitative easing, saying Powell “never took his foot off the pedal.” He thinks QE should end right now. By the way, the latest WSJ poll shows inflation is seen as the no. 1 problem in America today, and voters blame Mr. Joe Biden.
On inflationary spending, he said: “We’ve spent $5.4 trillion out the door, we have another $1.2 with the infrastructure bill…. I couldn’t get my head around $5.4. So I said give me something to compare it to — World War II. We saved the world, then you had the Marshall Plan rebuild Europe. In today’s dollars that would be $4.7 trillion.”
So, Congress proposes to spend more than the cost of winning World War II and funding the Marshall Plan to rebuild all of Europe.
Mr. Manchin also stressed that we’ve got to have border security. “The warning lights are up for a Democratic shellacking next year,” he said. The senator doesn’t care if he upsets the progressives, saying: “I’m not going to sell my soul for this. Don’t be afraid to get defeated.”
He also talked about leaving the Democratic Party: “If they would ask me to leave, I would just have to say — I guess I’ll abide by your wishes.”
I would ask that you process Mr. Manchin’s statements and wonder whether he is for the woke tax and spend and regulate socialism bill? I’m betting he’s against it, so things are looking good. Save America, kill the bill.