Joe Manchin Gets the Worst News of His Career

West Virginians have handed Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin a huge thumbs down after his enthusiastic support made possible the Senate’s passage of the disingenuously named Inflation Reduction Act last month.

A new poll released on Wednesday by Jackson County, West Virginia, radio station WMOV 1360 AM and Triton Polling and Research showed that a whopping 66.1 percent of respondents had an “unfavorable impression” of Manchin and just 26.3 percent had a “favorable impression,” according to The Parkersburg News and Sentinel. Of the 762 participants, 3.8 percent were “unsure” and 3.6 percent had “no opinion.”

The poll, conducted between Aug. 24-26 by automated telephone calls, had a 3.5% margin of error, the report said.

Although Manchin does not face reelection until 2024, the WMOV/Triton survey also looked at how Manchin would fare against several potential challengers if the election were held today. The poll found the senator would lose to his 2018 opponent, Republican Patrick Morrissey, the state’s attorney general, by a margin of 49.5 to 36.2 percent. Manchin narrowly defeated Morrissey four years ago by less than 20,000 votes or 3.3 percent.

In a matchup with Republican Rep. Alex Mooney, who represents West Virginia’s 2nd congressional district, Mooney would prevail by a margin of 44.9 to 37.9 percent.

Finally, the poll found that the state’s current governor, Republican Jim Justice, would defeat Manchin by 46.5 to 32 percent.

The News and Sentinel reported that, at last month’s West Virginia Republican Executive Committee Summer Meeting, party leaders said that defeating Manchin in 2024 would be a “top priority.”

Manchin was considered a hero by Republicans last year for his opposition to President Joe Biden’s signature Build Back Better spending bill. The senator understood that passage of this bill would not only worsen inflation, but would needlessly increase our already out of control national debt. Bucking his party, he understood that the rising rate of U.S. inflation was not temporary.

But that was then and this is now. On August 16, Biden signed the $737 billion Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 into law. Manchin, one of the supposedly last centrist Democrats left in Washington, stunned politicos by not only supporting, but proudly joining with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to introduce the bill in late July.

And as a result, the public is now saddled with this boondoggle of a bill that analysts agree will not reduce inflation. It will, however, raise taxes on the middle class and subsidize green energy programs.

The IRA will also dramatically expand the scope and size of the IRS. In fact, it increases IRS funding by $80 billion, nearly six times its current annual budget of $13.7 billion, and adds an army of 87,000 new auditors to its ranks. Given that the IRS has been stockpiling weapons in recent years, buying up $700,000 in ammunition this year alone, this truly gives new meaning to the phrase, “weaponization of U.S. institutions.”

 

Manchin’s turnabout was especially egregious because the Labor Department had just announced that inflation had climbed by 9.1 percent, year over year, in June, a level unseen in 40 years.

Up until then, the West Virginia senator had been the single vote standing between the Democrats’ passage of needless and expensive climate change legislation and fiscal sanity. So, why did Manchin cave?

He did so because, contrary to the image of integrity he’s tried so hard to project, Manchin had a price, and Schumer agreed to pay it.

In order to secure Manchin’s vote, Biden and Democratic leaders promised to facilitate the approval of a gas pipeline in West Virginia. This would require passage of legislation that would “overhaul the permitting process for energy infrastructure,” according to The American Prospect, a liberal website.

Unfortunately for Manchin, the promised legislation may never materialize.

The Hill reported last week that Schumer promised to attach permitting reform to the “short-term continuing resolution to fund the government, which he said must get passed this month.” On Wednesday, Schumer told reporters, “Our intention is to add it to the CR.”

Opposition to this legislation among Democratic lawmakers is fierce, especially in the House. According to the Hill, Schumer’s decision to add it to the CR “will make it tougher for House progressives, who feel little obligation to help Manchin pass one of his top energy development priorities, to block it.”

Even so, there are indications that Schumer may not be able to deliver.

 

And wouldn’t that be the ultimate payback?

 

A previous version of this article appeared on The Western Journal.
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3 thoughts on “Joe Manchin Gets the Worst News of His Career”

  1. “He did so because, contrary to the image of integrity he’s tried so hard to project, Manchin had a price, and Schumer agreed to pay it.”

    That’s all it was ever about, and now that it is time to collect on the debt, the Democrat senators are doing an about face and rejecting Manchin’s deal. May Manchin rot for being that “supposedly centrist Democrat” that he never was. It was always about what winds up in his back pocket.

  2. One cannot sit on two chairs at once (at least successfully). Manchin should have been consistent in his support of limiting federal government spending. His support of the Inflation Reduction Act was a big flip for him and an obvious disappointment to his voters. When the music stops, I wonder if Manchin will have any place to sit?

  3. I’ll bet that the ‘price’ included way more than a pipeline. Manchin surly knew he crapped the bed in his home state with this decision, so there must have been something in the ‘price’ to compensate Manchin personally and directly. That’s how the dems roll.

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