Senator Joe Manchin has the opportunity to be remembered as a transformative figure in American history, and especially in West Virginia. Instead, he is clinging to antiquated and debunked ideas about poverty, about the ways government can, or should, help its citizens in times of need, about expanding health care, and, he holds on to failed economic theories and GOP style “beliefs” about “big government” and spending on citizens, instead of looking at the actual costs—both economic and social—of a failure to substantially, and fully, invest in our people.
We’ve seen the success of large scale investments in our citizens and businesses before—the American Recovery Act, and the CARES Act, are just two examples. The Build Back Better Plan, while larger in both scope and cost, would not, as opposed to the aforementioned, simply be a stop gap measure to avert economic catastrophe, but rather, is a forward looking plan to invest in our citizens, and move our nation past the devastating effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as carve a bold, forward looking path into the future, as our nation proceeds through the 21st Century.
West Virginia, a state with a 16% poverty rate, is poised to be particularly ravaged by flooding due to climate change. It is ranked 47th in the nation on health care (with the highest opioid addiction rate), and 44th in education. It’s a state where many people don’t have broadband access, some folks lack running water altogether (never mind clean running water), and where the population declined 3.2 percent in the last decade, due to a combination of higher death rates, lower birth rates, and an exodus of citizens, particularly younger ones.
Instead of supporting a plan that would help his constituents, as well as the rest of the people of this nation, Manchin is refusing to expand medicaid, or to provide medicare vouchers, and punishing poor families by demanding that a work requirement be added to the child tax credit (thereby cutting off at the knees, those who are unemployed through no fault of their own, just when their families most need the help, and because, you know, those poor folks are just lazy). Manchin refuses to address the corruption caused by dark money in our elections (gee I wonder why), and panders to a coal industry that—while yes, is still a large part of West Virginia’s overall economy, employs a minority of its workers, and which will inevitably, and indisputably, be phased out in the years to come as the world grapples with the climate crisis. In fact, Manchin generally acts like a man out of a different time, living in a world where fossil fuels are king, and a pared down, skeleton of a plan will somehow suffice to address, not only our current post-pandemic problems, but prepare a nation with 328 million souls, and a global responsibility as a world leader, for the future.
Sadly, Manchin seems to be pretending that all these issues can’t be, and shouldn’t be, addressed by government investment in people and development, or that it can’t be afforded, despite the plan’s intention to pay for itself via higher taxes on wealthy Americans, and the corporations profiting the most off of our workers, infrastructure, and damaging climate policies. To make matters worse, he is doing so in opposition to the will of the majority of American voters who chose his party, and Biden, to do exactly these things.
Manchin affects an “aw shucks, I’m a proud lifelong Democrat, but I am a conservative one,” faux, good old boy persona, yet he is a) placing the entire party over a barrel and abusing his current position, b) weakening, or possibly destroying the party’s chances of retaining control of Congress next year, thereby putting paid to every single one of Biden’s policies, c) actively harming the people of his state, and this nation, d) refusing to evolve and see past antiquated thinking, but d) likely doing all of this, not for an “aw shucks,” old school reason, but for his and his family’s self interest as beneficiaries of big income from coal (he and his wife cleared some $1.6 million from coal alone last year), would be payers of higher taxes under the new structure, and the usefulness of his name/influence to benefit his family’s fortunes (like his daughter, for example).
The press keeps vilifying Senator Sinema, not without good reason, but they’re doing so while giving Manchin a pass, constantly reminding us that he has always been conservative, and hails from a red state—as if his Blue Dog bona fides somehow forgive this utter bullshit, or make the breadth of his recalcitrance reasonble. They don’t. Manchin represents a state with 1.76 million residents, yet he is thumbing his nose at the over 81 million Americans who voted for Biden (and his ambitious plans), as well as the approximately 200 million other constituents represented by Democrats in the Senate2. At the end of the day, Manchin is not a latter day Mr. Smith, but just another in a long line of snake oil salesmen, and corrupt corporate wonks.
Instead of history remembering Manchin as a man who played a pivotal role in our nation’s, and West Virginia’s future, he’ll be remembered as a greedy, petty, power hungry man who held the lives and well being of 328 million Americans hostage, for a few years of profits and fleeting backslapping.
Footnotes
I’m not pretending that transitioning away from coal isn’t a huge undertaking for West Virginia, but moving proactively toward it, transitioning workers and industries to it while the ball is still in West Virginia’s court, as opposed to pretending coal is going to make a resurgence, is going to be a lot less painful than when the bottom inevitably falls out of the coal industry. In 2019, coal fired plants still accounted for 91% of West Virginia’s energy output. It’s clear they aren’t taking climate change, or the need to transition away from coal, seriously.
2. Manchin’s $60,000 income cap for the expanded child tax credit, for example, works great for West Virginia, where HUD’s “low income” guideline for Charleston is $48,900 for a family of four, but the same “low income” level for a family of four in Los Angeles is $94,600.
Musings of a Restless Mind 