West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin orchestrated a media blitz on Sunday in a last-ditch effort to defend his decision to vote in favor of a huge Democrat spending package.
Manchin, who is oftentimes viewed as the only remaining moderate Democrat in the US Senate, appeared on n CNN’s State of the Union, Fox News Sunday, ABC’s This Week program, CBS News’s Face the Nation, and NBC’s Meet the Press to try and shore up his conservative-leaning base around the new spending package expected to cost $739 billion, dubbed the “Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.”
On FOX News the conservative Senator sang a different tune, trying to reassure the conservative audience that he is still on their side fighting inflation. He said, “I’m just going to fight like the dickens to make sure this piece of legislation gives us relief and fights inflation and is great for America.”
Meanwhile Manchin told NBC’s Chuck Todd that the new bill, which will raise the corporate tax rate to pay for its steep costs, will cost nothing, “I agree with my Republican friends. We should not increase taxes. And we did not increase taxes.”
Manchin also dodged questions about his colleague Senator Krysten Sinema, who has not said whether or not she will join him in voting for the bill. If she defects, the Democrats will not have the vote to pass it.
“Sen. Sinema is my dear friend. I have all the respect for her, she’s extremely bright and works very, very hard. She has an awful lot in this piece of legislation, the way it’s been designed as far as the reduction of Medicare — letting Medicare go ahead and negotiate for lower drug prices,” told ABC.
Joe Manchin is well known for bucking the liberal trends and has been a thorn in Biden’s side since day 1. Why do you think he decided to vote on the huge spending package?
