Throwing a monkey wrench into 79-year-old Joe Biden’s $1.75 trillion Build Back Better [BBB] plan, 74-year-old Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W..V.), pulled the rug out from underneath Democrat Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and his progressive caucus in the House led by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). Biden knows he just passed a $1 trillion infrastructure bill Nov. 15, looking to load up on his big government spending with his $1.75 trillion BBB plan. Progressives hoped to fund a whopping $600 billion for so-called climate change, a bill that has more to do with funding the nuclear power industry than promoting renewable energy. Biden hoped to pay for universal pre-school and childcare, something progressives like Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) think helps give the black community a leg up at a time she advocates de-funding police departments around the country.
Manchin had enough of the beat down by progressive in the wake of George Floyd’s May 225, 2020 death at the hands of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Progressive have their hooks in Biden, who once described himself as a moderate but has turned out more liberal than his former boss, President Barack Obama. Manchin watched the Federal Reserve Board recently declare the worst U.S. inflation in 40 years, attributed to many factors, including supply chain shortages due to the Covid-19 global pandemic. But, more than the pandemic, 69-year-old Fed Chairman Jerome Powell cited high levels of government borrowing and spending as the main culprit fueling inflation. Manchin, in clear conscience, couldn’t go along with the Democat herd that more spending is better for the economy. Progressives don’t care about inflation, only climate change and childcare.
Making matters worse for Democrats, progressives like Bernie and Omar slammed Manchin for throwing a roadblock into Biden’s signature legislation. “I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation,” Manchin said on Fox News Sunday, citing concerns about inflation. “I just can’t. I have tried everything humanly possible,” referring to meeting directly with the White House about his concerns. Manchin, a true fiscal conservative, can’t see spending $1.75 trillion on top of the Nov. 15 $1 trillion infrastructure bill. My Democrat colleagues in Washington are determined to dramatically reshape our society in a way that leaves our country even more vulnerable to the threats we face,” Manchin said in a statement. When Manchin talks about reshaping society, he’s talking about progressives hell-bent to turning the country into a socialist state, much like the European Union.
Manchin, and of course the Republican Party, sees Biden’s BBB plan as a massive concession to minorities, looking for more government handouts, like health and childcare. Sanders and AOC make no bones of how they see their job in Congress to get the rich, including corporations, to subsidize under-served populations, especially African Americans. Sanders and AOC supported the original $3 trillion BBB plan, wanting much more cash to go into minority communities. Both back slavery reparations for blacks that would cost the U.S. treasury some $15 trillion. Manchin sees the harm to the U.S. economy of runaway borrowing-and-spending, sooner or later sinking the U.S. economy. While Manchin sees inflation as a threat to economic recovery, Sanders and AOC look the other way, pressing Biden to spend more and more on Democrat socialism, despite damage to the economy.
Reacting harshly to Manchin’s decision to block the BBB plan, Omar got vile. “Let’s be clear: Manchin’s excuse is bull—-.” Bernie called for a full vote in the Senate to publicly flog Manchin for stopping his signature legislation designed, as Machin said, to fundamentally change American society. Biden thinks that paying for climate change, health care and childcare, all would help the economy recover from the pandemic. But with the Omicron variant putting some doubt about economic recovery, Machin thinks spending a trillion dollars on climate change, health and a childcare risking more debt and higher inflation. Democrats haven’t shown, even with increased taxes on the rich and corporations, that they wouldn’t add to the $29 trillion national debt and $3 trillion federal budget deficit, both devaluing the U.S. currency and fueling more inflation with no end in sight.
Whether hated or not by his party’s progressive base, Manchin showed a profile in courage, doing what’s right, not what the Democrat herd wants him to do. Manchin grew up admiring President John F. Kennedy’s, whose Pulitzer-prize-winning book “Profiles in Courage” showcased American politicians who made tough choices, putting patriotism over party. “If he doesn’t have the courage to do the right think for the working families of West Virginia and America, let him vote no in from of the whole world,” Bernie Sanders said, heaping even more pressure on Manchin. Sanders and other liberals are such zealots for the socialist cause, they don’t respect the opposition that has good reasons to oppose more profligate government spending. “This is exactly what we warned would happen if we separated Build Back Better from infrastructure,” Omar said. Without separating both bills, Democrats would have nothing.
