The Secret Reason Manchin Won’t Vote for Biden’s Infrastructure Plan
He doesn’t approve of tax breaks for drug addicts with kids
Photo by Mikail Duran on Unsplash
For months I’ve struggled to understand the ever-changing arguments Senator Joe Manchin has been citing for his refusal to support Biden’s Build Back Better plan. It seems like every time we got close to addressing his underlying concerns, they changed.
You may recall that Manchin told Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer that he wouldn’t support a bill larger than $1.5T. When he was criticized for naming a number without explaining which programs he would keep or cut, he claimed he had never quoted a specific dollar amount.
Then he backtracked and said he did name a number, but that was before he decided the real issue was “entitlements.” Joe Manchin is worried about creating an entitlement society. How ironic, coming from a member of American’s most entitled class: political elites.
He has said he is worried about inflation too, but he has balked at paying for the Biden plan by raising taxes on the rich.
Clearly, there is something else behind Manchin’s refusal to support the Biden agenda, but before we could figure it out, Manchin dropped a bombshell by appearing on FOX TV to announce that he was not going to support Biden’s Build Back Better plan. Period.
Why did he feel the need to announce it at all? Schumer hadn’t yet called for a vote, so why the rush? And why do it on FOX TV?
Who was Senator Manchin playing to?
It sounded to me like was trying to bamboozle his constituents into believing he’s just being responsible with taxpayer money and it has nothing to do with his personal situation (ties to coal and Big Pharma).
The pleading tone, the professions of earnestness as he explained to his lowly constituents that it would be irresponsible of him to invest in their future. He’s Big Daddy now. He knows best.
To confuse matters even more, on Monday, December 27, a full week after Manchin’s FOX TV appearance, the Washington Post published a piece saying that Manchin had supported the BBB plan in the first place solely so he could ensure the rich paid their fair share of taxes. I guess he didn’t care about the rest of it—the part where we invest in our future and attempt to undo the damage of long-neglected infrastructure and a pandemic that has contributed to an uncertain financial future for all of us.
That’s not important—Manchin wants to gut the Trump tax cuts and then he’ll talk about Biden’s plans for the country. But who was stopping Manchin from proposing this months ago? Did he think the Democrats would fight that idea?
I’ve long suspected Manchin is actually a Republican plant. All those parties on Manchin’s yacht have given the Senator the idea that he’s no longer expected to represent his constituents. Now that he has a bevy of Republican friends he can drink beer with while practicing denial and gaslighting — two of Republicans’ favorite past-times—who needs to worry about the people?
And now we have additional evidence of his having left the Left — if not in name, certainly in sentiment. In a statement that leaked into mainstream media, it’s come out that Manchin’s beef with Biden’s plan is a single piece of legislation that is so heinous he not only felt compelled to condemn the entire plan but needed to announce it on FOX TV: the Child Tax Credit.
That’s the deal-breaker for Senator Manchin. He just can’t stand the idea that a penny of his hard-earned tax dollars might end up in the hands of a drug addict with kids.
WHAT IF THEY BUY DRUGS WITH THAT MONEY?
West Virginia is a poor state. Do you think Manchin knows any drug addicts? Does he have personal knowledge of parents who buy drugs with their monthly tax credit instead of paying for childcare or diapers? Is this what keeps him up at night?
I guess the right approach then is to throw the kids back into poverty when the current child tax credit expires. That’ll teach those loser parents — let’s make them even poorer than they already are.
What Manchin is really saying, and it’s a typical Republican stance, is it’s okay to use government money to protect the wealthy but not the poor. Poor people need to go to church for charity — not the government.
Like many wealthy Republicans, Joe Manchin is probably generous to a fault as long as you share his Christian faith. But if you’re some heathen druggie, forget it, you’re on your own. They’ll punish your kids if they have to, but you’re not giving a dime of their money to some poor slob who should know better than to take drugs and let their kids suffer.
We’ll make those kids suffer even more — that’ll teach them.
I have tried to reason with people who think this way and they always end it with the same inane comment, “Well, we’ll just have to agree to disagree then.” This is a convenient conversation stopper and a fail-safe response to anyone who has the audacity to expose their failed logic.
You can point out that addicts need help and programs to assist them should be considered. I’ve even gotten a few to admit that most addicted people have been abused in some way and it’s not their fault. It doesn’t matter.
For Republicans, empathy ends when those needing help don’t share their beliefs.
Occasionally, they’ll offer help first, and follow up with the recruitment later — but the Church always includes conversion as part of the package, whether they admit it upfront or not.
I asked one such Republican (a so-called Christian) if she had to choose between helping a hundred people (knowing 5–10 might take advantage of the help in some way) and not helping anyone at all.
She said, without a second’s hesitation that if a single person could take advantage of her hard-earned tax dollars, she’d rather help no one.
It sounds to me like Manchin’s on the same page and he’s pretty dug in. If we want the Child Tax Credit to pass, eventually, we need to pass voting rights legislation first.
Let’s hope Manchin can see his way to supporting that.