Joe Manchin Doesn't Like What Joe Biden Is Doing

[Celerity]

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/19/opinion/manchin-biden-child-tax-credit.html



The expanded child tax credit is not the most ambitious policy in President Biden’s “Build Back Better” plan, but it might be the one that says the most about the current direction of the Democratic Party.

The monthly payment to most families with children — authorized, on a temporary basis, by the American Rescue Plan — represents a shift away from the austerity-minded thinking of much of the past 30 years of Democratic policymaking. To help parents with no strings attached (and with as little red tape as possible) is to reject, in a small but significant way, the idea that families should have to rely on the market to survive.

If this is the case, it is no surprise to learn that in exchange for his support of the president’s human infrastructure bill, the conservative Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia would like his colleagues to end the nearly universal child tax credit and replace it with a pared-down alternative, according to a report in Axios. In something of a throwback to the days of “welfare reform,” Manchin wants Democrats to add work requirements and tight income-based limits on eligibility.

None of this would actually improve the program — “Narrowly targeting the credit to the lowest income families risks creating a stigmatizing poverty trap,” Samuel Hammond of the Niskanen Center told The Washington Post — but it would undermine progressives and stop the march of an “entitlement society” which, for Manchin, is good enough.

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[ColinC]

1. Such an asshole. History will not be kind to him

[Azathoth]

2. Talk about feeding your own constituents into a wood chipper

There's probably no other senator whose constituents would benefit more from the child tax credit.

[MyOwnPeace]

4. Just wondering...........

is the Democratic Party doing anything in W.Va to let the people know what is REALLY available in the 'Biden' plan?
I would think that with a good 'education' plan/program that it would actually activate some of his constituents to rise up and call him out.....

(But then again, I just read that some 70% of RepubliQans want IQ45 to run again.......
OK - maybe educations is not the answer........ )

[Azathoth]

5. National Dems are toxic in WV

Due to what we could euphemistically call "cultural" issues. Trying to defend the national party there is a losing battle.

But if Manchin actually cared about his constituents, he could engineer a song-and-dance performance while quietly keeping important provisions in the bill, then go home and brag that he fought the national party and managed to bring home stuff like the child tax credit which will play well with his constituents as long as they don't see it as imposed by the national party. Sort of a less-dishonest example of Republicans trying to sink the stimulus checks, then heading home to their states and taking credit for the stimulus checks.

But Manchin is a multi-millionaire in one of the poorest states in the Union, and he's genuinely intent on sinking stuff like this because it might hurt his own personal bottom line.

[MyOwnPeace]

7. TRULY appreciate the analysis.....

hard to believe that what used to be a John L. Lewis state that the 'workers' would be opposed to something that would benefit 'the workers!'

[BlueIdaho]

3. Apparently Manchin ran a poll

Among the other yacht owners at his marina and none of them supported the Build Back Better programs. So he’s a “no” on social progress.

[Salviati]

6. He's certainly not listening to his constituents.

I assume the child tax credit falls under the "Tax cuts for families", which this poll shows WV likely voters support by a 48 point margin.

https://www.filesforprogress.org/memos/bbb-wv.pdf

[BlueIdaho]

9. Without a doubt...

The reality is he’s listening to his bosses at the gas, oil, and coal industries while taking calls from his Big Pharma overlords. No way he is paying attention to his voters back home.

[rickyhall]

8. It would next if next time we elect enough senators to tell Mr. M to GFH.

[Salviati]

10. That's the dream...

Every time Manchin or Sinema piss me off, I earmark a couple of bucks to throw towards competitive senate seats in the next election.