A small bit of sanity remains in the American Democrat Party.
On Thursday, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin (D) urged his own party and the Senate, in general, to take a “strategic pause” when considering the new $3.5 trillion dollar budget plan. Manchin made the remarks in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal.
Manchin decried the notion that money is an unlimited resource and said that it is unreasonable to rush into signing any spending bill this large without a great deal of deliberation.
“The nation faces an unprecedented array of challenges and will inevitably encounter additional crises in the future,” Manchin wrote. “Yet some in Congress have a strange belief there is an infinite supply of money to deal with any current or future crisis, and that spending trillions upon trillions will have no negative consequence for the future. I disagree.”
One of those consequences could be runaway inflation.
Among the budget-busting proposals in the spending plan are some extreme measures to tackle so-called climate change; socialist Bernie Sanders’ idea for an expansion of Medicare to include vision, dental, and hearing benefits; and billions to address “fair housing.”
“Instead of rushing to spend trillions on new government programs and additional stimulus funding, Congress should hit a strategic pause on the budget-reconciliation legislation,” Manchin wrote. “A pause is warranted because it will provide more clarity on the trajectory of the pandemic, and it will allow us to determine whether inflation is transitory or not.”
Manchin seems to believe that the Democrat push to rush and quickly get the spending package signed is both arbitrary and unnecessary and would lead to questions from his voters.
“While some have suggested this reconciliation legislation must be passed now, I believe that making budgetary decisions under artificial political deadlines never leads to good policy or sound decisions. I have always said if I can’t explain it, I can’t vote for it, and I can’t explain why my Democratic colleagues are rushing to spend $3.5 trillion,” the West Virginia senator wrote.
Last week, House Democrats met in an emergency session to pass their version of the bill, while the GOP pleaded with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to address the crisis in Afghanistan. The bill moved forward without any Republican votes.
Senator Manchin is not alone among Democrats in his objections, as Democrat colleague Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) has also voiced her opposition to the gigantic spending plan. Every GOP senator is also against the bill, meaning Democrats will have to convert both Manchin and Sinema before Vice-president Kamala Harris could be brought in to break any ties. Currently, Democrats hold 50 votes in the Senate with the GOP also holding 50.
“If we want to invest in America, a goal I support, then let’s take the time to get it right and determine what is absolutely necessary,” Manchin concluded.
House Democrats wasted no time attacking Manchin. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) used the occasion of flooding in New York State to accuse Manchin of “killing people” because of his “bipartisan” efforts.
Fellow democratic socialist and representative from New York’s 16th District Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) also jumped on Manchin for his alleged “anti-climate” agenda.
Last month, both Manchin and Sinema voted to advance the $3.5 trillion budget resolution, but both also signaled at the time that the ultimate price tag would need to be slashed in order to get their final support for the bill.
In his Thursday op-ed, Manchin expressed why he was balking at the bloated spending bill now.
“I, for one, won’t support a $3.5 trillion bill, or anywhere near that level of additional spending, without greater clarity about why Congress chooses to ignore the serious effects inflation and debt have on existing government programs,” Manchin wrote.
Unfortunately, some version of this Democrat wish list will probably pass in the legislature, but give some credit to Manchin and Sinema. At least they’re pushing for some cuts to this obviously bloated legislation. Every other Democrat in Congress appears to be of the belief that the amount of money that the government can spend is limited only by the amount of green ink and paper that can be found to run through the printing press in the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
