Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), a key Democrat in Congress, commented on the GOP wins in Virginia on Wednesday, implying that the results back up what he has been saying about Americans for months.
“It’s unbelievable to see what went on in Virginia and not just from the governor’s race but all the way down that ticket a good bit of change has happened,” Manchin said, reportedly demonstrating surprise over Republican wins in the elections for governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general.
“You can read so much into all of that last night. I think it should be a call to all of us have to be more attentive to the people back home,” said Manchin.
He also discussed the close governor’s race in New Jersey and suggested his concerns about spending and inflation have been validated, reports The Hill.
“And for us to go down a path that we’ve been going and trying to accelerate it and it has been slowed down – I think we need to take our time and do it right,” he added.
“We have a divided country that needs to be united and you can’t unite it by just doing it by one-party system,” he cautioned.
According to The Hill, when Manchin was asked if the White House is listening to that message, Manchin replied: “I hope so.”
“The House needs to really truly pass the infrastructure bill. That’s something that’s proven,” he said, adding the legislation has support on both sides of the aisle.
As reported by The Daily Wire earlier this week, Manchin “called out his own party Monday for ‘playing games’ as they try to pass a bipartisan infrastructure bill and President Joe Biden’s massive social spending bill.”
“Throughout the last three months, I’ve been straightforward about my concerns that I will not support a reconciliation package that expands social programs and irresponsibly adds to our $29 trillion in national debt that no one seems to really care about or even talk about,” Manchin said. “Nor will I support a package that risks hurting American families suffering from historic inflation. Simply put, I will not support a bill that is this consequential without thoroughly understanding the impact that it’ll have on our national debt, our economy, and most importantly, all of our American people.”
“For example, how can I in good conscience vote for a bill that proposes massive expansion to social programs when vital programs like Social Security and Medicare faces insolvency and benefits could start being reduced as soon as 2026 in Medicare and 2033 in Social Security? How does that make sense?” Manchin said. “And I don’t think it does. Meanwhile, elected leaders continue to ignore exploding inflation, that our national debt continues to grow and interest payments on the debt will start to rapidly increase when the Fed has to start raising interest rates to try to slow down this runaway inflation.”
Manchin also cautioned that, as “the real details outline and the basic framework are released, what I see are shell games, budgets gimmicks that make the real cost of the so-called $1.75 trillion bill estimated to be almost twice that amount if the full-time has run out, if you extended it permanently and that we haven’t even spoken about.”