Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) seems to have sold his soul to sell the “Inflation Reduction Act” that is now going to hurt all of us.
As we reported, after getting it passed with that false claim that it would reduce inflation, Manchin was asked by Fox News reporter Hillary Vaughn whether it was misleading to call the bill the Inflation Reduction Act because it won’t make everyday goods less expensive, Manchin said, “Why would it?”
“Well, immediately it’s not,” Manchin said. “We’ve never [said] anything would happen immediately, like turn the switch on and off.”
But the problem is that they can’t say when it would, or even draw a clear line between cause and effect. Manchin tried to say investment in energy would bring down inflation. But we don’t even know if he’s going to get the back end of his deal that he made to give the Democrats this boondoggle spending bonanza that’s supposed to help the energy industry. As we’ve noted in the past, independent assessments of the Act say it’s not going to do anything to bring down inflation.
But Manchin just kept digging on Friday — this time, trying to say that the Act would not increase the chances of people making under $400,000 getting audited, that he would not allow the IRS to harass people in West Virginia or West Virginia small businesses.
But when the bill was being voted on, Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) proposed an amendment to protect everyone making under $400,000 and every Democrat including Manchin voted against it. So Manchin had his chance then and he voted against it. He sold his soul and refused to pass that protection.
On top of that, the CBO, in considering that amendment, assessed that $20 billion would be implicated by it. So that’s how much the CBO was figuring that the bill would be getting in taxes from people making below $400,000.
So Manchin already sold the people of America and West Virginia down the river with what he did — what is he going to do now? Stand in the doorway and stop the IRS, from showing up to audit people? He seems to get that he needs to convince the people of West Virginia, but it’s too late now and they’re not going to buy it any more than the rest of us are.