Joe Manchin’s Election Cycle Transformation From Big Spender to Fiscal Hawk Begins
West Virginia Democrat Who Orchestrated Trillion-Dollar Climate Bill Now Trashes It
As reelection year approaches, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia is positioning himself as a critic of President Joe Biden’s spending by attacking the Inflation Reduction Act, a massive climate spending bill that he himself secretly negotiated and vocally supported. During a Fox News appearance, Manchin criticized Biden for implementing the legislation in a way that will be more expensive than promised. He even threatened to “vote to repeal [his] own bill” due to the ballooning cost. This is a swift turnaround from just two months ago when Manchin praised the bill and called it the most transformative bill ever passed in Congress.
Manchin’s Political Future and History of Flip-Flopping
Manchin has not yet announced his political future, but he is considered the only Democrat capable of winning statewide next year in West Virginia, a state that voted for Trump by a whopping 42 and 39 points in 2016 and 2020, respectively. If he runs for reelection, Manchin will become a top target for Senate Republicans, and his support for the Inflation Reduction Act is expected to be a primary point of attack.
Manchin has a history of taking liberal positions in the buildup to a tough race, only to swear off those positions when Election Day approaches. For instance, he opposed building a wall on the Mexican border in 2017 but demanded an ad highlighting those comments be taken down and called it a “flat out lie” that he opposed the wall a year later. In 2018, he regretted supporting Hillary Clinton for president and would consider backing Trump in 2020, but he threw his support behind Biden two years later.
Manchin’s Connection to Bill Gates and Green Energy Companies
Manchin was initially skeptical of Biden’s climate bill but warmed up to it following a lobbying push from Bill Gates, who led an aggressive effort to convince Manchin to support hundreds of billions of dollars in climate spending. Companies that Gates holds stakes in have since reaped the benefits of the bill’s climate spending, with the Energy Department awarding nearly $3 billion in loans to two electric battery companies backed by seed funding from Gates. Another green energy company that Gates invests in, Form Energy, announced a plan to build a battery manufacturing facility in Manchin’s West Virginia, a move that Manchin said would not have happened without the Inflation Reduction Act.
Conclusion
Manchin’s criticism of the Inflation Reduction Act is a surprising turnaround from his previous support for the bill, and it remains to be seen whether his threat to repeal his own bill is genuine or just political posturing. As he contemplates his political future, Manchin’s history of flip-flopping and his connection to green energy companies will likely be points of attack from both Democrats and Republicans.
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