West Virginia Needs Biden’s Bill More Than Manchin Politics
The Democratic senator should drop his opposition and embrace a spending plan that would give a crucial boost to one of the poorest constituencies in the nation.
West Virginians could use a few breaks.
Source: Bloomberg
Senator Joe Manchin, a centrist Democrat, has emerged as the most powerful opponent of President Joe Biden’s ambitious $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill. Yet the bill, if passed, would provide a needed boost to the people of Manchin’s own state, West Virginia. By holding up Biden’s economic agenda, Manchin risks harming his own constituents.
Let’s set aside the politics for a moment and just look at the reality of the state’s economy. West Virginia faces enormous and long-standing challenges. It has the lowest income in the nation, and the sixth-highest poverty rate. Though the state’s economy has grown, it’s steadily fallen behind the rest of the country: