It’s beginning to look like Sen. Joe Manchin got rolled – by his own party.
The West Virginia Democrat surrendered his previously strong stances against boosting raising taxes and green energy programs last month, cutting a deal with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to help muscle through President Joe Biden’s $773 billion Inflation Reduction Act over staunch GOP opposition.
According to The Washington Times, Manchin went along with his left-wing colleagues because he got assurances from fellow Democrats that a pet project would receive help outward completion: a $6.6 billion natural gas pipeline in Machin’s home state.
In addition, Manchin’s deal included promises to set time limits for federal energy-permit reviews, create a statute of limitations for court challenges to projects and have the administration fast-track some energy projects.
Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reportedly agreed to help Manchin’s cause. But House Democrats are balking.
As the Times reported Friday, House Democrats are warning Manchin “that they won’t honor the deal he made with party leaders to secure his vote on President Biden’s massive spending and tax law.”
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“They plan to break the promises … Biden and Congress’ Democratic leaders made to Mr. Manchin, a conservative West Virginia Democrat, to cut bureaucratic red tape to speed up the permitting process for energy projects of all forms. … Now that Mr. Manchin held up his end of the deal, progressive Democrats in the House say they owe him nothing because they were shut out of the deal-making process, and streamlining energy projects would undercut their newly enacted climate spending law.”
The Times quoted remarks some of those left-wing House Democrats gave to other publications.
“We sure as hell don’t owe Joe Manchin anything now,” said Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.
Rep. Jared Huffman of California added that he won’t be “steamrolled into a bunch of fossil fuel giveaways just because Manchin cut a deal in a closed room with Chuck Schumer.”
“Democrats don’t owe anybody anything in return for passing the bill,” declared House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Raul Grijalva of Arizona. “Calling on us to support more big wins for Big Oil, at the expense of families living in Flint, Michigan, or Cancer Alley, Louisiana, is indefensible.”
If Republicans remain united in opposition to the permitting legislation to punish Manchin for siding with Schumer and Biden, only four Democrats will need to join them to torpedo his deal.
Meanwhile, Manchin’s popularity seems to be sinking.
Back in April, as The Free Press reported, Manchin’s approval rating was 57 percent in one poll – in a state former President Donald Trump won by 42 points.
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He went up 17 points, the biggest jump of any poll between 2021 and 2022 because he stood firm against Biden’s aggressively progressive policies.
Last week, the Washington Examiner noted that Manchin’s approval rating in West Virginia has plunged 30 points after he voted for Biden’s bill.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Free Press.
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