By CHARLES BOOTHE
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
Sen. Manchin has expressed support for the infrastructure overhaul proposed in President Biden’s American Families Plan, but has also expressed concern about the growing national debt and $2.3 trillion price mark.
WASHINGTON — Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said Friday during a conference call he continues to focus only on infrastructure in the proposed $2.3 trillion American Families Plan and the GOP’s $568 billion alternative is a “good starting point” for negotiation.
But Manchin also expressed concern about a growing national debt that he says must be reined in.
Pres. Joe Biden delivered a “good speech” to Congress Wednesday night, Manchin said, and a “welcome” one for the public, setting a positive tone and pledging to work together.
However, the President’s overall total of a $6 trillion agenda is a cost “difficult to comprehend.”
That price tag is one of the primary reasons this latest plan presents a major problem, Manchin said, although he has not nailed down an acceptable figure, suggesting around $1trillion, depending on what compromises will be reached.
“I am looking at a traditional infrastructure bill,” he said. “I don’t think we should have a $2.3 trillion bill with all different subject matters in it.”
Manchin said the bill should include conventional infrastructure like roads, bridges, rail and airports as well as broadband and internet services and the grid system, “how we deliver our energy to people and companies around the country.”
He praised Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., for taking the lead on the GOP “good faith effort” to work together on the infrastructure plan, which is not far off from what he thinks could be a compromise.
Capito also is focused on an infrastructure-only approach and is optimistic it can be bipartisan.
But other parts of the proposal give both Manchin and Capito pause.
In the current White House proposal, for example, $174 billion is proposed to “encourage the manufacture and purchase of electric vehicles by granting tax credits and other incentives to companies that make electric vehicle batteries in the United States instead of China.”
Manchin said he is against “diving into” the electric vehicle (EV) commitment until a “supply chain” (for cars and components) is in place, not depending on China.
“It would be a shame for us to put all of our eggs in that basket until we develop, produce and mine the minerals we need to build… (batteries and other components),” he said.
Manchin also agrees with Capito that those elements in the proposal relating to “social” or “human” infrastructure, like home care and child care should be part of a separate debate and initiative, not this one, and he questions the federal government’s role in some of those items.
An infrastructure bill will happen, he said, but the price to is still uncertain, whether it is closer to the GOP proposal or closer to $1 trillion.
However, he said that regardless of what the final compromised cost will be, there must a plan in place to pay for it, not add more to the national debt.
“We cannot continue to pass this crippling debt and pass it on to future generations,” he said, pointing out the President’s $2.3 trillion plan would push the national debt to $28 trillion, and it is increasing by about $4 billion a day. “That has got to cease,” he said. “We have got to turn that around.”
Manchin said he still supports increasing the corporate tax from 21 percent to 25 percent to help pay for the infrastructure projects and he thinks his “Republican colleagues will look favorably” on that as well, although Capito recently said she is opposed to a change in the corporate tax.
“At 25, we had every corporate head thinking that would be competitive,” he said. “It think it would be very doable.”
Many of the details of a compromise can be worked out in committees, he added, and the amendments can be made on the floor, but a bipartisan effort is essential to the process.
Manchin said he also looked at the last time the country had surpluses and was on its way to be debt-free by 2006.
That was in 1997, he said, and a bipartisan effort was made to come up with a plan and a tax rate that worked well and the country saw growth during that time.
“I think we should be looking at something that worked that well,” he said, and he has asked one of the architects of that plan, Erskine Bowles of North Carolina, who was the White House Chief of Staff under Pres. Bill Clinton, to help lead the effort.
“We are going to get a good comparison (to where we are),” Manchin said. “There is a proper way to do this rather than throwing caution to the wind.”
Bowles also led a bipartisan effort called the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform in 2010 under the Obama Administration that presented a combination of spending cuts and tax increases to stabilize the national debt and chart a course to decrease it as the debt growth was increasing coming out of the recession.
However, the proposal did not make it out of the commission so it never went to Congress for a vote.
Manchin, who was elected to the Senate in 2010, supported that initiative and tried to revive it.
Another issue Manchin discussed Friday is a national problem created in the wake of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan.
Many areas, including Mercer County, are having difficulty finding workers, especially in restaurants and other entry level jobs.
Manchin said the problem stems from people making more money on unemployment than they do working.
“Those benefits should have been targeted to areas that have the highest unemployment,” he said of the federal $300 a week added to state benefits, rather than be used as a widespread blanket. He had opposed an extension of the $300 a week federal share when it expired in March. Money should go where it’s needed, where worker’s can’t find employment.
“It is time to go back to work,” he said, adding that the extra federal unemployment dollars expire at the end of August (Sept. 6).
Manchin also said he does not support a bill to make D.C. the nation’s 51st state, not because he is against it, but because a constitutional amendment would be required.
Other presidents, as well former U.S. Attorney General Bobby Kennedy, explored the idea, he said, and they all came to the conclusion a constitutional amendment would be needed, and that could be by referendum.
“Let the American people decide,” he said.
On the current state of the vaccination process for COVID-19 and the number of people who are refusing to be vaccinated, Manchin said it is “not out of the realm” of possibility for businesses and companies to require it.
“It (the spread of the virus) has slowed up and people think it’s over, but it’s not over,” he said, and incentives are being offered all around the country to be vaccinated as the supply of the vaccine has surpassed the demand.
Manchin said a business or company could decide to require the vaccination by asking those entering to show their cards if that were the way to open at full capacity.
“We need to get vaccinated,” he said, and it should be “all hands on deck” trying to reach everyone. “We need to do better.”
Manchin also commented on his wife Gayle Manchin’s appointment to serve as federal co-chair of the ARC (Appalachian Regional Commission).
She was approved by the Senate by unanimous consent after being nominated by Pres. Biden.
Sen. Manchin said Gayle Manchin is known by other senators and has worked with many of them before.
“They know her extensive background in education … her working in Appalachia…” he said. “She knows this system and knows it well.”
The fact that West Virginia is the only state with its entirety in Appalachia is also a plus, he added, and his wife has been involved in many programs and agencies, including the state Board of Education.
“She is well-qualified and I am proud of that,” he said. “I am proud that all of my Democrat and Republican colleagues felt she was worthy…”
Manchin said with wife’s appointment and Capito’s influence in top committees, the “stars have lined up for West Virginia,” and the goal is to “take the politics out of it and work for our state.”