Joe Manchin Slams Bernie Sanders After He Write Op-Ed In West Virginia Paper

The internal party conflict between Democrats over President Joe Biden‘s $ 3.5 trillion tax-and-spending package boiled over as progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) got into a public feud this weekend.

Sanders wrote an attack aimed at Manchin in an op-ed for the Charleston Gazette-Mail, Manchin’s home state’s main newspaper. Sanders said that those who oppose the bill support the status quo “in which the very rich get richer while ordinary Americans continue to struggle to make ends meet.”

Manchin responded to Sanders with this tweet.

The legislation proposed by Biden is a package with policies on expanding education, climate change measures and healthcare. But it is being blocked by a group of centrist Democrats led by Manchin, who don’t support the package’s price tag and some of its programs.

Manchin has recently come out against Clean Electricity Performance Program (CEPP), a $150 billion program in the spending bill aimed at speed up the country’s conversion from fossil fuels to green electricity.

Manchin’s home state of West Virginia is the second-largest producer of coal in the country.

This deadlock between Democrats has paused Biden’s domestic agenda and efforts by his administration to fight the climate crisis. Manchin is the chairman of the Senate energy and natural resources committee, which has a purview on the energy components of the bill. He is seeking to reduce the $3.5 trillion price tag of the bill to $1.5 trillion.

The White House continues to express its commitment to a compromise even if the bill does not get fully funded.

Article by Ian Darville