Right On Time, Joe Manchin Crosses The Aisle
After helping to craft the Inflation Reduction Act and providing the key vote for its passage, Joe Manchin took to the pages of the Wall Street Journal today to bemoan the Biden administration's implementation of it. While many on the right took this as a chance to slight Biden, the real story here lies with Manchin and The Wall Street Journal.
Since his first Senate term in the early 2000s, Joe Manchin consistently runs as a Democrat for the first four years followed by running as a Republican for the final two. Manchin has made a living conning the constituents of West Virginia with performative stunts like this in hopes of them forgetting about the progressive votes he cast before. Manchin is a progressive at heart but without fail, the nation’s most trusted editorial board has been happy to oblige the performance.
Joe Manchin, the most "conservative" Democrat in either House of Congress, has an average National Taxpayers Union rating of 23%. Sue Collins, the most liberal Republican in either House, has an NTU average of 48%. He looks conservative only in contrast to his fellow Democrats, who are all pretty much scrunched down in the bottom 20%. Of course he's "progressive," but he's actually not progressiver-than-thou. Hillary and Obama, for instance, have lifetime NTU averages of 9%!
So...Don Parsons at the national level I guess.