Sen. Joe Manchin has become the Democrat that Democrats love to hate. He has obstructed legislation that his party and his President have worked on for months. Legislation that would benefit most of the American people, as well as the Party’s political prospects for the upcoming midterm elections.
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While the concerns of mainstream Democrats is understandable, some of the attacks on Manchin have been shortsighted. After all if he were not a Democrat, then Mitch McConnell would be majority leader and every Senate committee would be chaired by a Republican member of the Trump cult. And it would be difficult to elect any other Democratic senator from the blood-red state of West Virginia.
On Tuesday morning Manchin was interviewed by Harris Faulkner on Fox News (video below). And he illustrated just why Democrats are fortunate to have him on their side, despite the intra-party troubles he causes. Those troubles should not be downplayed. They are serious. But he is still better than the alternative, which would be more of the GOP (Greedy One Percent).
Faulkner sought to open a discussion on whether the “Inflation Reduction Act” proposed by President Biden and the Democrats raises taxes on middle class Americans. She played a video clip of Fox’s Peter Doocy asking White house Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about the Joint Committee on Taxation saying that it does raise such taxes. Manchin shot that down by revealing a fact that Fox News hoped to suppress…
Faulkner: We gotta know the bottom line on taxes.
Manchin: Let me tell you the bottom line on that Harris. You want to know the bottom line – the Joint Committee on Taxation? That opinion was only written by my friends on the Republican side. It was not done by the whole Joint Committee. So that is unfair.
The interview went south for Fox News from there…
Manchin: Let’s be accurate what we’re doing here. The bottom line is how in the world can you be raising taxes when all we’re saying is the wealthiest corporations in America – 55 of them pay zero to help this great country of ours.
Faulkner: So how does this change that.
Manchin: It’s a minimum 15%. The tax rate was at 35% before 2017. Then it went to 21%. That was a tremendous savings. But that’s not good enough, I guess. All We’re saying is a 15% minimum. Everyone I know in West Virginia, and most people around the country, is paying a 21% corporate or greater. So why can’t the greatest billion dollars of revenue a year, why can’t they pay at least 15% for this great country? […]
Faulkner: But $400,000 was supposed to be the cut off. But I’m reading – and I am reading Senator – that it’s below that now.
Manchin: Who is paying any taxes that doesn’t have a corporation that has revenue of over a billion dollars a year? Not one person.
Faulkner nevertheless persisted with her wholly dishonest line of questioning…
Faulkner: I’m saying that Americans, $400,000 and below are now going to be taxed. Their taxes are gonna go up.
Manchin: That’s a lie. A pure outright lie.
Faulkner: So their taxes are not gonna go up.
Manchin: Not at all. And you know one thing? How about the people that are gonna be saving on their Medicare who are paying $288 billion higher prices than they should? They didn’t even assume that in the evaluation.
After being called a liar to her face, Faulkner still badgered Manchin with charges by McConnell and other Republicans that taxes would go up. Manchin hurled back that they were “totally absolutely wrong.” He told Faulkner that the questions she was asking, and the facts she has, are “completely wrong.” Then he refused to participate in her efforts to turn the debate on the bill into a political brawl saying that “This is not a political piece of legislation. This is an American legislation.”
Then Manchin pointedly asked Faulkner if she was “scared that we’re going to do something good that will help our country?” Which she took personally and got all huffy, yammering about the bible and her father who served. But Manchin’s remark was spot on, as Republicans – and their Fox News mouthpieces – are indeed afraid of anything passing that helps the nation because they would rather that people suffer than risk letting Biden and the Democrats get credit for achieving positive goals. Manchin closed the interview saying that…
“This is not about whether you like the President or whether you like Democrats. Do you like America? Do you want us to succeed as a country? Do you want to fight inflation? This bill does it.”
This interview shows how desperately Fox News wants to keep anything that benefits the American people from coming to pass. And they will load up their questions with lies and frantically seek to divert in order to halt progress or help people. They will also viciously flip on Manchin, their favorite Democrat, who yesterday they considered a brilliant, nonpartisan representative of the people.
RELATED: For Those Wondering What Biden and Democrats in Congress Have Been Doing the Past 16 Months…
No matter what you think of Joe Manchin, he came through in this interview and exposed the dishonesty and callous disregard for the welfare of the nation by Fox News. And we always need more of that.
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Joe Manchin: "Who is paying any taxes that doesn’t have a corporation that has revenue of over a billion dollars a year? Not one person."
Fox News' Harris Faulkner: Americans making below $400,000, their taxes will go up.
Manchin: "That's a lie. A pure outright lie." pic.twitter.com/EAxTVMk8cc
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) August 2, 2022
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