Manchin makes clear his opposition to Biden's BBB

 Michael Barone:

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin has ended any suspense about whether he would support, in any form, the Biden Democrats’ Build Back Better legislation. He dropped the hammer in an interview on Fox News this Sunday before Christmas.

The curious thing is that anybody is surprised. In this era of highly partisan, polarized politics, there is a close relationship between how people vote for president and for members of Congress and how they respond to specific issues. President Joe Biden won 51% of the popular vote in November 2020, but his average job approval is at 44% in the latest polling, with 50% disapproving. So if you discount Biden’s 2020 percentages by a couple of points, you get an idea of where he, his party, and BBB, their flagship issue, stand in each state.

Currently, only six of 100 U.S. senators represent a state that voted for the presidential candidate of the other party in 2020. Three of those are Republicans. One is Susan Collins of Maine, which Biden carried with 53% of the vote. But Collins was reelected the same day despite being outspent by a 9-point margin. The other two Republicans in Biden states are Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, who is not running for reelection, and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, who has not announced whether he’s running again. Biden carried their states with 505 and 49% of the vote, whereas Hillary Clinton lost both with just 47% and 46%, respectively.

There are three Democratic senators in Trump states. Sherrod Brown has managed to win in 2006, 2012, and 2018 as a pro-labor union leader populist in Ohio (45% Biden, 43% Clinton). Jon Tester has managed to win in 2006, 2012, and 2018 as a rough-hewn rancher who lost fingers in a tractor accident in Montana (41% Biden, 35% Clinton). Both are conviction politicians who have taken some political risk over the years and have managed to win nevertheless.

Joe Manchin is in a different position. West Virginia gave only 30% of its vote to Joe Biden and only 26% to Hillary Clinton. Discount the Biden percentage a bit, and you have three-quarters of the voters opposing BBB. And over his years as governor and senator, Manchin has not cultivated left-wing positions on economic and fiscal issues like Sherrod Brown or voted lockstep with other Democrats like Jon Tester has.

...

Biden is shown to be a man who hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest: 

White House: Manchin voting 'no' contradicts discussions with Biden over BBB

I thought Manchin was pretty clear before.

And: 

WH Response to Manchin Decision on Build Back Better Is Pure Delusion

Biden is omitting is that the CBO is also disputing his claims about the BBB spending spree. 

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