Manchin slams Sanders after OpEd in W.Va. newspaper urging him to support major spending package

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Politics

Manchin slams Sanders after opinion piece in W.Va. newspaper urging him to support major spending package

By Andrew Jeong
Today at 3:59 a.m. EDT

The public dispute between Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) over the size and scope of a multi-trillion dollar spending package escalated on Friday, after Sanders published an opinion article in Manchin’s homestate newspaper urging him to support the landmark Democratic proposal.

Sanders, writing in the Charleston Gazette-Mail, attacked opponents of the legislation — “every Republican in Congress as well as the drug companies, the insurance companies, the fossil fuel industry and the billionaire class” — as defenders of a status quo “in which the very rich get richer while ordinary Americans continue to struggle to make ends meet.”

The article triggered a sharp response from Manchin. “This isn’t the first time an out-of-stater has tried to tell West Virginians what is best for them despite having no relationship to our state,” he said a tweet.

Link to tweet

He added that he would not vote for what he termed a “reckless expansion of government programs.” In the evenly-divided Senate, every Democrat’s vote is needed to pass the $3.5 trillion tax-and-spending package.

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Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said on the “Pod Save America” podcast that the disagreements reflected “democracy working.”

“When it comes down to it no bill is perfect,” she said. “It’s not going to be everything that Joe Biden wants, it’s not going to be everything Joe Manchin wants.”

“It’s ultimately a compromise.”

By Andrew Jeong
Andrew Jeong is a reporter for The Washington Post in its Seoul hub. Twitter https://twitter.com/hj257