At a hearing on Capitol Hill on Thursday, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) expressed his outrage that the Inflation Reduction Act did not live up to its name and ended up costing the American people more money than they thought it would.
“I’m very, very, very proud of the IRA and what it is doing and what the intention of it was to do,” Manchin said while questioning Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. “What I’m not proud of is that basically, we’re not staying within the guidelines of what the CBO score was.”
“I’m trying to make sure that we don’t dupe or scam the American public, thinking we passed one bill that cost this much, and it doubles up because the liberalization of what they’re putting out much quicker, much faster, and much longer. That’s all. That’s where I come from, but I’m very proud of the results we’re getting because we knew it would do that.”
Senator Joe Manchin, who voted for the Inflation Reduction Act, tells Energy Secretary Granholm that he's "not proud of is…that we're not staying within the guidelines of what the CBO score was…"
"I'm trying to make sure that we don't dupe or scam the American public!" pic.twitter.com/ZV44Ivjt1y
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 20, 2023
Manchin later claimed to be really upset about how the bill has been implemented. “I am so upset about this because they’re doing everything they can to bust the budget, what we promised the American people, what that bill would cost,” he said. “That’s what I’m upset about.”
Senator Joe Manchin voted for the "Inflation Reduction Act."
Now, he's PISSED about how it's been implemented.
"I am SO UPSET about this because they're doing everything they can to BUST THE BUDGET, what we PROMISED the American people what it would cost!" pic.twitter.com/doV2dzYhhB
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 20, 2023
Let’s be honest here. Joe Manchin is trying to save face because he was duped into supporting the Inflation Reduction Act — which would never have passed if he hadn’t voted for it. It didn’t matter that the legislation actually did nothing to address inflation. In fact, a CBO analysis concluded this well before Manchin voted for the bill.
“According to CBO analysis, the proposal’s effect on inflation is negligible at best. The estimate ranges from reducing inflation by 0.1% to increasing it by 0.1 percent in the near term. The idea that this tax and spend proposal is going to blunt inflation is yet again rejected, this time by CBO. Democratic statements about the proposal are quite frankly wrong and misleading,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) noted last year. The CBO analysis indicated that the version of the Inflation Reduction Act that Manchin agreed to support would “front-load spending and increase deficits for years — which would do nothing for the current inflation crisis.”
What exactly was the purpose of the bill, then? The bill invested billions of dollars into green energy projects. We’ve seen this kind of boondoggle before under Obama, where Obama-Biden campaign donors were rewarded with green energy contracts, many of which failed. In essence, it was an indirect way for Democrats to fill their campaign coffers by giving their donors millions in taxpayer dollars.
We’ve long known that the Inflation Reduction Act wouldn’t reduce inflation, yet Manchin supported it anyway. Now he’s trying to save face because he’s now one of the most unpopular senators in the country, creating a ripe opportunity for the GOP to flip his seat in 2024. I suspect that Manchin’s efforts to claim he was duped are because he’s trying to salvage his political career, but I suspect his chances of getting reelected are very slim now.
