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President Manchin has made it perfectly clear that he does not support the "Obama Jobs Bill". As reported by Joselyn King in the Wheeling Intelligencer/News-Register
Sen. Joe Manchin says there's "good, bad and ugly" in the jobs bill proposed by President Barack Obama, and what he sees is mostly ugly. Manchin, D-W.Va., noted the tremendous cost of the Obama jobs bill - estimated at $450 billion - and the many policies set forth in the bill that already were tried unsuccessfully in the past. "I listened respectfully to the president give his speech ... on the jobs proposal," Manchin said. "I think we all can agree we need to do something about jobs in this county, but I have some serious reservations about his proposals that night in his speech.
Manchin is now an official member of the expanded Gang of Six headed up by Saxby Chambliss and our neighboring Senator Mark Warner. You can find his name on the list of 38 byclicking here.
Taxes are now lower than ever if not non-existent for everybody, and no one want to use an increase in revenue to solve our deficit issue. Manchin has certainly done nothing to offer a workable solution to our job crisis.
Manchin also questioned the $50 billion to extend unemployment benefits under the plan, and wonders if government funds wouldn't be better spent training the workforce for jobs.
"I know right now we could hire in West Virginia - for good mining jobs - about 700 people," he said. "I talked to another person with a repair shop - he said he could hire 25.
"So for all those people who have expended all their extensions for unemployment - if we're going to continue an unemployment compensation - it should be done in the most compassionate way to make sure we are training for the jobs in West Virginia. If we don't do that, then we haven't done any good for anybody," he said.
Hey Joe... if there are 725 unfilled jobs in West Virginia do something to help fill those jobs if they indeed exist.
He needs to either be a Democrat or a Republican his so called bi-partisan approach to the right wing is unbearable, and it is pretty obvious no one is available to primary him.
Senator Manchin... has no concept of reality. He evidently thinks like a tea bagger. He is right there with the nut cases spouting gibberish that could destroy our country.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) isn't just breaking ranks with his party on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s plan to raise the debt ceiling, he can't support Speaker John Boehner’s proposal either.
Neither plan, Manchin said, will solve the nation’s fiscal problems. He suggested that spending cuts needed to be closer to $4 trillion over a decade, like Standard and Poor’s has called for. And the short-term nature of Boehner’s proposal only risks further uncertainty and stalemate down the road, the freshman senator said.
“Each falls far short, whether it’s in time or dollars,” Manchin said. “The truth is, both of the plans being discussed … do not really solve the nation’s long-term fiscal problems as presented.”
Hey Joe the clock is ticking and time is running out
tate Supreme Court Justice Robin Davis says she will seek reelection next year.
While she admits she considered other options, including a possible challenge to U.S. Senator Joe Manchin in the Democrat Primary Election in 2012, Justice Davis says she has decided she wants to stay on the Court.
"I think I would better serve the State of West Virginia and the people of West Virginia doing what I do best which is working with the law," Davis said as she made the announcement on Wednesday's MetroNews Talkline.
Gaston Caperton. Gaston Caperton to the courtesy phone please.
I'm Regan Bartley. My small business now has 39 stores in the region that employ 250 people. And I need your help.
Every day, over three-fifths of our customers use plastic, and when they do, we're charged a "swipe fee." We understand the principle involved in paying a small fee for this convenience. But with a credit card duopoly the fees have skyrocketed unaccountably, and small business has felt the pinch.
Small businesses are currently plagued with swipe fees. These swipe fees are accrued when customers use a debit or credit card for a purchase. Big banks and credit card companies charge an "interchange cost" on each purchase to process the transaction. Swipe fees can add up quickly, especially for small business owners.
I am one of these small business owners. Whenever someone comes into one of my stores and uses a debit or credit card to make a purchase, I - along with all other business owners - must pay a swipe fee. To add insult to injury, even if the item purchased is just a few dollars, the fee paid out to big banks can actually wipe out any profit I would have made on the purchase.
For most small business owners, swipe fees account for the largest expense right behind payroll and healthcare. The big banks and credit card companies that taxpayers bailed out just a few years ago have had a stronghold on the interchange system, enabling them to charge out-of-control fees that continue increasing. The situation has become increasingly grim for small business owners as these swipe fees have close-to tripled over the past decade.
Last summer, there was light at the end of the tunnel. Legislators took action to alleviate this unfair fee on businesses and passed common-sense swipe fee reform to rein in these excessive fees, and ensure that they are reasonable and proportional to the actual cost of each transaction.
Here's why it's impossible to take Sen. Joe Manchin (Coal) and others seriously when he talks about cutting the deficit by cutting spending but not raising taxes.
the fact remains: the economic downturn, President Bush's tax cuts and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq explain virtually the entire deficit over the next ten years (see Figure 1).
The deficit for fiscal year 2009 - which began more than three months before President Obama's inauguration - was $1.4 trillion and, at 10 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the largest deficit relative to the economy since the end of World War II. At $1.3 trillion and nearly 9 percent of GDP, the deficit in 2010 was only slightly lower. If current policies remain in place, deficits will likely resemble those figures in 2011 and hover near $1 trillion a year for the next decade.
The events and policies that pushed deficits to these high levels in the near term were, for the most part, not of President Obama's making. If not for the Bush tax cuts, the deficit-financed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the effects of the worst recession since the Great Depression (including the cost of policymakers' actions to combat it), we would not be facing these huge deficits in the near term. By themselves, in fact, the Bush tax cuts and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will account for almost half of the $20 trillion in debt that, under current policies, the nation will owe by 2019. The stimulus law and financial rescues will account for less than 10 percent of the debt at that time.
Instead of attempting to close Planned Parenthood, if West Virginia for Life was really for West Virginia or for LIFE, it would be pushing to increase spending on maternal and child health care servcies.
NEW YORK (AP) -- The best place in the world to be a mom is Norway, where maternal and child mortality rates are low, women's life expectancy and years in school are high, and the average maternity leave is about one year, a new study measuring the well-being of mothers and babies shows.
Australia and Iceland join Norway at the top of Save the Children's 12th annual Mothers Index, released Tuesday. Afghanistan comes in last, and the United States places 31st.
snip
It said the U.S. and other industrialized nations could do more to improve education and health care for their own disadvantaged mothers and children.
The survey noted that the United States came in at 31 mainly because its maternal mortality rate of 1 in 2,100 is among the highest of any industrialized nation.
Granted, we're about the only industrialized nation without that evil known as "socialized medicine" so there is that. So we're saved from that even if it means people die as a consequence.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Legislation backed by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., will prove disastrous for middle-class Americans and states like West Virginia, critics say.
snip
Ted Boettner, director of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, said CAP and related proposals will make "deep cuts in Social Security and Medicare that will impact thousands of West Virginia seniors. The CAP Act is a Trojan horse for radically redistributing wealth from the middle class to the rich."
Sean O'Leary, a policy analyst for the Center on Budget and Policy, released an "issue brief" on Wednesday stating, "While on the surface, the plan looks like a benign proposal to handle the federal deficit and debt, it would eventually lead to major cuts in Medicare, Medicaid and possibly Social Security."
CAP's broad proposals, O'Leary added, completely ignore major factors driving increased spending, such as our aging population and rising health care costs.
"Cuts to these programs are of particular concern in West Virginia, where we have 380,000 Medicare beneficiaries, 330,000 Medicaid beneficiaries and 436,000 Social Security beneficiaries.
Larry Matheney, secretary-treasurer of the West Virginia AFL-CIO, said, "I am terribly disappointed that Sen. Manchin would support a back-door approach to the Ryan budget plans. I don't view his proposal to create caps any differently than I look at GOP proposals to starve out safety-net programs."
I remember when he was governor, Joe Manchin would get upset about movies and commercials portraying West Virginians as stupid, backwards, ignorant hicks.
There's only two possibilities about Manchin's support of CAP on federal government spending. Either Manchin is being a stupid, backwards, ignorant hick now that he's in Washington, D.C., or he cynically thinks people back here in West Virginia are.
Now I don't think Manchin is an ignorant hick. That means he thinks we are.
While claiming he wants to protect Social Security and Medicare, he's supporting a program that will gut them.
In a post entitled, Manchin knows not what he speaks, Washington Monthly's Steve Benen highlights Sen. Joe Manchin's embrace of a horrible idea:
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), after about six months on the job, has struggled at times, occasionally badly. But on fiscal issues, the center-right Democrat appears to be getting worse.
Today, Machin will formally endorse a Republican proposal for strict new spending caps, saying it would be "irresponsible" not to. He joins the Senate GOP, independent Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.), and Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill (Mo.), which suggests the measure, generally known as the CAP Act, now has the support of a Senate majority, or at least close to it.
snip
To date, the proposal hasn't gotten much attention, but it's important to understand how dangerous this is. Ezra Klein, who's arguably even more cautious in his rhetoric than I am, recently described the spending cap idea as "completely insane."
Spending caps are bad policy, and the McCaskill-Corker spending cap -- which holds spending to 21.5 percent of GDP, or three percentage points lower than it is right now -- is a badly designed spending cap. But beyond all that, it's laughable to posit it as a compromise: It's arguably the most radically conservative reform that could be made to the federal budget. More extreme, by far, than Paul Ryan's plan.
Start with the shell game at the core of this discussion: We're worried about the debt ceiling but talking about a spending cap. This works just fine if you hew to the conservative conceit that "we have a spending problem, not a taxing problem." But that applause line is just an effort to deny the contribution tax cuts have made to the deficit and keep tax increases from being part of a solution. If you think we have a debt problem -- and that's what being upset about raising the debt ceiling implies -- then do something about the debt. The "trigger" proposal the White House included in is budget, for instance, is tied to the debt, not to spending or taxes.
Of course, to the Republicans, that's a feature, not a bug. The virtue of a spending cap is that by focusing on only one contributor to debt, it admits only one solution to it: spending cuts. Savage ones. The Corker-McCaskill proposal is so aggressive that there are years when even Paul Ryan's budget, with all its fantastical assumptions and hard caps, wouldn't qualify. "You put McCaskill-Corker into law," says Bob Greenstein, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, "and progressive policy is dead for the next quarter-century."
That's not an exaggeration. The CBPP published a detailed report on the proposed cap a couple of weeks ago, explaining that if it were to become law, policymakers would have no choice but to enforce devastating cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, as well as every other domestic priority.
Ironically, Machin, whose depth of understanding on these issues appears to be less than an inch deep, said he supports the CAP Act but opposes cuts to Social Security and Medicare. In other words, Machin doesn't understand the effects of the very policy he's endorsing.
In trying to appear "moderate" and "fiscally responsible," Manchin has embraced a horrible position.
As atrios asks, "Is He A Dumbass Or Does He Just Play One On The Teevee" and as someone who has followed Manchin for years, I don't know. Is Manchin doing something stupid because he's not smart enough to realize it or is he doing something stupid to appeal to stupid?
Somebody needs to talk some common sense to Manchin, because he's not showing it.
I cross posted my diary at the Big Orange Satan yesterday about West Virginia for "Life" going after Sen. Joe Manchin for standing up for women to have access to health care services even though he opposes abortion.
That led to a good discussion, but I wanted to highlight one comment in particular:
The thing he has done here (39+ / 0-)
is important. He's showing you can be honest to your beliefs about abortion without going after women in every other way. Most of them want women in the kitchen and pregnant and don't care about women's health at all, unless it is their women.
I think we should respect this action. If all the anti-choice people were like this we might be able to have a much more civil dialogue going on about it.
Last week Sen. Joe Manchin (D) did something I thought was so clever and deserving of credit that I doubted whether I had interpreted it correctly.
Senator Manchin voted against a resolution calling for the prohibition of federal funds for Planned Parenthood. The bill failed, 42-58, in the Senate.
Then Manchin introduced the Title X Transparency and Verification Act that would put the audits of agencies that receive Title X funding, including Planned Parenthood, online so that people could see for themselves that the community health services provided by these funds are vital services and that the federal funds aren't used for abortions, a restriction on the funding.
"I am pro-life, and always have been. I have also always been committed to helping women get vital health services, like cancer screenings and preventive care. I believe these two principles are not mutually exclusive," Senator Manchin said. "I strongly believe that no federal dollars should ever go to abortion, except in the case of rape, incest and life of the mother. That is why I was proud to introduce the 'Title X Transparency and Verification Act,' which would put audits online for all recipients of Title X funding, so any American can verify for themselves that no federal funds are being used illegally for abortion."
That would take the wind out of the sails of Senator Kyl and others who lie about Planned Parenthood, I thought.
But I wanted to check with someone to make sure I was right and between that and my weekend activities I didn't get around to writing that post. Truth be told, after some of the things Manchcin has said of late, giving him credit even on an issue as important to me as Planned Parenthood, wasn't my top priority even when he did deserve it.
But now Manchin, who unfortunately is a strong opponent of choice, is being attacked by his anti-choice allies for his decency in protecting necessary, community healthcare services to women.
Via Double H, heath harrison, comes this link to the radical rightwing propaganda site LifeNews.com:
West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin is earning strong criticism from a pro-life group who says the self-declared pro-life senator who is working overtime to cover up his support for the Planned Parenthood abortion business.
Manchin joined every one of his fellow Democrats in the Senate last week in voting down a House-approved resolution that would have yanked taxpayer funding for the abortion business in the long-term budget Congress approved for the remainder of the year. Then, late last week, he announced to the media that he has filed a bill that would supposedly put safeguards in place to prevent Title X money that goes to Planned Parenthood from paying for abortions.
But making sure their tax dollars aren't being used in a way they don't want isn't enough. Transparency won't assure them that federal funds aren't being used to pay for abortions. It takes away their ability to lie that federal funds cover abortions when really they cover pre-natal services to assure healthy pregnancies, life-saving cancer screenings for women, and birth control to prevent unwanted pregnancies so an abortion isn't necessary.
But West Virginians for Life, upset that Manchin voted to fund the abortion business, called the legislation "irrelevant" and "a cover" for his vote.
"Pro-life West Virginians are profoundly disappointed in Senator Manchin's April 14 vote to allow taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider," said West Virginians for Life Communications Director Mary Anne Buchanan in a statement to LifeNews.
Would these be the same "pro-life" West Virginians who continue to support and endorse the pro-choice Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, who is endorsed by the Republican pro-choice group WISH List?
"Senator Manchin's bill is meaningless," Buchanan pointed out. "No one is saying that the Title X funds go directly to pay for abortions. These funds to Planned Parenthood can be used to underwrite their infrastructure and promote their organization. Manchin's vote not to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood means our tax dollars will subsidize an organization in which nearly one of every eight women who walks through its doors has an abortion."
Keep in mind, 97 percent of what Planned Parenthood provided health services to women and 3 percent is related to abortions.
If "West Virginians for Life" were really pro-life, they would have supported him for his decision to keep federal funding in place that provides pre-natal services to assure women have healthy pregnancies, receive birth control to prevent unwanted pregnancies so an abortion does not happen, and provide life-saving screenings for cancer.
Say what you will about Manchin's pro-life stance, at least it's consistent where he's doing what he can to protect the lives of women who rely on the community health services provided by Planned Parenthood.
West Virginians for "Life" don't want transparency because they rely on lies to promote their radical agenda.
Not much else to say as the headline sums it all up. From CNN.
Dem senator breaks with his party and Obama again...
(CNN) - Saying that "we must get our fiscal house in order," Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia says he'll vote against raising the nation's debt ceiling unless it's married to a plan that addresses the nation's broader fiscal problems.
The announcement Monday by Manchin is the latest example of the governor-turned-senator who's up for re-election next year being at odds with his party and President Obama on fiscal matters.
He is determined to prove to the folks he believes are "rubes" at home that he stands for the same reckless spending cuts as the Republicans.
"We must be honest about what we value and what we need to spend your taxpayer dollars on – not what just sounds good," Manchin will say in an address to students at the University of Charleston.
"I have never put together a budget – be it my family's or as governor – that was based on how much we wanted to spend, but on what we had," Manchin will add, according to excerpts provided to CNN. "That is why I will vote against raising the debt ceiling unless the vote is linked to a real budget plan that begins to fix our fiscal mess. We cannot make budgets based on the next election; they must be based on the next generation."
A Manchin aide tells CNN that the speech will kick off what is being called a "Our Values, Our Priorities" weeklong tour.
If you get a chance to see "Not Just Another Joe" while on tour try to let him know that we West Virginians aren't going to fall for his running for office as a Blue Dog Republican tactics.
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