Senator Joe Manchin appeared on CNN’s State of the Union, where he agreed with Senator Bernie Sanders on many issues related to Social Security.
Manchin agrees with Bernie Sanders.
Joe Manchin gives Democrats and Progressives heartburn. His latest infraction was to buck the administration’s message. When Dana Bass asked him if he thought the President was correct in not negotiating on the debt ceiling. He thought it was a mistake.
But later, Manchin realized that his constituents depended on Social Security and other government services. He pointed out that Social Security is in trouble. But similar to any good Progressive, he does not want benefits cuts.
More importantly, this conservative Democrat wants a tax increase to fix it. Currently, Social Security taxes are capped at somewhere around $150,000. He wants all income taxes. That would more than solve the problem.
But it gets better. Manchin did not run from Bernie.
“Your colleague Bernie Sanders tweeted, ‘The last thing we need is another commission to propose cuts to Social Security and Medicare,'” Dana Bass said.
And then it happened. Conservative Joe Manchin agreed with super progressive Bernie Sanders.
“I agree with him, Bernie, and I agree on that,” Manchin said. “You don’t need a committee to look at cuts, and that’s what they’re using and weaponizing it. Can’t you look and find out in government where you can be more efficient, more basically prudent with the taxpayers’ money and quit wasting it? Don’t you think? And we all talk about waste, fraud, and abuse. That’s an easy thing to do when no one looks at it.”
Maybe we can hope that Manchin will be on the correct side of this issue.