Washington Post tries shaming Joe Manchin

The Washington Post's editorialis their attempt to shame Joe Manchin into supporting Joe Biden's Build Back Better Bill. The Post identifies 2 points of disagreement with Sen. Manchin -- workfare requirements for entitlement recipients and climate change.

Take the Child Tax Credit, which is now going to families making under $150,000. Even if that were cut down to $60,000, it would still go to a great many West Virginia families. But the key is the work requirements. We’re not going to impose that bureaucratic burden on the middle class, let alone the wealthy — make a lawyer or a small-business owner document their work hours for the government, are you crazy? What’s next, require drug testing before you can get the mortgage interest deduction?

But Manchin wants to impose work requirements on poorer people, including his own constituents. If you give them a hand it will just turn them into bloodsucking leeches who won’t pull their own weight. Do that, Manchin says, and we’ll become an "entitlement society."

That's an overreaction. Proving that you're seeking employment or job training isn't difficult. It was the law of the land from Bill Clinton through George W. Bush. When welfare reform was first enacted, liberals predicted doom for entitlement recipients. Their doomsday predictions didn't happen. Ending welfare as we know it turned into a success.

The editorial's other criticism of Sen. Manchin is his steadfast support of coal. The Post insists that Sen. Manchin's connections with coal mine owners has triggered Manchin to develop a blind spot for the people of West Virginia:

The contempt embodied in that position is something we usually hear from Republicans, but Manchin clearly believes it too. It’s a good reminder that he has always been a representative of the owner class, the bosses, the ones who get rich off other people’s labor (including, in his case, people’s labor in the coal mines).

Workfare isn't controversial except in the far-left fever swamps of the Democrat Party. Means-testing isn't controversial, either, except in those same fever swamps.

Joe Manchin is a better fit as a Republican. Democrats everywhere are realizing that their fathers' Democrat Party doesn't exist anymore.

Joe Biden's Build Back Better Bill is on life support because Democrats are facing a 50-50 Senate and House that's badly split. That isn't the recipe for transformational change. The Democrats' Build Back Better dream never was that realistic.