Something isn’t right with Joe Manchin

| 10:00 pm EDT October 2, 2021
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Is Joe Manchin losing a step? He seems to be late to the game, slow to raise his vague objections to the president’s sweeping infrastructure proposal, and paralyzed by the scale of this bold investment in our future. He missed the bus when the framework of this proposal was being hammered out, and now he needs extra time because he feels like he should articulate some kind of objection.

The distinguished senator seems to not understand that the trillions of dollars called for in the infrastructure bill will be spread across ten years. So when the bill calls for a total of $3.5 trillion, it really means just $350 billion per year. This is only half as much money as we lose every year to simple tax evasion, thanks to the GOP’s years-long effort to defund the IRS and take the teeth out of enforcement and collection.

This is a tiny amount of money for a nation as wealthy and powerful as ours. It is embarrassing to see our lawmakers crying poor, too timid to make this modest investment in our shared future, and too lacking in vision to recognize the value it brings to their constituents. America is greater than this.