Sanders wrote an op-ed in a West Virginian paper, criticizing Manchin for failure to support the $3.5t bill.
Two sets of facts to consider:
- $3.5t is about what the federal government collected in taxes last year, proposed at a time we've got runaway inflation that doesn't appear transitory at all, as the feds approach the debt limit, after the feds just finished a year with a $3t deficit.
- Sanders apparently thinks attacking Manchin for his stance will hurt him.
In West Virginia.
I know Bernie's been in office quite a while due to where he's from and what constituencies he represents. But Sanders seems to have as firm a grasp on West Virginian politics as he has on basic economics.
West Virginia voted R for President in every Presidential election since I've been able to vote. Their Governor, House, and Senate are all currently controlled by the GOP, despite in general being a purple state. Their other US Senator is a Republican.
Their Democrats aren't the kind of Democrats in California... They're moderate and often even fiscally conservative (by modern standards, though not by mine haha).
They aren't receptive to a self-described (regardless of how he means the term) socialist telling them why their Senator should support a bill that would spend more than the entire federal government collected in revenue last year.
If anything, Sanders is more likely to harden Manchin's stance personally while making him more popular in his home state.