His net worth is reportedly more than $7 million. He makes $174,000 at his day job as the Chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, but he also has financial ties to the family’s multi-million dollar coal company, which he used to run.
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) is a multi-millionaire living in one of America’s poorest states, and he’s on track to derail President Joe Biden’s agenda on multiple fronts.
Manchin has long been known as a conservative Democrat. His first act as a U.S. Senator was to be the only Democrat to vote against the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” He claimed that even after being the state’s governor and serving in public government roles for decades he wasn’t sure how his constituents wanted him to vote.
The West Virginia Democrat no longer is “confused” by which way he wants to vote.
Manchin has decided that tens of million of Americans working for minimum wage don’t deserve $15 an hour. He wants to cap the maximum increase to $11 an hour. He thinks $15 an hour, or about $31,000 a year, as a full-time minimum employee is just too much.
Manchin didn’t cite any studies, just his gut.
“I would amend it to $11,” Sen. Manchin said, according to CNN’s Manu Raju. “We can do $11 in two years and be in a better position than they’re going to be with $15 in five years.”
It’s unclear who would be in a “better position,” or who “we” and “they” are.
The $15 minimum wage is not the only important Biden agenda item Manchin wants to kill.
Last week he effectively killed any chance Biden’s pick to head the Office of Management and Budget had to be confirmed. Manchin announced late Friday afternoon Neera Tanden’s tweets were just too mean, and she therefore should not be confirmed.
Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) followed on Monday morning, announcing she too found the mean tweets disturbing, and would vote against confirmation. Later Monday, Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) followed suit.
Tanden, a woman of color whose parents are immigrants from India, is eminently-qualified. She has been the president of the liberal think tank Center for American Progress for nearly a decade, and has also served in important roles in the Obama and Clinton White Houses.
Monday night MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow observed Manchin “has invented a whole new standard” for confirmation, which he has never applied to anyone else.
And now, Manchin has signaled he has it out for yet another Biden pick, who just coincidentally happens to be another woman, and another woman of color.
Senator Manchin has let it be known he’s uncomfortable with President Biden’s nominee to head the Dept. of the Interior. U.S. Congresswoman Deb Haaland, Democrat of New Mexico, just isn’t doing it for Manchin.
Like with Tanden (who technically is still in the running) Manchin hasn’t stated any issue with her qualifications.
NBC News Capitol Hill Correspondent Leigh Ann Caldwell reports Manchin “is undecided” on Haaland.
If Haaland is confirmed she would become the first Native American to run Interior, and the first Native American Cabinet Secretary.
“Manchin and Haaland have met to discuss her nomination via zoom but Manchin has remaining questions,” Caldwell reports, noting Haaland appears before Manchin’s Energy Committee Tuesday.
Late Monday night Politico published a report titled, “‘A double standard going on’: Democrats accuse GOP and Manchin of bias on Biden nominations.”
Democrats are expressing anger at Manchin, and firing charges of misogyny and racism.