WASHINGTON (WV News) — Sen. Joe Manchin elaborated Thursday morning on details of a bill aiming to tackle inflation, climate change, healthcare and more, although his fellow West Virginia senator, Shelley Moore Capito, is not as supportive of the measures.

Called the Inflation Reduction Act, Manchin said the $739 billion bill backed by fellow Democrat President Joe Biden would invest $300 billion into reducing the national deficit, increase taxes and tax enforcement on on the “biggest corporations and ultra-wealthy,” and bolster healthcare received through Medicare and the Affordable Care Act.

 

The bill would also spend $369 billion on climate change and energy initiatives, including the onshoring of supply chains and a wide variety of tax credits aimed at individuals and companies willing to be more energy efficient.

Manchin said that, while he was against Biden’s original Build Back Better Plan, he believed that some parts of it were worth passing, leading him to open conversations with Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to develop the Inflation Reduction Act.

 

“There should be no surprise, because I’ve never walked away from anything in my life,” Manchin said. “I just felt that there was an opportunity here to give us an energy policy with the security we need for our nation, but also, driving down the high price of gasoline and driving down inflation was my No. 1 goal. ...

 

“This is a bill that keeps the fossil industry and the country in a very strong position until those new technologies — whenever that may be, 10 or 20 years from now — are able to kick in.”

Manchin said the bill would be a boon for West Virginia and the country as a whole, stressing he didn’t sign on to the Inflation Reduction Act for political reasons.

 

“This is not being Democrat or Republican,” Manchin said. “I didn’t do anything for either side. … I could not absolutely in any way agree that it’s aspirational to get rid of everything. ‘Eliminate, eliminate, eliminate’ is not going to work at all, and I was never for that. … I think (this bill) is going to help West Virginians immensely, and it will help Americans if they’ll just look at the contents of the bill.”

 

However, Sen. Capito, R-W.Va., said she is wholeheartedly against the bill. Capito said the measure would be hurtful to individuals, natural gas and coal companies, and more.

 

“Honestly, it’s inexplicable to me how, in a time of high inflation and recessionary times that are directly related to the overspending that Democrats did last year, that they would entertain flooding, again, more federal dollars into the system,” Capito said. “It’s just inexplicable, and I think it will fuel this fire of inflation even more. …

 

“When you flood a lot of federal dollars into it, it exacerbates the problem and makes it worse, and that means West Virginia dollars won’t go as far and it’ll be a bigger strain on the household budget.”

 

During Manchin’s press conference, he was asked if the timing of the bill could threaten other Democrat-backed legislation in the works, including the Respect for Marriage Act, which codifies same-sex and interracial marriage.

Manchin said he hopes it doesn’t and it shouldn’t, as he believes anybody who truly examines the bill will be behind it.

 

“There was no malice intended whatsoever,” Manchin said. “(We can’t) get wrapped up in thinking, ‘We have to be against something because it might make the other side look good.’ The Democrats have done the same thing. I’m not siding with either side. We should be looking for what’s good for the country. … I’m hoping my Republican friends will look at this bill … how it was presented and what’s really in it. It’s going to have to be all politics driving you to be opposed to it.”