Manchin Wants $1 Trillion Tax Increase

Tax hike violates Manchin promise to WV voters: “I can’t look the people in West Virginia in the eye and ask them to pay a penny more until I know we’re running this government efficiently.”

“Moderate” Democrat Senator Joe Manchin wants to impose a $1 trillion tax increase, according to an Axios scoop.

But this runs afoul of a promise Manchin made to West Virginia voters. When Manchin asked West Virginians to send him to the Senate, he vowed that he would not raise a penny of taxes until the government was running efficiently.

Let’s roll the tape of Manchin during a nationally televised Senate debate on Oct. 18, 2010:

“I can’t look the people in West Virginia in the eye and ask them to pay a penny more until I know we’re running this government efficiently.”

Manchin also correctly noted that it is a bad idea to raise any taxes during a recession:

“I don’t think during a time of recession you mess with any of the taxes.”

While we are not technically in a recession, American households and businesses are being pummeled by historic inflation and the country is trying to dig out from the pandemic in a time of deep economic uncertainty. A Manchin vote for any tax increase now would certainly violate the letter and spirit of his twin tax commitments to West Virginians. Why wallop the country with a trillion-dollar tax hike?

“Manchin ran for Senate vowing to never support a tax hike until the government was running efficiently. Everything must now be hunky dory as he just announced he wants a one trillion dollar tax hike on Americans,” said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.

“Doing his best Austin Powers imitation, Manchin just looked into the camera and demanded a ONE TRILLION tax hike. We know how expensive a liberal Democrat can be. How expensive is a ‘moderate’ Democrat? Manchin just told us.”

When Manchin asked the voters to send him to Washington, he vowed to oppose tax increases: Now he’s threatening to impose tax hikes on West Virginia households and businesses. So what happened, Senator?

[Click here to view the video of Manchin’s tax promises]