Manchin hurts his constituents when he insists on cutting BBB
Reporters can register here for the news conference at 10:30 a.m. ET Friday
Contact: Martha Waggoner: [email protected]
Did you know that Sen. Joe Manchin’s proposal to slash the Build Back Better plan would cut the number of new jobs created in his home state of West Virginia by more than half?
The Institute for Policy Studies says the Biden version of the plan would create 17,290 new jobs, compared to the 7,410 jobs created under Manchin’s plan.
The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival will hold a news conference at 10:30 a.m. ET Friday to present new data about how the Biden plan — which polls show is enormously popular in West Virginia — benefits poor and working people, children and the environment specifically in Manchin’s home state.
Faith leaders, including the co-chairs of the PPC:NCMR, Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, and poor and low-income people will then discuss the immorality of Manchin’s proposal, which hurts the same people that the Biden plan helps.
Some 140 million Americans are poor or low-income in the U.S., including 710,000 of West Virginians — or 40%. And these people have power at the ballot box. According to a study released last week by the PPC:NCMR, poor and low-income people accounted for 50% of the electorate in the 2020 presidential election in West Virginia.
Reporters can register here; the news conference will be livestreamed here.
Other speakers for the news conference include attorney David M. Fryson, pastor of The New First Baptist Church of Kanawha City in Charleston, West Virginia, and the recently retired founding vice president of the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for West Virginia University in Morgantown; Rev. Matthew Watts, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Charleston; Pam Garrison, a lifelong low-wage worker and a tri-chair of the West Virginia PPC; Jean Evansmore, a tri-chair of the West Virginia PPC and Kaylen Marie Parker, who lives in generational poverty despite having a master’s degree.
At 4 p.m. ET Sunday, the PPC:NCMR will hold a Mass Moral Revival and Rally at the West Virginia Capitol, North Circle Stage, 1900 Kanawha Blvd. East, in Charleston. The PPC:NCMR co-chairs will speak at the rally, along with other faith leaders.
The Biden version of Build Back Better costs $3.5 trillion but lost in the noise is this: that amount is over 10 years. That’s just an estimated 1.2% of the U.S. GDP over 10 years. Manchin proposes cutting this total to $1.5 trillion.
Other new figures provided by IPS — which will be announced at the news conference — show how many West Virginians would benefit from these improvements in the Build Back Better plan:
- Extension of the Expanded Child Tax Credit in the full program
- Extension of the Expanded Earned Income Tax Credit
- Expansion of housing vouchers
- Universal pre-K and expanded child care support
- Paid family and medical leave
- Home care for the aging and disabled
- Expansion of Medicare to cover dental, vision and hearing services
The PPC:NCMR will take out its second full-page ad about Manchin on Sunday in the Charleston Gazette-Mail, listing these figures and demanding that Manchin do better by his own constituents, who polls show support the Biden version.
A Global Strategy Group poll says that: “West Virginians strongly support a number of proposals to increase taxes on the wealthy and corporations in order to fund the Build Back Better agenda. For example, by 70% to 24%, voters support “clos[ing] the loophole that often allows the wealthy to avoid paying taxes on investment gains for their entire lives.” By 65% to 29%, voters support “apply[ing] a one-time tax on billionaires’ untaxed investment gains above $1 billion, at the same rate as wages and salaries.”
And according to The Guardian: A WorkMoney survey found that “80% of more than 800 people surveyed in West Virginia believe Manchin should vote to pass the bill. That includes 77% of conservatives who responded to the survey.”
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