Manchin, the second most powerful Joe in Washington
Houseboat-dwelling Democratic senator holds vote that can thwart Biden’s multitrillion-dollar plans
THE fate of Joe Biden’s massive spending plans, and the future of America, may be decided on an innocuous looking houseboat several miles away from the US Capitol.
It belongs to Joe Manchin, the Democratic senator from West Virginia, who has emerged as the key vote needed to secure the passage through Congress of Mr Biden’s multitrillion-dollar proposals.
The Senate is divided 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans, with Kamala Harris, the vice-president, holding a casting vote.
Republicans are unified in their opposition. So it all hangs on Mr Manchin, the most conservative Democrat senator. He is now widely referred to as “the e second most powerful Joe in Washington”. shington”.
Mr Manchin is known for his fiscal prudence, dence, and he is having serious doubts.
After fter hearing Mr Biden’s speech ech to Congress on Wednesday, dnesday, during which he took copious notes, he said: “It’s a lot of money. ney. A lot of money. ney. That makes you very uncomfortable.” able.”
Mr Manchin is an n outlier in the Democratic Party, ty, and in Washington. shington. He dislikes the capital city so much that in his decade there he has refused to buy or rent a home.
Instead, he lives and works on a 40ft boat, which cost far less than any property on land.
His water-based residence has emerged as a convivial getaway where Democrats and Republicans can mingle privately away from the toxic atmosphere of Congress.
He takes political friends and foes on evening cruises along the Potomac River, serving pizza and beer, and his boat has been dubbed the “flagship of the centrist Navy”.
While Mr Biden promised bipartisanship, in practice it is Mr Manchin who is actually pursuing it. Republicans are currently talking, not to the White House, but to “the other Joe”. Even Ted Cruz, the firebrand Republican senator, has been aboard. Susan Collins, the moderate Republican from Maine, is a frequent guest, as is Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate leader. “He [Mr Manchin] suddenly becomes the most powerful person in this place [the Senate]. He He’s s the 50th vote on e everything,” Chris Coons, Democratic s senator and a close friend of Mr Biden, said recently.
Mr Manchin is currently talkin talking to Republicans about their alternative alterna $568billion (£411billion) infrast infrastructure proposal, which is one quarter of the size of Mr Biden’s $2.3trillion plan. pl Last week, Mr M Manchin met Sena Senator Lindsey Graham Graham, a Donald Tru Trump ally. He has a also spoken to Mitch McCo McConnell, the
‘Manchin’s the most powerful person in the Senate. He’s the 50th vote on everything’
Republican Senate leader, which alarmed some Democrats.
Mr Biden’s infrastructure bill, together with a $1.8 trillion American Families Plan focused on education and childcare, and his already passed $1.9trillion coronavirus relief package, represent the biggest expansion of the US government since the 1960s.
However, Mr Manchin has already indicated he will not back a rise in corporation tax from 21 per cent to 28 per cent to pay for some of it. His limit is 25 per cent. He is also said to have concerns over the president’s plan to double capital gains tax to 43.4 per cent on investors making over $1million.
Mr Manchin, whose state of West Virginia is the second largest coal producer in the nation, may also wield a veto on some of Mr Biden’s more progressive climate policy.
This risks blunting the president’s leverage on the global stage where he is calling on world leaders to commit to major cuts to emissions.
Mr Manchin grew up in Farmington, West Virginia, a small coal town. He worked in a grocery shop and then went to West Virginia University on an American Football scholarship as a star quarterback, before a devastating knee injury. Then he worked his way up in local politics, ultimately becoming a popular governor of the state.
All the state’s other senior politicians are Republicans. But still West Virginians keep voting for one Democrat – 74-year-old Mr Manchin.