Manchin: ‘I Can’t Tell You’ Biden’s Budget Is ‘Anywhere Close to Where We Need to Be’ on Deficit

On Thursday’s broadcast of “CNN This Morning,” Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) stated that while he’s pleased to see President Joe Biden trying to change the fiscal trajectory, “I can’t tell you” that the $3 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade that Biden wants to achieve with the budget is “enough, if it’s anywhere close to where we need to be.”

Manchin said, “[S]houldn’t we be looking at how we accumulated so much debt so quickly? And both sides are to blame. So…Democrats want to blame Republicans, Republicans want to blame Democrats, this is an American problem we have to fix. And the blame game is not going to fix it. I can’t tell you if 3 trillion’s enough, if it’s anywhere close to where we need to be. But I can tell you we’ve accumulated over 17 to 18 trillion, from 13 trillion to 31.5 trillion as we speak. That breaks down to $94,000 per person in America, for every person in America, children, everybody, that’s $94,000. … If we do nothing — which, I’m happy to see that the President’s changing the trajectory — but if we do nothing…we would not be a superpower of the world. We’ve got to start getting our financial house in order, period. And it’s going to be tough.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett