Joe Manchin Does 180: I Would Have Voted Against Health Care Reform

West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin's sprint away from President Obama's agenda accelerated a bit on Sunday, when he announced that, had he been in Congress at the time, he would have voted against health care reform.

Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," Manchin, running in a tight race for Senate, made what can only be described as a full 180. After having once said he would have voted for the bill, he cited onerous paperwork requirements, the physical length of the legislation, and the individual mandate for insurance coverage as reasons he would have opposed health care reform.

Chris Wallace: You're saying now that if you had known what was really in the bill, although last March you said you would have voted for it, you are now saying you would have voted against it?

Joe Manchin: Correct. Knowing the existence as far as how reaching it had been, as far as [garbled], I would have. And I think many people didn't know about the bill. It ends up 2,000 pages or more. Bottom line, the concept was great as far as pre-existing conditions, how do we make sure more people have affordable insurance, how do we take care of children ... keeping children on insurance longer because of the market conditions. There are a lot of good parts to it. Why won't we fix what is wrong with it and make it better.

There are a number of political and policy elements of Manchin's logic that are contestable. On substantive grounds, Obama himself didn't campaign on the mandate. But after consulting with advisers, he came to the conclusion that it would be exceedingly difficult to lower health care premiums and cover pre-existing conditions without requiring that the vast majority of people buy insurance coverage.

On political grounds, Manchin seems to be suggesting that he knows more about the health care law now than he did when it was being debated. Perhaps that's true. But he also didn't hesitate in commenting on the bill while it was being debated, giving off the impression that back then he understood it's various benefits and weaknesses.

Comments

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

09:35 PM on 10/25/2010

John Kerry's face filled out a little bit since the last time I saw the flip-flopper.

[stopliberalism]

04:12 PM on 10/25/2010

These democrats are so principled when running for office. This Manchin character, like most dem candidates, has to li.e and pretend that he is not a liberal to get elected. Don't you worry you libs out there, once he is elected, he will do another 180 and back Barry 100%. He'll be another reliable dem in the Senate...he's just saying these things to get elected...

[jfbuf]

04:10 PM on 10/25/2010

could someone tell me why this guy calls himself a Democrat? Why doesn't he just change parties.

[dkhawkee]

05:13 PM on 10/25/2010

Maybe there are people every party who agree mostly with thier party, but, do hold different views in some areas? Gay Republicans for example,(yes I know, that's like being a vegetarian butcher) they would like the same rights as everyone, but, are more conservative in other issues such as defense, spending, lower taxes, etc..

[ldcbl]

03:01 PM on 10/25/2010

who is this hayseed anyway. let him lose, he is just a DINO anyway. let WV have the florida candidate for their senator. no need for control anyway since nothing is going to get done in the forseeable future anyway.

[Guest211]

02:31 PM on 10/25/2010

Interesting that he decided to make these statements only a week before the election.

I wonder what his internal polling is telling him.

[stopliberalism]

04:13 PM on 10/25/2010

Good point, he must be down, and seeing that over 60% of American are against this bill, he would be wise to distance himself from it...

[bluejean1951]

12:03 PM on 10/25/2010

This man was foolish and self serving when he refused to appoint someone to this seat to hold onto it for himself. He put his own political ambitions before his state and his party and I really don't care if he loses this election.

He's proved what he's made of already and we don't need any more self serving politicians in Washington DC thanks.

[big fan]

11:27 AM on 10/25/2010

Is this news..a democrat saying one thing but really meant something else...Pelosi took the gavel of Speaker of the House in January of 2007 and promised "no new deficit spending"..nearly 4 years later she has increased the deficit by five "trillion" dollars....20 months ago Obama says let me spend 1.3 trillion dollars and I promise unemployment won't exceed 8%..I have millions of "shovel ready jobs" waiting for the money....the result 15 months of 9.5% unemployment, the longest period since the great depression...then Obama admits there never were "shovel ready jobs"!

[bluejean1951]

12:09 PM on 10/25/2010

Yeah, cuz giving tax breaks to the wealthiest 2% of Americans (that they didn't spend by the way) and allowing big business to hide their income overseas (and didn't produce ANY JOBS) has been such a boon for the American revenue system under the Rupublicans for 8 long years, right?

[christopherflynn]

12:46 PM on 10/25/2010

big fan puts out a lot of "hot air"...you'll never convince "it"...Thanks for your post...
fanned for pointing out the truth

[big fan]

04:18 PM on 10/25/2010

Your fading fast...bluejean!

[hobo62]

11:27 AM on 10/25/2010

The Third American Political Party will have to be the "Progressive Party." Promoting real Wall Street and Financial Reform, or breaking up all the big banks, Federal Reserve annual audits, environmental changes, ending the war in Afghanistan and bringing our troops home, elimination of earmarks, lobbying and foreign aid. Elimination of all taxes on food. Elimination of all farm subsidies. A national infrastructure rebuilding of roads and high speed rails. Getting a grass roots efforts going to clean up our libraries, schools, parks and roadways. Elimination of government agencies that do nothing but create other government agencies such as the Under, Under, Secretary for the Selection of Bad Hair days.

[bluejean1951]

12:13 PM on 10/25/2010

Sign me up for that party please!

[middleoftheroad]

11:25 AM on 10/25/2010

The great thing in terms of killing the Progressive agenda, is that he is a total DINO. I love the ad where he takes a gun, brags about his NRA status and literally shoots the Cap&Trade Bill!!! hahahahaaha... win-win

[Adartist777]

10:29 AM on 10/25/2010

Fifty million are without insurance. We could have adopted the Canadian health care plan. It seems to work for them, but we had to go the difficult way and allow lobbyists to write health care legislation. Now we will pay the price, one way or another because of corrupt politicians.

[Gneirre]

10:22 AM on 10/25/2010

I'm hearing the sounds of a very small violin being played. He's whining because he's not getting as much attention from Obama as he had hoped. Cry baby!

[gman123]

09:30 AM on 10/25/2010

All politics is local or a classic demonstration of a Democratic running scared?

[intolleft]

10:27 AM on 10/25/2010

Classic example of 'bait and switch' is more like it. If re-elected because of siphoning off conservative votes, he will fall back in the progressive line. This 'running from Obama' is a ruse.

[ExitZero]

09:23 AM on 10/25/2010

This guy is just desperately trying to get elected. He's pretty loathsome, but then the alternative is a inherited wealth billionaire who wants to destroy the minimum wage, amongst other monstrous plans he has to destroy the poor and middle class. Voters in WV would have to be nuts to elect the coldblooded trust fund baby. They're stuck with this hypocrite. The silver lining is he'll probably be a reliable Dem once in the Senate, since this is all electioneering. And he's going to win, so that's a strike against the teabagging machine.

[polidoc]

02:42 PM on 10/25/2010

Actually, the other alternative is the candidate from the Mountain Party, Jesse Johnson. jessejohnson.org.

[Captjashook]

09:11 AM on 10/25/2010

Progressive Dems. Do not elect this man, he is merely a Blue Dog political opportunist waiting to sink the movement. Better to vote green and send the Party a message. This brand of candidate is unacceptable.

[Bumpkins]

09:19 AM on 10/25/2010

wrong

[Captjashook]

09:28 AM on 10/25/2010

Why?

[AyeChart]

09:29 AM on 10/25/2010

You've hit the nail on the cephalic end.

[AyeChart]

09:05 AM on 10/25/2010

Just another Democrat willing to say anything to get elected.

Once in office, one suspects he would revert to the big-spending mode.

Vote Republican.

[Captjashook]

09:12 AM on 10/25/2010

Is everything you say completely partisan? Every thread I am seeing you on is just one partisan swipe after another. Are you getting paid for this?

[Bumpkins]

09:20 AM on 10/25/2010

Happy BOO day....right on the mark

[ExitZero]

09:20 AM on 10/25/2010

The answer would be yes. You'll notice these types never stay to debate. They take viciously partisan shots and then run. It's organized.

[KathyinMichigan]

10:29 AM on 10/25/2010

Big spending mode? What are you drinking this morning. 2 unfunded wars! Tax cuts unfunded. Etc. Etc. Etc.

[Maxirules]

12:31 PM on 10/25/2010

As someone pointed earlier, they don't respond to facts.

[faldoc]

03:49 PM on 10/25/2010

OK, I'll give you the unfunded wars, but then how about unfunded Medicare benefits (going belly up in 6 years), unfunded Medicaid (most states in big trouble with this) and unfunded public pensions and healthcare and unfunded crumbling infrastructure or unfunded unemployment insurance adding up to many more trillions? Congress would love to steal our self funded 401Ks to bailout the unions and their mismanaged pensions.
There's a lot of Koolaid out there, and it's not just Republicans drinking it! Don't kid yourself, nothing spent by congress is funded anymore, it's all newly created money, or borrowed.