Sen. Joe Manchin Discusses Relationship With Trump in Wheeling
WHEELING — U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin said his 63 percent voting record with President Donald Trump makes him the only person who keeps President Trump “bipartisan.”
Manchin, D-W.Va., made that statement Wednesday while meeting union leaders at Wheeling Coffee and Spice. However, the Democratic senator also took time to respond to the Republican president’s comments that the senator has not been supportive of the president’s bipartisan efforts toward tax and health care reforms.
“I’ve voted with him 63 percent of the time,” Manchin said. “I’m the only person who has kept him bi-partisan looking at the deals and legislation that made sense, and that I could come home and explain.”
He asked the union members to join him in signing a letter to Trump asking him to enforce trade tariffs with China as the U.S. government evaluates its trade balances with other countries.
While Manchin visited Wheeling, the Trump Administration announced it would impose steep tariffs on steel and aluminum on member countries of the European Union. The American government has been seeking to impose tariffs from 10 percent to 25 percent on steel producing countries throughout the world.
But Manchin asserts U.S. trade imbalances are greatest with China.
“We’re at a disadvantage, our industries are at a disadvantage, and our labor forces are at a disadvantage in competing with the unfair practice of dumping product with subsidized prices,” he said.
China is often dumping its subsidized steel into America indirectly by going through other countries, such as Mexico, according to Manchin. He said China is the main problem when it comes to steel dumping because they produce 50 percent of the steel in the world.
The result is a trade deficit with China of at least $375 billion, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
The imposition of tariffs by America should be based on whether or not a trade imbalance exists with a specific country, Manchin said.
“We have to start making some determination on where we think the violators are, and how we are able to have a $350 billion to $500 billion in trade,” he said. “Something is off-balance. Something is wrong.”
Meanwhile, regarding his position on health care reform, Manchin said he is not going to vote on any health care plan from the White House that would repeal the present system until an alternative plan is already in action.
“I’ve got all my rural hospitals and clinics that would be hurt immensely,” Manchin said. “We know we can fix it in a bipartisan way.”
Manchin is a member of a bipartisan coalition of 12 Democrats and 12 Republicans who crafted a plan to amend Obamacare, but this legislation has yet to be considered by the full Senate.
“He (Trump) is mad at me for that one, and he thinks I didn’t vote with him on that or on the tax cuts,” he said.
Manchin said he favors tax cuts, but he thinks they should be permanent ones.
“People who get a paycheck should have been the priority,” he said. “That was not the priority in this tax bill.”
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