Manchin denies being rolled by Biden on spending bill after labeling it ‘betrayal’

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said Sunday that criticism of his apparent 180 on the Inflation Reduction Act is “ridiculous.”

Manchin appeared on “Fox News Sunday” after slamming the Biden administration’s “political malpractice” in a Wall Street Journal op-ed last week, in which he argued that they were “ignoring the debt and deficit implications” of the Inflation Reduction Act.

In the op-ed headlined “Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act Betrayal,” Manchin said the Biden administration is “determined to violate and subvert the law to advance a partisan agenda that ignores both energy and fiscal security.”

“The administration is attempting at every turn to implement the bill it wanted, not the bill Congress actually passed. Ignoring the debt and deficit implications of these actions as the time nears to raise the debt ceiling isn’t only wrong, it’s policy and political malpractice,” he wrote.

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The op-ed sparked criticism on the right, including from Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey, who said Manchin could use a dose of self-reflection.

“Manchin wants to distance himself from the administration he enabled with the Inflation Reduction Act, and really wants to distance himself from its results, but that’s impossible,” Morrissey wrote. “The vote on the IRA came down to Manchin; Manchin negotiated its terms; and Manchin endorsed its policies and the lack of control the legislation had on [President Joe] Biden’s use of the bill. If Manchin wants to talk about ‘political malpractice,’ maybe he should look in the mirror.”

Manchin responded to Morrissey’s criticism on Fox News, calling it “ridiculous.”

“Well, that’s ridiculous,” he said. “I mean, from the standpoint – we write pieces of legislation, we expect the administration to adhere to the intent and how we wrote it. It’s in the bill, read the law. So, anybody who has that opinion has not read the bill.”

The Republican National Committee’s (RNC) research Twitter account highlighted Manchin’s dismissal of Morrissey’s comments.

In his op-ed, Manchin called on the president to implement the Inflation Reduction Act, which was signed in August 2022, as it was written.

“Mr. Biden was elected to lead us all to solve problems. We can’t allow them to be made worse by ignoring them. The president has the power, today, to direct his administration to follow the law, as well as to sit down with congressional leaders and negotiate meaningful, serious reforms to the federal budget,” he wrote. 

Fox News Digital’s Hanna Panreck, Gabriel Hayes and Peter Kasperowicz contributed to this report.