WVDSEC Members, Leaders on Manchin Delaying Aid

WV Dem Party Leaders Demand Action, Compassion from Manchin

For Immediate Release

July 27, 2022

The President’s recent statement demonstrates a grasp of the real urgency of taking significant action at this moment, both for our country and our state—and especially for minority and low-income West Virginians.

West Virginians need action on inflation NOW. No one should have to struggle to pay for shelter, food, utilities, transportation, and more when politicians choose to protect their ultra-wealthy donors.
West Virginians need affordable prescription drugs NOW. No one should suffer or die when pharma executives price gouge to give themselves tens of millions more per year.
West Virginians need high-wage jobs with a sustainable future NOW. No one should live paycheck to paycheck when resource extraction barons want that second or third yacht.

The tactic of those who are making millions or billions from the status quo is delay, delay, delay—because the longer they delay action on the climate crisis, the more profits they reap at our expense. A devastating flood occurred as recently as just last week in McDowell County—and we still have 20 families who have been waiting in line for 6 years for aid for the 2016 floods. In our state, we’re tired of waiting for our leaders to act in good faith with the urgency this moment demands.

We call on Joe Manchin to stop delaying and show compassion for working people. He must vote to pass a budget bill that raises taxes on people who make more than 10 million a year so we can provide relief to and invest in West Virginia working families—NOW.

Quotes from signed on WVDSEC members:

“32% of adult West Virginians experience the impacts of a disability—the CDC says that’s more than double the proportion overall in the US—and we need the assurance of permanent affordable health care premiums NOW.”
—Brenda Weese

“If Sen. Manchin is really concerned about keeping spending and inflation down for the future, he immediately needs to get back to work on climate legislation that can be passed this year. Every moment of past delay is being paid for many times over right now with the staggering costs of after-the-fact disaster relief in West Virginia – and our children and grandchildren will pay many times over for every moment that the Senate continues to delay right now. Immediate and bold climate legislation is fiscally sound, politically popular, and morally imperative.”
– Troy N. Miller

”Delaying aid in order to raise money from your corporate donors while working people suffer is unconscionable—and also wholly, predictably, Manchin-ey. Kids are going hungry. People are rationing insulin—dying while he plays political games, pockets money, and pretends not to understand the consequences his actions have on the rest of us. It doesn’t matter what party you are: WV needs good jobs, relief from inflation, and healthcare we’re not priced out of.”
—Lissa Lucas

“We’re also now in the longest drought of congressional inaction on federal minimum wage in history. We need to make sure that minimum wage increases lock step quarterly with automatic inflation increases.”
—Mac Halterman