Representatives of the West Virginia Coal Association and the Friends of Coal joined Senator Joe Manchin for the recent South Charleston stop of his “Common Sense” tour. Manchin talked about the current budget crisis and his determination to address the problem, while protecting the nation’s safety net. “Left unchecked, our exploding national debt will paralyze this nation,” he said. “It will cost us countless jobs. It will derail critical programs like Social Security and Medicare.”
Manchin also addressed the efforts some have made to criticize efforts to curb the budget by scaring seniors and people who depend on the nation’s social safety net.
“Talking about cutting Social Security and Medicare scares people, but they will be protected,’ Manchin said. “If you are 35 or younger, there will be some adjustments, but it is not going to change things for people who have been paying into those programs for a long time.”
Manchin vowed, however, that he will not vote for the critical bill that would raise the nation’s debt ceiling “until we have a long-term fix.”