By Bill Raney, president
West Virginia Coal Association
Washington is broken. That much is obvious even to a sixth grader. While far too many Americans struggle with months or even years of unemployment, with foreclosure, with skyrocketing energy and food prices, there is a growing sense that nobody in Washington is listening.
Americans are increasingly fed up with “business as usual” in Washington. They want leaders with common sense, someone who puts the country ahead of party loyalty or some political agenda – someone who says what they think but is willing to listen as well as talk.
West Virginians are lucky. Sen. Joe Manchin is just that kind of leader.
As governor, Manchin led our state to unprecedented economic security – reining in government, making long-needed reforms like privatizing the workers’ compensation system and building a sound, conservative fiscal policy that has helped our state weather the economic storms of the past three years.
As governor, Manchin never shied away from taking on threats to West Virginia and its people, no matter the source of the threat. Manchin never allowed partisan politics to cloud his judgment while serving as the state’s chief executive.
When confronted with the first shots in the Obama Administration’s “War on Coal,” like the Cap-and-Trade bill, Manchin stood firmly with West Virginia’s working coal miners. He was there at rallies, meetings on Capitol Hill and at the White House. He called it like he saw it.
It’s never easy to take on your party’s president, especially when he was as popular as Obama was in his first couple of years. Manchin never let that stand in the way. He took on Obama, the EPA and spoke the truth, defending our coal families and the people of this state.
As governor, Manchin filed suit against the Obama Administration for its assault on state sovereignty after it tried to hijack the state’s water quality standards and permitting programs, essentially imposing a moratorium on new mining permits.
Manchin was clear in his opposition to the Obama’s Administration’s radical policies when he ran for Senate. We all applauded when he grabbed a rifle and clarified his opposition to Cap-and-Trade with a 30.06 round to the bill. Many say it was what won him the election.
Since his election, Manchin has crossed party lines to support an April 2011 amendment, sponsored by Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, to block the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases and late last year he crossed party lines again to support Sen. Rand Paul’s effort to block the EPA's anti-coal Cross-State Air Pollution Rule.
Manchin has something that few politicians have – a healthy dose of common sense.
He has taken that common sense to Washington and he has continued to fight for the people of this state, regardless of the political calculation.
As he said in response to President Obama’s State of the Union speech earlier this month ….
“… as the American people know all too well - our nation faces grave economic and social challenges. While I was very pleased to hear the President talk about bringing much-needed manufacturing jobs back to America, retraining workers with the right skills for good-paying jobs, and putting fairness into our tax system, I still have real concerns. I'm concerned about the past performance of creating jobs, minimizing the importance of coal in achieving energy independence, and the overregulation that is hurting families in West Virginia and the nation.
"The President also highlighted our debt crisis, but I was disappointed that he did not discuss the recommendations of his own Simpson-Bowles fiscal commission to reduce our deficits and debt and create fair tax reform. I urge the President to reconsider this bipartisan effort and work with Congress to get our fiscal house in order before we pass $16 trillion in debt.
"When it comes to energy and regulations, I'm hopeful that when the President looks for overregulation, the first place he looks is his own EPA, which is making it extremely difficult for us to provide the energy this nation needs at affordable prices. I still have a hard time understanding how you can have a comprehensive energy plan in America without coal - when coal produces nearly 50 percent of our energy and knowing that new technologies can make it much cleaner.
"But let me be clear. These great challenges will not be solved by the President or any Republican or Democratic member of Congress alone; we must work together. And while each one of us must, at times, stand up and speak out against policies that we believe are wrong, we must never allow the politics and partisanship of the moment to divide us as Americans.
"So tonight, especially in honor of my dear friend Senator Kirk, I recommit myself to the great responsibility of putting country before party and to doing all I can to help make our nation's future brighter. I ask all West Virginians and Americans to do the same, so that we can focus on commonsense solutions that will create good-paying jobs, put our fiscal house in order, achieve energy independence and rebuild the nation we all love."
Sen. Manchin is a Democrat, but he is a West Virginian and an American first. He is a leader and our state is, indeed, fortunate to have him represent us in Washington. His is a voice of reason in a Washington, DC gone mad.