{"id":3067,"date":"2017-11-06T18:18:17","date_gmt":"2017-11-06T23:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=3067"},"modified":"2017-11-07T08:36:50","modified_gmt":"2017-11-07T13:36:50","slug":"joe-manchin-brilliant-in-berkeley-springs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=3067","title":{"rendered":"Joe Manchin Brilliant in Berkeley Springs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senator Joe Manchin came to the Country Inn in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia on October 27.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And he was brilliant.<\/span><\/p>\n

Manchin spoke and took questions for over three hours. <\/span><\/p>\n

One woman said she and her husband are retired military and on the military health insurance plan TRICARE. <\/span><\/p>\n

The woman said that they have a granddaughter living in Texas on the CHIP program \u2013 that\u2019s Medicaid for children.<\/span><\/p>\n

The granddaughter has a rare illness and is on medicine that costs $150,000 a month. <\/span><\/p>\n

Because Congress is delaying renewing the CHIP program, Texas could run out of funds \u2013 leaving the granddaughter without access to her medications.<\/span><\/p>\n

The grandmother \u2013 who did not identify herself \u2013 said that her and her husband were going to have to move from Berkeley Springs to Texas to adopt their granddaughter so that the granddaughter would be covered by their TRICARE health insurance.<\/span><\/p>\n

The grandmother wanted to know from Manchin what he could do about preventing Texas from losing funding for CHIP.<\/span><\/p>\n

Manchin asked the grandmother to give her name to one of his aides and he\u2019d look into it.<\/span><\/p>\n

But a young high school student then asked Manchin if a single payer system \u2013 where everyone is covered in one system \u2013 Medicare for all \u2013 wouldn\u2019t solve the woman\u2019s problems.<\/span><\/p>\n

Manchin referred to Bernie Sanders’ single payer bill which was introduced in the Senate last month with 16 other Senators co-sponsoring \u2013 not including Manchin.<\/span><\/p>\n

Manchin said that he would have to study the proposal \u2013 \u201cyou can\u2019t just jump onto every new idea without studying it\u201d \u2013 Manchin said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, single payer is not a new idea. <\/span><\/p>\n

It was introduced first by President Harry Truman more than 70 years ago. <\/span><\/p>\n

And Manchin has heard from single payer advocates in West Virginia for years now \u2013 advocates who have made their case over and over again. <\/span><\/p>\n

Yet Manchin still says that he has to study it. <\/span><\/p>\n

What he actually means is that \u2013 I\u2019m not going to go against the health insurance industry to help the people of my state.<\/span><\/p>\n

Manchin brushed aside the young high school student with a touch of flattery.<\/span><\/p>\n

Manchin took a number of questions about the opioid crisis in West Virginia. <\/span><\/p>\n

In response, he referenced the corruption that allowed for the opioid crisis to flourish in West Virginia, referencing a Washington Post\/60 Minutes expose<\/a> on how three drug distribution companies \u2013 McKesson, AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal Health \u2013 lobbied Congress to make it difficult for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to put a stop to their distribution of opioids in Appalachia and elsewhere.<\/span><\/p>\n

Manchin did not mention the fact that in 2015 Congress passed the legislation by unanimous consent \u2013 including the consent of Senator Manchin \u2013 before it was signed by President Barack Obama.<\/span><\/p>\n

One person did get under Manchin\u2019s skin. <\/span><\/p>\n

And that was Morgan County farmer Patricia Kesecker.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kesecker told Manchin the story of Mountaineer Gas taking her farmland with the use of eminent domain to build a gas pipeline. <\/span><\/p>\n

Kesecker questioned the use of eminent domain by private corporations to take farm land. <\/span><\/p>\n

Manchin expressed surprise that a private corporation would have the right to take the Kesecker property by using eminent domain. <\/span><\/p>\n

He asked around to his buddies in the crowd \u2013 including Republican state Senator Charles Trump and West Virginia House Majority Leader Republican Daryl Cowles \u2013 to see if they knew what was going on.<\/span><\/p>\n

Neither Trump nor Cowles responded.<\/span><\/p>\n

One woman in the crowed looked at Trump and asked, perhaps sarcastically \u2013 \u201cyou were trained in the law, weren\u2019t you Charles?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, Manchin and Trump and Cowles all know what\u2019s going on. <\/span><\/p>\n

They have been in wholehearted support of the use of corporate eminent domain to take farmers\u2019 property for pipelines. <\/span><\/p>\n

Not only did Manchin know what was going on. <\/span><\/p>\n

He supported the exact eminent domain power that Mountaineer Gas used to take the Kesecker farm property.<\/span><\/p>\n

In November 2016, Manchin came to Berkeley Springs to address economic development. <\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

He was asked about the brewing opposition to the Mountaineer Gas pipeline.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t want any type of inconvenience on their property,\u201d Manchin said. <\/span><\/p>\n

Manchin suggested the state could consider investing in the Mountaineer Gas project.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf the state becomes involved, it\u2019s a public project and with eminent domain you can move on it when you need to,\u201d Manchin said.<\/span><\/p>\n

And Trump was behind the law, written by the natural gas industry<\/a> that fast tracked the Mountaineer Gas pipeline through the West Virginia Public Service Commission. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Trump sponsored law effectively shifts the burden of paying for construction of new natural gas pipelines from the corporation to existing ratepayers in the state.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cowles was right behind Manchin and Trump in support of the pipeline.<\/span><\/p>\n

Just brilliant.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

(Via Single Payer Action Newswire.)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senator Joe Manchin came to the Country Inn in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia on October 27. And he was brilliant. Manchin spoke and took questions for over three hours. One woman said she and her husband are retired military and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3067"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3074,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3067\/revisions\/3074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}