Sen. Joe Manchin III said Wednesday that he and other lawmakers have complaints about key issues — such as how coal power has been addressed by the Obama administration — but shutting down the government over them is not a good policy.
Mr. Manchin, West Virginia Democrat, was part of a 14-senator group that hammered out the latest deal to reopen the government and raise the debt limit, offering up a deal hours before the nation hits a midnight deadline to extend its borrowing authority.
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“It’s the only bipartisan deal that’s been [offered],” Mr. Manchin told MSNBC’s “The Daily Rundown.”
As a safeguard, he said, lawmakers have to decide by mid-December whether they are locked into current spending levels dictated by the so-called sequester cuts.
“Basically, we said you have to have a budget conference … now it’s time to go to conference,” Mr. Manchin said.
