Thread by @GregTSargent

Bernie has erupted at Joe Manchin, and rightly so: Manchin's awful "entitlement society" fearmongering deserves serious pushback. It betrays a deeply distorted understanding of the Biden agenda and what its investments are really designed to do. My latest:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…

Joe Manchin has reportedly demanded that Biden and progressives choose one of three priorities and ditch the other two:

Child Tax Credit
Paid leave
Child care

This is absurdly arbitrary. Less spending = inherent good. No evaluation of actual tradeoffs:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…

For Manchin, everything is on a sliding scale: Fewer "entitlements" good, more "entitlements" bad.

Bernie tore into this on @maddow, noting that a higher social minimum is good, not bad.

I'd add: These policies aren't just welfare. They're *empowering*:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…

@maddow Expanded child tax credit delivers big boost in purchasing power to WV.

Manchin's state is in top 10 in money it injects as percentage of GDP, per Niskanen Center.

CTC helps revive stagnating nonmetro USA. But he says entitlements are the real threat!

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…

@maddow The deepest absurdity of all here is Joe Manchin's false dichotomy between an "entitlement society" and a "rewarding society."

Policies like these are designed to empower people to seek more "rewarding" jobs and lives:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…

@maddow Adding to all of the above, there's the absurdity identified by @ryanlcooper. He's all in favor of enormous public spending on defense:

theweek.com/democrats/1005…

@maddow @ryanlcooper "The child tax credit empowers more people by ensuring that their broader communities are economically vibrant. That results in more opportunity.”

One way to help stagnating nonmetro areas is to boost demand. Would make big difference in Manchin's state:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…