Manchin: Obama needs to fight (Politico)

Conservative Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) asked the President Monday to call out the deficit committee?s failure, and urged Obama to embrace the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction plan.

Asked on MSNBC?s Morning Joe whether President Obama should step up and criticize the deficit supercommittee, whose negotiations have widely been reported to have collapsed, Manchin replied: ?He has to have the results. People are going to be judged on the results we receive. I know the president is, uh - hopefully, he?s going to fight for this thing. We?ve got to clear this up. It?s a mess.?

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Manchin expressed hope that Obama would quickly embrace the Bowles-Simpson?s recommendations, especially since the president was the one who convened the commission.

?When you look at it - and we all have 20/20 hindsight - I would have taken that Bowles-Simpson report that was my commission,? said Manchin. ?I would hope he would embrace that now and say that?s the best plan we have. It?s weathered the test of time because it?s been out there for about a year and it keeps gaining momentum. Do you know what it would do to this market if we accepted that??

Manchin had harsh words for the now-likely outcome, a series of automatic government sequestering.

?That?s not governing. If you have automatic cuts and automatically without governing and looking at what you?re affecting, the people most in need, the people basically that could help move this economy forward,? he said.

But, the West Virginia Democrat added, there was plenty of blame to spread around.

?It?s everybody?s fault if this will be the first generation that?s ever failed a generation, ever turned over the keys and left it worse shape that it was when we received it,? said Manchin, who also folksily referred to himself as a ?recovering governor? and noted that he, as an ?eternal optimist,? wasn?t losing total faith in the system.

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