Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) is being roundly pilloried for getting nothing in return for enabling his party leaders to enact a budget-busting, IRS-unleashing monster of a leftist budget law. He deserves the scornful treatment.

After more than a year of insisting that adding massive government spending would be inflationary and that new taxes and regulations on fossil fuels would be grossly counterproductive, he made a deal with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to push through a bill with massive spending and new burdens on fossil fuels. In return, all he received was a vague pledge for energy-developing “permitting reform” that, in theory, Republicans also supported. Emphasis on “vague.”