Sen. Joe Manchin., W. Va., expressed criticism for President Obama’s lack of leadership of the failing deficit reduction committee and for his failure to take up the recommendations of the Simpson-Bowles commission, which Manchin believes should receive a vote.
Asked if Obama bears ultimate responsibility for Supercommittee failure, Manchin agreed that he does. “You know, Mika, it’s the leader [position],” Manchin said today on Morning Joe. “I was the governor of the state of West Virginia [and] people relied on me to set the tone of what we were going to do and push it through. Everybody has a different style. I’m not going to criticize it, but people are going to judge the results we receive and if we don’t get results, we’re in trouble.”
“[Obama] has to have the results, people are going to be judged on the results we receive,” Manchin reiterated, though he added that “it’s everybody’s fault.”
When asked what he’d like to see from President Obama, Manchin indicated that the president had erred by not pushing for the Bowles-Simpson commission recommendations. “When you look at it, and we all have hindsight being 20/20, saying [as Obama], ‘if I would have taken that Bowles-Simpson report that was my commission that we put together and that was the report that was given to me,'” Manchin said about Obama’s decision not to accept his commission’s recommendation. “Eleven of eighteen, I think six Democrats [and[ five Republicans voted to bring it to the floor and let’s vote on it, I would hope that [Obama] would embrace that now and say, ‘that’s the best plan we have.'”
You can see the full Manchin interview below.
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