Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia has gotten an enormous amount of publicity for defying President Biden’s proposed social spending plan.

He announced that he can’t support the Build Back America plan, that it just costs too much money. He’s been labeled a traitor by some progressive Democrats. Republicans have openly invited him to switch parties.

Manchin is at a crossroads. Progressives in Congress aren’t likely to drop their push for more social program spending. He’ll be asked again to get on board.

His best course of action at this point is to clearly spell out his differences with the plan, to explain what specific parts of it he can’t support.

Some items might still be negotiable. The Democratic party leadership could choose to modify some of the particulars for the overall good of getting a federal investment in America’s human capital.

We’re seeing the greatest push for social action since the days of Lyndon Johnson. It’s similar to what was advocated almost 60 years ago with the War on Poverty and the Great Society.

Those initiatives from the 1960s were based on the goal of totally eliminating poverty. It was thought that everyone could follow a path out of it toward stability and self-sufficiency. Since then we’ve seen that such a theory has limits, that a variety of economic hurdles leave some individuals and families just one step away from being homeless.

Social services responded since the 1960s by working to offer a safety net, enough assistance to keep people from falling through the economic cracks.

That goal has endured the conservative trends from the past 40 years. In spite of the anti-government sentiment and the anti-spending rhetoric, there’s been a sense among most people of the need to help those who are less fortunate.

The alternative is to think in terms of all people taking care of themselves, and leaving it to private charities to handle any services for the poor. Charities would never be able to keep up. They’re designed to help one family at a time, not the many thousands who need at least some assistance.

To think that government has no place in social service is an ultra-conservative point of view. It’s what Sen Manchin will basically be supporting if he takes no action to propose some type of social spending strategy.

He labels himself as “fiscally responsible with compassion”. He needs to prove himself on the compassion side. How does he propose to offer a strong enough safety net in the economic conditions people face in the 21st century?

There’s a great deal of instability in the job market. Home prices have skyrocketed in the past 25 years. The cost of living keeps going up, and has recently started to increase at a pace not seen since high inflation days of the 1970s.

It’s not unusual to see people who face economic hardship through no fault of their own. They aren’t necessarily lazy. They shouldn’t automatically be accused of “working the system” to get money out of the various social service agencies.

Most people who think along those lines have never worked directly with individuals and families who have needs they can’t meet on their own.

They haven’t seen how hard it is for many people to ask for help. There are people who cut back on their food consumption instead of going to a food shelf. There are others who sleep on just a mattress because there isn’t enough money to buy a bed.

Future generations are likely to judge us based on how we respond to poverty in our midst. We have to decide if we’re willing to allow tent cities to start cropping up on the outskirts of metropolitan areas, possibly within walking distance of wealthy gated communities.

Hopefully it never comes to that. Instead it’s better if everyone has a chance to enjoy some of the American Dream, even in small rural communities and in the oldest urban neighborhoods.

Sometimes social spending qualifies as an investment in the future. Senator Manchin and others who oppose the current proposal should spell out other ways to help those who need it. Someday we might find ourselves in that category.

— Jim Muchlinski is a longtime reporter and contributor to the Marshall Independent