Catholic organization honors Sen. Joe Manchin in '2021 Courage Awards'

West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin “is a man of steel” and is counted among the top 10 most courageous men and women of 2021 in the organization’s “2021 Courage Awards,” according to CatholicVote.

Mississippi attorney general Lynn Fitch, the parents of Loudoun County, Virginia, two Roman Catholic archbishops and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also appear on the group’s list of courageous individuals.

According to CatholicVote, which describes its mission as “To inspire every Catholic in America to live out the truths of our faith in public life,” Sen. Manchin “has single-handedly defended the right and duty of Members of Congress to represent the people and think for themselves in an otherwise completely partisan Senate. Democrats and left-wing protestors have attacked him repeatedly in the press and even targeted his family and DC home. It didn’t work, and he stayed strong.”

Since Democratic leadership announced the $3.5 trillion Build Back Better bill earlier this year, Manchin has stood in firm opposition – calling on the Senate to take taxpayers into account and challenging lawmakers to find bipartisan solutions instead of relying on procedural tricks in order to pass legislation.

One of Manchin’s earliest stands came in a Wall Street Journal op-ed where he wrote, “The nation faces an unprecedented array of challenges and will inevitably encounter additional crises in the future. Yet some in Congress have a strange belief there is an infinite supply of money to deal with any current or future crisis, and that spending trillions upon trillions will have no negative consequence for the future. I disagree.

“An overheating economy has imposed a costly 'inflation tax' on every middle- and working-class American. At $28.7 trillion and growing, the nation’s debt has reached record levels. Over the past 18 months, we’ve spent more than $5 trillion responding to the coronavirus pandemic. Now Democratic congressional leaders propose to pass the largest single spending bill in history with no regard to rising inflation, crippling debt or the inevitability of future crises. Ignoring the fiscal consequences of our policy choices will create a disastrous future for the next generation of Americans.”

The senator stood firm through December and ultimately the Biden administration was forced to announce that it would not attempt to pass the Build Back Better bill until 2022.

Manchin received ire from across the progressive movement and many circles even accused him of betraying his Democratic colleagues.

In an interview with Hoppy Kercheval, a host on West Virginia MetroNews, the Democratic lawmaker explained exactly why he refused to support Biden’s sweeping spending bill. 

“They figured, ‘Surely to God we can move one person. Surely we can badger and beat one person up. Surely we can get enough protesters to make that person uncomfortable enough they will just say, okay I’ll vote for anything, just quit,'” said Manchin.

“Well guess what? I’m from West Virginia. I’m not from where they’re from and they can beat the living crap out of people and think they will be submissive,” Manchin added.