West Virigina senator on the need to return to bipartisanship and Inflation Reduction Act

WASHINGTON (CBS, KYMA/KECY) - Senator Joe Manchin (I-W.V.) spoke to Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about the need to return to bipartisianship.

"We have three branches of government. Bob Byrd used to tell me all the time, he says, Joe, he says, the president's not my boss, he said, and the majority leader is not my boss. The people of West Virginia are my boss. That's who I work for, and for the betterment of our country, as long as you keep that, what's your purpose of being here? And I think there's enough Republican senators and Democrat senators too, but Republicans have control because they're the majority, that are not going to let the filibuster blow apart. They're not going to let basically run amok of the reconciliation process just to do anything they want to and override the parliamentarian and play some rough games. I don't think they will do that."

Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W.V.)

During the interview, Brennan and Manchin talked about the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which Brennan said that Manchin played a "big role in crafting" and was "party line," with Brennan asking if that was through reconciliation.

"That's how the vote came down. But I guarantee it. We did majority of all that bill. We wrote that bill in my committee, and I guarantee I had over five years of input for Republicans. But because of reconciliation, they don't cross over and vote. That's just the way it was," Manchin said.

When asked if he felt good about that, Manchin said:

"No, I feel horrible about that. We had to do it in reconciliation. I felt horrible about that. But I can tell you, the United States of America has benefited from that. From the standpoint of more investments, more offshore coming back to the United States for manufacturing, we didn't fall into a recession. We brought down inflation from 9 to 3%, we brought down gas prices from 5 to $3. We did all of that, but the supply chains were so broken because of the pandemic, the prices of everyday staple of life, food, things of that sort made this almost unbearable for people to the burden they were carrying. The thing that the IRA kept the United States economy in better shape than any place else in the world during the pandemic. That's a fact."

To watch Brennan's full interview with Manchin, click here.