Wealth & Money Quote by Joe Manchin

A politician’s favorite magic trick is to turn a partial fix into proof of virtue, then use the remaining problem as the next campaign promise. Joe Manchin’s line does that in two crisp beats: first, a modest win ("reduced sales tax on food"), then an escalated demand ("Now we want it eliminated"). The structure is simple, almost folksy, but it’s engineered to read as inevitability. If we’ve already agreed food shouldn’t be taxed as heavily, why stop short of zero?

The intent is to plant a flag on a populist, broadly palatable issue: nobody likes paying tax on groceries, and framing it as a household squeeze makes the policy feel intimate rather than ideological. Manchin isn’t talking about abstract fiscal policy; he’s talking about the checkout line. That’s the point: sales taxes are regressive, and "food" is the most sympathetic category imaginable. The word "eliminated" adds moral clarity, implying the tax is not just inconvenient but wrong.

The subtext, though, is where the politics lives. This isn’t only about fairness; it’s about positioning. Manchin, long branded as a centrist dealmaker, uses tax relief as a bridge between pro-business rhetoric and working-class grievance. He can sound like a pragmatist ("reduced") while gesturing toward a bolder, cleaner outcome ("eliminated") without committing to the messy trade-offs: replacing lost revenue, protecting education budgets, or ensuring retailers pass savings to consumers.

Contextually, it’s a classic incrementalism pitch sold as momentum. The line makes compromise look like progress and progress look like destiny.