Senate Democrats reportedly 'booed' Joe Manchin for mentioning the deficit at a luncheon

Tough crowd, tough crowd.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) was reportedly "booed" by his fellow Democrats after mentioning the budget deficit at a caucus luncheon earlier this week, according to Politico. One witness maintains that Manchin was "jokingly booed," but another reports not having seen it that way.

Manchin, who holds "fairly typical budget-hawk beliefs," views the growing national debt as a "heavy burden" on the economy and future generations, writes Politico. His gamble to bring it up during the luncheon perhaps indicates Democrats are in "for even more haggling over the price tag" of their $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, at which Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) already balked on Wednesday.

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Brigid Kennedy worked at The Week from 2021 to 2023 as a staff writer, junior editor and then story editor, with an interest in U.S. politics, the economy and the music industry.