Joe Manchin – the “cave” man We’re really sad for our readers in West Virginia who mistakenly voted for Joe Manchin in the last election, believing that he’s a “different” kind of Democrat. The entire country will pay the price for your mistake. Joe Manchin is beginning to cave to the intense pressure he’s under to vote in favor of a multi-trillion dollar budget deal that (yes) does include an obscene tax on methane (i.e. natural gas) aimed at forcing drillers and pipeline companies, along with those using methane, to abandon it. Abandon natural gas. That’s what is now coming at us in the supposedly renegotiated Biden budget bill.