Manchin skipping Obama’s Capitol Hill meeting

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) says he doesn’t plan to attend President Obama’s Wednesday meeting with Democrats about defending ObamaCare.

“In good conscience, I can’t do it,” Manchin said Wednesday on MNSBC’s “Morning Joe.”

“If anyone listened and paid attention to what the American people said when they voted, they want this place to work. Can you imagine in here … we have the outgoing president coming up here today to talk to only Democrats. We have the incoming vice president coming up to talk only to Republicans.”

{mosads}Manchin said that is not what “makes this place work.”

“And that’s really what’s wrong with the place,” he said. “I just think it’s absolutely wrong.”

Obama will go to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to speak with congressional Democrats about how to prevent Republicans from repealing his signature healthcare law.

Manchin said Wednesday that under ObamaCare, 172,000 West Virginians have healthcare for the first time. He added that he doesn’t think ObamaCare is perfect, saying there is a lot of “repairing” that needs to be done.

“But to say you’re going to throw the baby out with the bathwater, repeal the whole thing. Here we have the incoming vice president, who had Medicaid expansion in Indiana, now saying they want to repeal the whole thing,” he said.

“I’m willing to look at replacing, repairing, doing anything that we can to make it better. But put something on the table.”

Manchin said he’s surprised the Republicans would plan to just repeal the legislation without first creating a replacement.

“I just can’t believe the Republicans would go down this path and just throw it out and say, ‘Trust us, in two or three years, we’ll fix it,’ ” Manchin said.

“I’ve been here for six years. We haven’t fixed very many things, and anyone who has trust or belief that we will fix it, they’re living in fantasy land.”