{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.manchin.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/in-the-news?ContentRecord_id=260a434d-b567-425e-83c8-b9d7470bccad", "Manchin holds roundtable at WVSU | Charleston Gazette", "2013-12-06", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WV", "Joe Manchin", "M001183", "www.manchin.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 06, 2013\n\t\t\t Manchin holds roundtable at WVSU | Charleston Gazette \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tSen. Joe Manchin said he supports raising the minimum wage, but hesitated to endorse any specific legislation until he has a chance to evaluate it.\r\n\u201cIf you took the minimum wage in 1968, I think it was in the $1.60, $1.70 range in 1968,\u201d Manchin said Thursday, \u201cand it was automatically adjusted for inflation, today\u2019s minimum wage would be over $10.\u201d\r\nMajority Leader Harry Reid has said that the Senate will vote on legislation to raise the minimum wage before 2014, although minimum wage legislation is unlikely to advance in the Republican-controlled House.\r\nManchin spoke on a variety of topics \u2014 the financial crisis, immigration, health care, education \u2014 to students and professors at a town hall-style-event at West Virginia State University on Thursday.\r\nManchin said that his concern with the Affordable Care Act is that people will not use the preventive care that has been made available to them and will instead wait until medical issues worsen and become more expensive.\r\n\u201cIf a person doesn\u2019t use that health-care card and go to their screenings, their annual checkups,\u201d Manchin said, \u201cif they\u2019re not going to utilize that, the system will fall on its own weight.\u201d\r\nHe said he\u2019d like to see some sort of market-incentive system to get people to be healthier.\r\n\u201cYou\u2019d better make sure there\u2019s personal responsibility and accountability to make people well or keep them well,\u201d he said. \u201cIf they fall into a sick category, the system will collapse and we ain\u2019t got nothing, that\u2019s what scares me.\u201d\r\nManchin told a crowd of students anxious about a dismal job market upon graduation that they needed to look at themselves as a product and offer good value and good service.\r\n\u201cYou\u2019re the product \u2014 how good are you?\u201d Manchin asked.\r\n\u201cYou\u2019ve got a person who\u2019s got a good product, and they\u2019re reasonable about their value and what they want, but they\u2019re not a self-starter. You got to kick them in the butt every day and tell them what to do. That ain\u2019t going to make it.\u201d\r\nManchin spoke about the need to continue to reduce the deficit, which has fallen by more than 50 percent since 2009. He said that his most sobering moment as a senator came during a hearing of the Committee on Armed Services. Adm. Mike Mullen, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was asked about the greatest threat the country faces.\r\n\u201cWithout even blinking an eye, he said \u2018the financial situation this country faces,\u2019 \u201d Manchin recalled. \u201cUnmanaged debt will make a coward out of you.\u201d\r\nA crew from Fox News had been following Manchin during his schedule Thursday. Jonathan Kott, a Manchin spokesman, said a crew from MSNBC was planning on following Manchin today.\r\n\u201cThey\u2019ve got it in their heads he\u2019s running for president. I keep telling them he\u2019s not,\u201d Kott said.\r\nWhen asked if he was planning on running for president, Manchin answered with an unequivocal, \u201cNo.\u201d  \u2003\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t  \n\t\t\t\t    By:\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t    David Gutman\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t  \n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t \n\t\t\n\t\t\tPrint\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tEmail\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tTweet\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t \n\t\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n    \n\t\n\t\n    \n    \n    \n    \t\n    \t\n\t    \t  \n\t\t    \n\t\t    \tNext Article\n\t\t    \n\t\t    \n\t\t    \tPrevious Article", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.manchin.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/in-the-news?ContentRecord_id=260a434d-b567-425e-83c8-b9d7470bccad"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0080609936267138, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}