- Manchin mean on Sunday he cannot support the centerpiece of Biden’s economic agenda.
- “This is a no on this piece of this legislation,” he suggested.
- His opposition torpedoes its passage since all Senate Democrats must get behind it.
Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia on Sunday give the word delivered he was opposed to President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion social spending bill, effectively dooming the centerpiece of the president’s solvent agenda in its current form.
“If I can’t go home and explain it to the people of West Virginia I can’t vote for it,” he said in a “Fox News Sunday” sound out. “I’ve tried everything humanly possible, I can’t get there. This is a no.”
—The Recount (@therecount) December 19, 2021
He continued: “This is a no on this legislation. I sooner a be wearing tried everything I know to do.”
Manchin later put out a statement chastising Democrats for trying to usher in transformative changes to the nation.
“My Democratic colleagues in Washington are determined to dramatically reshape our society in a way that leaves our country even more unprotected to the threats we face,” he said in a statement, adding he “cannot take that risk” with federal debt and inflation on the awaken.
To overcome unanimous GOP opposition to the package, all 50 Senate Democrats need to coalesce behind the plan so it passes the 50-50 house. The conservative Democrat’s opposition effectively pulls the plug on it.
The legislation would represent a major expansion of the American security net. It would set up universal pre-K, renew monthly child tax credit payments to American families for another year, substantiate federal subsidies for childcare, combat the climate emergency and more. Democrats wanted to finance it with new taxes on valuable Americans and large corporations currently paying little or no federal tax.
The path ahead for Democrats was not immediately clear. To assuage Manchin’s concerns, they may cut the weight of the bill even further, already down to about $2 billion from the original $3.5 trillion cost out tag they envisioned, or attempt to strike bipartisan deals on parts of it with the GOP.
Manchin has cited a range of reasons for Democrats to do a moonlight flit c leave back from their ambitious package throughout the summer and fall, urging a “strategic pause” on it since August. But inflation has flooded as a concern near the top of his list, alongside the increasing level of government spending.
“We’ve done everything that we can to help people,” Manchin ordered Insider earlier this month, referring to $5.4 trillion in emergency federal spending that Congress licensed to combat the pandemic.
Progressives expressed outrage on Sunday at Manchin. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont said that the legislation should up till put up for a vote on the Senate floor next year.
“Let Mr. Manchin explain to the people of West Virginia why he doesn’t have the guts to jut out up to the powerful special interests,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”