Manchin Blocks Biden's Build Back Better Climate and Social Agenda, What Happens Now?
Lawmakers may have left town, but centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) left no doubt that he cannot support President Biden’s $1.75 trillion (or higher) social and climate spending plan, imperiling the president’s agenda. Manchin cited rising consumer prices, a growing federal debt and the arrival of a new coronavirus variant as reasons he could not supply his must-have vote to help his party adopt its signature spending package.
Manchin said Sunday that he cannot support the House-passed version of the social spending package that would have extended child tax credits and provided new subsidies for childcare, preschool and elder care. “I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation. I just can’t,” Manchin said on Fox News Sunday. “I’ve tried everything humanly possible. I can’t get there. This is a no on this legislation.”
The Senate left town Sunday morning without voting on the bill (House departed earlier), which Democrats call Build Back Better (BBB). In a statement Thursday evening, Biden expressed optimism that talks would continue into the new year and eventually lead to an agreement. But Manchin, whose reluctance to get behind the legislation has grown as inflation has risen to levels not seen in decades, now sounds like his mind is made up. Some Democrats say this is Manchin’s typical wage of getting leverage, possibly on a pared-down version of the House-passed legislation.
“I’ve tried. I mean I really did. And the president was trying as hard as he could,” Manchin said. “He has an awful lot of irons in the fire right now. A lot. More on his plate than he needs for this to continue.”
White House Responds
The White House issued an aggressive statement on Manchin. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said had previously assured President Biden he would support some version of the bill and that negotiations were continuing. “If his comments on Fox and written statement indicate an end to that effort, they represent a sudden and inexplicable reversal in his position, and a breach of his commitments to the President and the Senator’s colleagues in the House and Senate,” Psaki said in a statement. Manchin reportedly informed the administration of his move shortly before going on television Sunday. Top White House officials scrambled to call the senator and talk him out of what he was about to do. “We tried to head him off,” a senior White House official told Politico, but Manchin “refused to take a call from White House staff.”
Manchin expanded on his no reasoning — and offered even harsher words for his fellow Democrats — in a statement issued shortly after his television appearance. “My Democratic colleagues in Washington are determined to dramatically reshape our society in a way that leaves our country even more vulnerable to the threats we face,” he said. “I cannot take that risk with a staggering debt of more than $29 trillion and inflation taxes that are real and harmful to every hard-working American at the gasoline pumps, grocery stores and utility bills with no end in sight.”
Manchin, up for re-election in 2024 in a state that Biden lost by 40 points, also cited a second Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report, which Republicans requested, that determined the legislation would cost $4.5 trillion if the subsidies and credits included were extended. The White House dismissed that CBO score as “fake,” arguing that the proposal as written would cost far less and be fully paid for.
Initial Impact
The legislation’s demise means the expiration next month of the 2021 child tax credit that had given qualifying families up to $300 per month for each child under age 6 and up to $250 per month for each child ages 6 through 17. The Biden administration is exploring the possibility of providing double payments in February to make up the shortfall, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Friday. Pushing off the president’s economic agenda until next year means that the payments, which have been sent to families for the past six months but expired Wednesday, are unlikely to be ready for Jan. 15. Psaki said the delayed payments could come in February if the president’s tax-and-spend proposal, which has been put off until after the New Year, gets through Congress in January. “If we get it done in January, we’ve talked to Treasury officials and others about doing double payments in February as an option,” Psaki told reporters aboard Air Force One. The Internal Revenue Service had sought enactment of the bill before Dec. 28 to ensure Jan. 15 payments went out on time.
Other impacts include new proposals to subsidize the cost of childcare, preschool and elder care are off the table, for now. The White House had argued such benefits were a prudent response to rising inflation. Manchin’s comments put at risk a $555 billion package of tax credits, grants and other policies aimed at lowering greenhouse gas emissions.
Harsh Criticism by Sanders
Sanders comments. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was among the first to react to Manchin’s statement. During an interview on CNN, Sanders said Manchin will have to explain to his constituents in West Virginia, “a state that is struggling,” why he’d stand in the way of new Medicare subsidies for dental coverage and investments aimed at combating climate change. “Let Mr. Manchin explain to the people why he doesn’t have the guts to stand up to powerful special interests,” Sanders said, calling for a full Senate vote on the legislation next month even if the bill fails. “We’ve been dealing with Mr. Manchin for month after month after month,” Sanders said. “But if he doesn’t have the courage to do the right thing for the working families of West Virginia and America, let him vote no in front of the whole world.”
Bottom line:
Manchin’s comments appear to be a solid no and lawmakers are not used to being so specific. BB is dead. Some Dems hope for a new, more Manchin-shaped bill that includes some key pieces of the Biden climate and social policy agenda.
