BUILD BACK DEAD: Manchin Says He ‘Cannot Vote’ For Democrats’ $2 Trillion Spending Package

Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va., on Sunday said that he could not support Democrats’ roughly $2 trillion bill to overhaul the country’s health care, education, immigration, climate and tax laws, dealing a potentially fatal blow to the final piece of President Joe Biden’s economic agenda.

“I can’t move forward. I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation, I just can’t,” Manchin said on Fox News Sunday, citing the impacts of rising prices, the arrival of a new coronavirus variant and other domestic and international challenges.

“I tried everything humanly possible,” Manchin added of his negotiations with Democrats including Biden. “I can’t get there … This is a no.”

The statement of opposition thrust the bill, known as the Build Back Better Act, into fresh political peril. Without his support, Senate Democrats cannot move the sprawling measure through the narrowly divided chamber even using the process known as reconciliation, an intricate legislative tactic that allows the party to bypass Republican opposition.

Biden had sought to assuage Manchin’s concerns in recent days, speaking privately with the moderate holdout in an attempt to win his vote. But talks stalled this week, as Manchin continued to demand significant changes to the size and scope of the spending package, threatening the ability of Democrats to deliver on many of the promises they made on the 2020 campaign trail. Party leaders ultimately had no choice but to abandon their plan to hold a vote on the bill before Christmas.

Manchin’s statement drew a sharp rebuke Sunday from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the leader of the chamber’s budget panel and the chief architect of the spending plan.

Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sanders blasted Manchin for lacking the “guts” to stand up to powerful business lobbyists, including the pharmaceutical industry. He called on Democrats to bring the bill to the floor anyway and force Manchin to cast a decisive vote against it.

“Look, we’ve been dealing with Mr. Manchin for month after month after month. 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,” Sanders said.

(c) 2021, The Washington Post · Tony Romm / Washington Post Photo

{Matzav.com}