Joe Manchin stalls progress on Biden Build Back Better bill

WASHINGTON – Centrist Sen. Joe Manchin on Monday demanded more time to evaluate the projected impact of President Joe Biden’s $1.75 trillion social spending bill, refusing to endorse the framework that Biden had told House Democrats was a done deal in the Senate late last week.

Manchin’s statement was the latest blow to Democrats, who had hoped to have the bill finalized this week and ready for a vote in the House.

Speaking to reporters in the Capitol, Manchin accused House progressives of playing “political games” by refusing to pass a Senate approved infrastructure bill until every Democrat in the Senate endorsed the companion social spending bill.

“Holding this [infrastructure] bill hostage is not going to work in getting my support for the reconciliation bill,” said Manchin, who represents West Virginia.

Manchin, along with fellow centrist Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., have already won several big concessions in negotiations over Biden’s social safety net and climate plan. The measure, originally pegged at $3.5 trillion, would pay for universal preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds, expand Medicaid and Medicare, and dedicate $550 billion to clean energy and climate change programs, among other things.

The bill requires for passage the votes of all 50 Democrats in the Senate, plus a tie-breaker from Vice President Kamala Harris.

Before he would agree to back the spending bill, Manchin said he needed to see a detailed analysis of the economic impacts of it.

“I will not support a bill that is this consequential without thoroughly understanding the impact it will have on our national debt, our economy and the American people,” he said. “That is why we must allow time for complete transparency and analysis on the impact of changes to our tax code and energy and climate policies.”

Manchin’s remarks came as Biden was in Glasgow, Scotland, attending the COPP26 international climate conference. The president had hoped to have a deal agreed to between the House and Senate before he left for Europe last week.

But progressives balked at the prospect of passing the infrastructure bill with only a pledge from Biden that Democratic holdout senators would in turn vote for their priorities in the social spending bill.

Manchin also expressed skepticism at the tactic Democrats are employing to cut the cost of the original $3.5 trillion plan down to less than $2 trillion, which was one of his demands. To make the math work, Democrats have shortened the duration of many of their most generous social programs.

Implicit in that is their expectation that once people have grown accustomed to receiving assistance from the federal government, such as with child care costs, they will so strongly…