The Democratic senator, Joe Manchin, said Sunday he can't back his party's signature $2 trillion social and environment bill, which is a potentially fatal blow to President Joe Biden's leading domestic initiative heading into an election year when Democrats narrow hold on Congress was already in danger.
Manchin told Fox News Sunday that he always made clear he had reservations about the legislation, and that now after five and a half months of discussions and negotiations, I can't vote to continue with this piece of legislation. The West Virginia senator cited a number of factors that weighed on the economy and the potential harm he saw from pushing through the mammoth bill, such as persistent inflation, a growing debt and the latest threat from the omicron variant.
When you have these things coming at you the way they are right now, I always said this if you can't go home and explain it to the people of West Virginia, I can't vote for it, he said.
I tried everything humanly possible. I can't do it, he said. This legislation is no longer in place. I have tried everything I know to do. Manchin has been the main obstacle to push the massive package through the narrowly divided Congress, but his declaration of opposition was a stunning repudiation of Biden's top goal. A rejection of the legislation was seen by many as unthinkable because of the political damage it could cause to Democrats.
It is rare for a member of a president's own party to give a fatal blow to their paramount legislative initiative. Manchin's decision was based on the famous thumbs-down vote by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., that killed President Donald Trump's 2017 effort to repeal the health care law enacted under President Barack Obama.
Biden admitted last week that negotiations over his sweeping domestic policy package would likely push into the new year amid Manchin's unyielding opposition. The president had insisted that Manchin had reiterated his support for a framework that the Senate, the White House and other Democrats had agreed to for the flagship bill.
On Sunday, Manchin made clear that Biden's words were not his own. The senator criticized fellow lawmakers for a bill that hasn't shrunk after he initially agreed to a $1.5 trillion framework and said social programs must be paid for over 10 years instead of just a few years to win his support, a nonstarter due to cost.
For the full 10 year budget window, extending just one key policy, the child tax credit program, would cost well over $1 trillion. That would consume most of Biden's bill, knocking out other key initiatives on health care, child care, education, and more.
Manchin said that we should be up front and pick our priorities.
A report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said that if many of the bill's temporary spending boosts and tax cuts were made permanent, it would add $3 trillion to the price tag. It would cost more than double its 10 year cost, to around $5 trillion. Democrats have called the projections from the Republican-requested report fictitious.
Sen Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. criticized Manchin for withdrawing his support and urged Democratic leaders to bring the bill to the floor anyway and force Manchin to oppose it.
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 told CNN's State of the Union.