“I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation,” the centrist West Virginia senator said on “Fox News Sunday,” citing concerns about adding to the national debt.
Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, said on Sunday that he could not support President Biden’s signature $2.2 trillion social safety net, climate and tax bill, dooming his party’s drive to pass its marquee domestic policy legislation as written.The comments from Mr. Manchin, a longtime centrist holdout, dealt the latest and perhaps a fatal blow to the centerpiece of Mr. Biden’s domestic agenda, barely a day after senators left Washington for the remainder of the year after Democrats conceded they could not yet push through any of their top legislative priorities, from the social policy bill to a voting rights overhaul.
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“I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation,” Mr. Manchin said on “Fox News Sunday,” citing concerns about adding to the national debt, rising inflation and the spread of the latest coronavirus variant. “I’ve tried everything humanly possible. I can’t get there. This is a no.”
In a statement released shortly afterward, he was even more scathing toward his own party, declaring that “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.”
“I cannot take that risk with a staggering debt of more than $29 trillion and inflation taxes that are real and harmful,” he said.
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His comments provoked an unusually blistering broadside from Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, who accused Mr. Manchin in a lengthy statement of reneging on his promises. As recently as Tuesday, Ms. Psaki said, Mr. Manchin had pledged to work with administration officials to finalize a compromise agreement and had even shared his own outline for legislation that mirrored the size of Mr. Biden’s initial $1.85 trillion framework.
“If his comments on Fox and written statement indicate an end to that effort,” she said, “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.”
... The legislation, originally sketched out as a $3.5 trillion blueprint, had already been curtailed substantially to satisfy Mr. Manchin and a few other centrists, through months of laborious negotiations.
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...Mr. Manchin’s blunt condemnation of the measure on Sunday confirmed what many Democrats had feared: that after months of exhausting work, the legislation will have to largely be rewritten if there is any remaining chance of securing Mr. Manchin’s vote...
It also upended the precarious détente within the party on Capitol Hill, as House moderates fumed that they had voted for a measure that would not become law and liberals accused Mr. Manchin of single-handedly torpedoing their ability to deliver on the campaign promises that had delivered them control of both Congress and the White House.
“We knew that Manchin and the Senate could not be trusted to pass Build Back Better when the time came to pass it,” Representative Jamaal Bowman of New York, a progressive Democrat, said in an interview. “And that is where we stand now.”
For months, Mr. Manchin had huddled privately with Mr. Biden and his top officials in an attempt to secure a compromise. His objections had already forced the White House to substantially curtail the scope of the package and remove certain pieces, including the creation of a clean electricity program and a plan to ban new oil drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
...Mr. Manchin on Sunday appeared to close the door on further substantive talks, complaining that his colleagues had been spending months employing tricks to make the legislation appear less costly rather than truly paring it down.
“The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office determined the cost is upward of $4.5 trillion, which is more than double what the bill’s ardent supporters have claimed,” Mr. Manchin said. “They continue to camouflage the real cost of the intent behind this bill.”
In that statement, Mr. Manchin expressed concern that Mr. Biden’s marquee bill would move the nation’s economy away from fossil fuels too rapidly, “at a rate that is faster than technology or the markets allow,” and warned of “catastrophic consequences.”
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“We’ve been dealing with Mr. Manchin for month after month after month,” [Senator Bernie Sanders said] on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “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.”
In his appearance on Fox News, Mr. Manchin expressed willingness to hold a vote on the measure.
“Just vote,” he said. “I’ve been saying that. Just vote. If that’s what people need to show where they are, then vote.”
You don't know the man, Bernie. He's in the pocket of Big Coal. He'll vote "No" with alacrity.
