It’s been reported that Senator Joe Manchin, (D-W.V) said on Sunday he cannot back his party’s signature $2 trillion social and environment bill, dealing 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 peril.
The West Virginia senator cited a multitude of factors weighing 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’ve always said this … if I 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 is a no on this legislation. I have tried everything I know to do.”
Manchin’s decision is similar to the late Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz), infamous thumb down vote that killed former President Donald Trump’s 2017 effort to repeal the health care law enacted under President Barack Obama.
A report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office earlier this month 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. That would more than double its 10-year cost to around $5 trillion.
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.”
Rep. Ayanna Pressley also weighed in.
“To be clear, my lack and deficit of trust was about Senator Manchin,” Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., told CNN. “He has continued to move the goal post. He has never negotiated in good faith, and he is obstructing the president’s agenda.”
