Democrat Senator Joe Manchin (W.V.) said Sunday that he would vote against President Biden’s Build Back Better Act even after months of negotiations with Dem leadership.
The moderate senator said on “Fox News Sunday” that he had discussions with the president, House Speaker Pelosi (CA) and the Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) but they did not reach an agreement.
“I have done everything I could,” Manchin said about the talks before highlighting inflation, the national debt, and global unrest along with the pandemic was too much to vote in favor of the bill.
“When you have these things happening like right now … I can’t vote for this piece of legislation,” he said, stressing that, if he must explain to his people his rationale behind supporting the bill, and if he can’t do so then he cannot vote for it.
Asked by the Fox News host to his “no” vote for the bill, Manchin stated, “This is a no on this law.”
And while the senator admitted that there were parts of the bill that he supported, he stressed that the law was just too expensive.
“There is a lot of good, but that legislation is a huge piece of legislation,” Manchin stated, adding that the spending program is being forced through budget reconciliation instead of getting voted on like a normal bill.
Manchin said that the U.S. Congress should prioritize dealing with the omicron variant and solving inflation that has “hurt many Americans” instead of this spending bill.
“Inflation is real, and it is not going away,” he said.
Manchin had before proposed a $1.7 trillion value for the bill. However, he also said his fellow Democrats did not make the needed compromises. The moderate Dem also stressed that both he and President Biden made strong efforts to reach an agreement but, in the end, were not able to do so.
“What we need if to get our financial house together, and pay for what we do,” he said.
The senator said he also took issue with Dem colleagues having early expiration times for popular things in the bill such as the greater child tax credit to keep the total cost of the bill down, which he said would have hidden the real cost of the bill.
Author: Blake Ambrose
These content links are provided by Content.ad. Both Content.ad and the web site upon which the links are displayed may receive compensation when readers click on these links. Some of the content you are redirected to may be sponsored content. View our privacy policy here.
To learn how you can use Content.ad to drive visitors to your content or add this service to your site, please contact us at [email protected].
Family-Friendly Content
Website owners select the type of content that appears in our units. However, if you would like to ensure that Content.ad always displays family-friendly content on this device, regardless of what site you are on, check the option below. Learn More
These content links are provided by Content.ad. Both Content.ad and the web site upon which the links are displayed may receive compensation when readers click on these links. Some of the content you are redirected to may be sponsored content. View our privacy policy here.
To learn how you can use Content.ad to drive visitors to your content or add this service to your site, please contact us at [email protected].
Family-Friendly Content
Website owners select the type of content that appears in our units. However, if you would like to ensure that Content.ad always displays family-friendly content on this device, regardless of what site you are on, check the option below. Learn More
