WASHINGTON — Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin III appeared to pull the plug on the centerpiece of President Joe Biden's domestic agenda, saying Sunday that he cannot support the House-passed version of the social spending package that would have extended child tax credits and provided new subsidies for child care, preschool and elder care.
"I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation. I just can't," Manchin of West Virginia said on "Fox News Sunday." "I've tried everything humanly possible. I can't get there. This is a no on this legislation."
Manchin, the Democrats' 50th vote in the evenly divided Senate, had wavered for months on whether he would support the $1.75 trillion package, which also included $555 billion to combat climate change — the lion's share of Biden's plan to curb carbon emissions as part of an uncertain global effort to avert a catastrophic further rise in the planet's temperature.
After talks last week between Biden and Manchin failed to resolve the impasse, the Senate left town Sunday morning without voting on the bill, which Democrats call Build Back Better. In a statement Thursday evening, Biden expressed optimism that talks would continue into the new year and eventually lead to an agreement.
But Manchin, whose reluctance to get behind the legislation has grown as inflation has risen to levels not seen in decades, sounded on Sunday like his mind is made up. It's still possible, though seemingly unlikely, that the senator's firm statement just days before Christmas does not foreclose the possibility of negotiations continuing in the new year, possibly on a pared-down version of the House-passed legislation.
"I've tried. I mean I really did. And the president was trying as hard as he could," Manchin said. "He has an awful lot of irons in the fire right now. A lot. More on his plate than he needs for this to continue."
The White House did not immediately offer a response to Manchin, who, according to a person with knowledge of the conversation, did inform the administration of his move shortly before going on television Sunday.
Manchin expanded on his reasoning — and offered even harsher words for his fellow Democrats — in a statement issued shortly after his television appearance.
"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," he said. "I cannot take that risk with a staggering debt of more than $29 trillion and inflation taxes that are real and harmful to every hard-working American at the gasoline pumps, grocery stores and utility bills with no end in sight."
The senator, who is up for reelection in 2024 in a state that Biden lost by 40 points, also cited a second Congressional Budget Office report, which Republicans requested, that determined the legislation would cost $4.5 trillion if the subsidies and credits included were extended. The White House dismissed that CBO score as "fake," arguing that the proposal as written would cost far less and be fully paid for.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., one of the lawmakers who sought the second CBO score likely in hopes of influencing Manchin, took a victory lap praising his Democratic colleague. "The CBO analysis confirmed Senator Manchin's worst fears about Build Back Better," Graham said. "He has always stated that he will not support a bill full of gimmicks, a bill that added to the debt or a bill that made inflation worse."
The defeat of Biden's ambitious domestic program would mark a devastating setback for a president who suggested that his 36 years in the Senate would enable him to succeed in bridging divides and entered office envisioning a historic, President Franklin D. Roosevelt-styled agenda in response to the pandemic and resulting economic instability.
The legislation's demise means the expiration next month of the 2021 child tax credit that had given qualifying families up to $300 per month for each child under age 6 and up to $250 per month for each child ages 6 through 17. Beyond that, new proposals to subsidize the cost of child care, preschool and elder care are off the table, for now. The White House had argued such benefits were a prudent response to rising inflation.
The development was exactly what House progressives were worried about in October, when they had initially withheld their support for the Senate-passed bipartisan infrastructure bill — the other half of Biden's jobs agenda — out of concern Manchin and other Democratic moderates wouldn't back the social spending legislation. They had planned to pass the package through a process known as budget reconciliation, which requires just 50 Senate votes, allowing Vice President Kamala Harris to break the tie in the evenly divided Senate. No Republicans supported the measure.
The progressives eventually agreed to vote on the infrastructure package after Biden said he'd gotten Manchin and others to agree in principle to a framework for the Build Back Better legislation.
But that agreement does not appear to have held.
The most outspoken Senate progressive, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., was among the first to react to Manchin's statement. During an interview on CNN, Sanders said that Manchin will have to explain to his constituents in West Virginia, "a state that is struggling," why he'd stand in the way of new Medicare subsidies for dental coverage and investments aimed at combating climate change.
"Let Mr. Manchin explain to the people why he doesn't have the guts to stand up to powerful special interests," Sanders said, calling for a full Senate vote on the legislation next month even if the bill fails.
"We've been dealing with Mr. Manchin for month after month after month," Sanders said. "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."
———
