Sen. Joe Manchin said he can’t support most of the $3.5 trillion spending plan.
Senator won’t support anything near $3.5T
WASHINGTON — A Democratic senator vital to the fate of President Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion plan for social and environmental spending said Sunday he won’t support even half that amount or the ambitious timetable envisioned for passing it.
The stand by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.VA., was described as unacceptable by the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, who is helping craft the measure. But Democrats have no votes to spare if they want to enact Biden’s massive “Build Back Better” agenda.
With congressional committees working toward the target of Wednesday to have the bill drafted, Manchin made clear his view, in a series of television interviews, that there was “no way” Congress would meet the late September goal from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-calif., for passage.
“I cannot support $3.5 trillion,” Manchin said, citing in particular his opposition to a proposed increase in the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent and vast new social spending.
“We should be looking at everything, and we’re not. We don’t have the need to rush into this and get it done within one week because there’s some deadline we’re meeting, or someone’s going to fall through the cracks,” he said.
Pressed repeatedly about a total he could support, Manchin said, “It’s going to be $1, $1.5 (trillion).”
But Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is developing the budget bill, noted that he and other members
of the liberal flank in Congress had initially urged an even more robust package of $6 trillion.
“I don’t think it’s acceptable to the president, to the American people, or to the overwhelming majority of the people in the Democratic caucus,” Sanders said. He added: “I believe we’re going to all sit down and work together and come up with a $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill which deals with the enormously unmet needs of working families.”