Top dog Manchin: No way to $3.5T
A man named Joe is still running things in Washington these days, but his last name isn’t Biden and he doesn’t live in the White House.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) — whose vote is crucial to Democrats passing a gargantuan $3.5 trillion spending plan — confirmed Thursday that he won’t agree to more than $1.5 trillion and had told party leadership in July that was his top-line number for the bill.
“The 1.5 was always done from, from my heart, basically, what we could do and not jeopardize — not jeopardize our economy,” Manchin told reporters on Capitol Hill.
A signed document, which was first reported by Politico and is dated July 28, includes requests that debate on the spending plan not begin before Oct. 1 and that allocated funds not be distributed until “all funding” from previous COVID-19 aid bills — including the American Rescue Plan passed in March — has been spent.
Manchin also proposed raising the corporate tax rate to 25 percent, the top tax rate on ordinary income to 39.6 percent, and the capital-gains tax rate to 28 percent. He also requests that “any revenue exceeding $1.5T” be used for deficit reduction.
“Senator Manchin does not guarantee that he will vote for the final reconciliation legislation if it exceeds the conditions outlined in this agreement,” reads a bolded statement at the bottom of the document, which bears the signatures of Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
Underneath the signatures, a handwritten statement reads, “I will try to dissuade Joe on many of these.”
Democrats are attempting to pass the $3.5 trillion plan through the parliamentary process of reconciliation, which means it can be moved through the Senate with 51 votes and no GOP support.
House progressives are threatening to vote down a separate, $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill — which Manchin played a key role in negotiating — if the larger measure does not clear the House and Senate first.
Manchin has repeatedly warned that passing the $3.5 trillion spending bill could have a devastating impact on the inflation-hit US economy. In a statement Wednesday, he insisted that “I can’t support $3.5 trillion more in spending when we have already spent $5.4 trillion since last March. At some point, all of us, regardless of party, must ask the simple question — how much is enough?”
On Thursday, Manchin described what he called a “perfect example” of his fear coming true.
“I just saw today where Dollar General is no longer a dollar,” he noted. “It’s a dollar and a quarter or a dollar and 50 cents. That’s hard for West Virginia. A lot of people just shop there, and it’s all that we have.”
Manchin added that he shared the $1.5 trillion top-line number with President Biden “in the last week or so,” and confirmed that Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), who has also said she will not vote for the $3.5 trillion price tag, is aware of the figure as well.
Democrats who support the plan have accused Manchin and Sinema of holding the bill hostage without revealing what they want. Thursday’s revelation of the Manchin memo bearing Schumer’s signature effectively countered that line.
Sinema’s office said Thursday that she had “shared detailed concerns and priorities, including dollar figures, directly with Senate Majority Leader Schumer and the White House. Claims that the Senator has not detailed her views to President Biden and Senator Schumer are false.”
“While we do not negotiate through the press — because Senator Sinema respects the integrity of those direct negotiations — she continues to engage directly in good-faith discussions with both President Biden and Senator Schumer to find common ground,” the statement added.
Meanwhile, at the White House, press secretary Jen Psaki was pressed about the division in the president’s party.
“This is how democracy works,” Psaki said.
“We’re not trying to paint over how messy it looks from the outside,” Psaki added. “We know that.”
'I'll give you a perfect example in West Virginia. I just saw today where Dollar General is no longer a dollar. It's a dollar and a quarter or a dollar and 50 cents. That's hard for West Virginia. A lot of people just shop there, and it's all that we have.'
— Sen. Joe Manchin