Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, said on Sunday that he could not support President Biden’s signature $2.2 trillion social safety net, climate and tax bill, all but dooming his party’s drive to pass the measure as written.
“I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation,” Mr. Manchin said on “Fox News Sunday,” citing concerns about adding to the national debt. “I’ve tried everything humanly possible. I can’t get there. This is a no.”
The comments from Mr. Manchin, a crucial Democratic holdout, dealt the latest, perhaps fatal blow to the centerpiece of Mr. Biden’s domestic agenda. With Republicans united in opposing the legislation, Democrats needed to secure the vote of every senator in their party for the measure to pass an evenly divided Senate.
President Biden, after meeting wth Manchin and Sinema, assured the House Progressive Caucus that BBB would pass the Senate if the progressives released their block and allowed the hard infrastructure bill to pass the house. So this amounts to a betrayal of his word to Biden.
If this stands, Manchin could succeed in his extreme underdog campaign to replace Ted Cruz as Most Hated Senator. Although we still need his votes to confirm appointments, the Democrats must remove him from the chair of the Commttee on Energy and Natural Resources, because of his flagrant conflict of interest.
But the only effective remedy is to elect enough Democrats to R-held Senate seats, eg PA, NC, OH, WI, while re-electing Warnock and Kelly, so that Manchin and Sinema become dispensible.
