This will be short because more would require me to find asbestos pixels on which to write how I really feel.
Tony Romm at The Washington Post reports:
Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) on Tuesday sounded a slew of alarms about his own party’s $2 trillion tax-and-spending package, raising fresh questions about Democrats’ ambitious attempts to adopt the final piece of President Biden’s economic agenda before Christmas.
For Manchin, the package still may be too large in size and scope, it may not be financed it full, it might intensify a recent uptick in prices and it could inflict other harm on the economy. The concerns prompted the pivotal moderate lawmaker to reiterate his call from September to pause the process — though Manchin declined to say if he actually supports or opposes the bill.
“I was concerned then, and I said let’s take a strategic pause,” the senator said at a conference hosted by The Wall Street Journal, adding he “still feel[s] strongly about that.”
So, after months of the Democratic leadership lopping off entire programs from an already truncated bill to appease Manchin, the man STILL won’t commit even hypothetically to supporting the Build Back Better bill.
Some close observers have argued that Democrats should just “fix” the bill to Manchin’s complete liking and pass it with the idea that what’s not achieved now can be done later. Sounds doable. However, the trouble with that assessment is that Manchin refuses to explain all the changes that would be needed to get his Yes vote. He said last summer that he could maybe support a $1 trillion bill, which he upped to $1.5 trillion a few hours later. But would he really? “Strategic pause” certainly doesn’t bolster the case for that.
A bill that started out conceptually at $6 trillion six months ago and was trimmed by President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders to $3.5 trillion is now $1.75 trillion, but that’s not enough to get the West Virginia senator on board. Every indication is that yet more cuts will only give him another chance to move the goalposts.
And yet, some of my critics wonder why my hair is on fire over this.
Help put pressure on Joe Manchin & Kyrsten Sinema by mobilizing their West Virginia and Arizona constituents in support of the Build Back Better Act. MoveOn is hosting these phonebanks.