US senator Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) said today he would not vote for Democrats' $1.85 trillion spending package, dealing what may be a crippling blow to one of President Joe Biden's highest legislative priorities.
This marks the first time the senate moderate has said he would not vote for the Build Back Better bill, coming after weeks of negotiations that led the White House holding out hope it could find a compromise to get his support. But Manchin today removed any ambiguity about his stance, warning the bill could fuel inflation and add to the US debt at a time of geopolitical uncertainty and a surge of the Covid-19 Omicron variant.
"This is a 'no' on this piece of legislation," Manchin said during a televised interview today. "I have tried everything I know to do."
The explicit opposition came just days after US Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) dropped a push to vote on the $1.85 trillion bill before breaking for Christmas, with the hopes to resume work early next year. Democrats will now be left scrambling to figure out whether they can pass a modified version of the bill that could draw Manchin's support.
The latest draft of the bill, as passed by the US House of Representatives, would provide $555bn for clean energy and climate change over the next decade that would include new or expanded tax credits for biofuels, wind, solar, nuclear, electric vehicles, hydrogen and sustainable aviation fuel. Democrats want to pay for the bill with taxes on corporations and the wealthy.
Manchin for months has faulted "gimmicks" in the bill that limited the duration of new programs, such as a tax credit for children, to keep net estimated costs to $160bn. But Manchin today cited projections it would cost $4.5 trillion over the next decade if every program was permanent, as just one of his concerns about the bill.
"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," Manchin said.
Manchin also criticized many individual energy-related components of the bill, which he said would risk electric grid reliability and increase dependence on foreign supply chains. That appears to be a reference to components of the bill that would subsidize non-fossil power plants and advanced batteries that rely heavily on minerals produced overseas.
