WASHINGTON — If there wasn’t already a divide between U.S. Senator Joe Manchin and President Joe Biden, there surely is now.
On February 1, Manchin (D-W.Va.) said Biden’s Build Back Better legislation is “dead.”
That comes just weeks after Manchin refused to budge on his stance on changing Senate filibuster rules to allow Biden’s voting rights legislation to pass on a simple majority.
“What Build Back Better bill?” Manchin said Tuesday when asked about it. “There is no, I mean, I don’t know what you’re all talking about.”
A reporter then asked Manchin if he’s had any talks about the bill.
“No, no, no no,” he said. “It’s dead.”
In December, Manchin said he couldn’t support the bill as written. Manchin has said he is willing to discuss crafting a smaller bill that could include provisions such as reducing carbon emissions, creating free pre-Kindergarten programs and increasing federal health care subsidies.
“I’m open to talk to everybody, always have been,” Manchin said. “I just want to make sure we find a balance and something we can afford, and do it and do it right.”
Manchin also said he wants to “use all the fossil industry in the cleanest, absolute possible versions that you can” even though he has said he supported the original legislation’s renewable energy plans.
Manchin has expressed concern about inflation, saying the Build Back Better plan could increase it even more.
“Very, very troubling,” Manchin (D-W.Va.) said last month about a government report showing inflation rose 7 percent in December, the biggest climb in 40 years.
In December, he said he couldn’t vote for the BBB Act, a social and environmental package with an official price tag of $2 trillion. A Congressional Budget Office report said the actual cost of the legislation would be closer to $5 trillion.
“If I can’t go home and explain it to the people of West Virginia, I can’t vote for it,” he said then. “And I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation. I just can’t. I’ve tried everything humanly possible. I can’t get there.”
Other Democrats say the bill would help families with health care and education costs, and they say the expanded child care assistance could help people get back to work.
