Manchin Fires Back as Dems Accuse Him of 'Betrayal'

U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) is interviewed by David Rubenstein
LEAH MILLIS
By Yuval Rosenberg

Happy Monday! We had kinda
been worried that with Congress out, this week would leave us
little to cover. Guess Joe Manchin and Omicron made sure that
wouldn't happen.

Did Manchin Really Kill Biden's Big Bill?

So what now?

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) stunned and infuriated the White House
and fellow Democrats Sunday by announcing in an interview on “Fox
News Sunday” that he’s a “no” on the president’s Build Back Better
plan.

Democratic leaders spent months negotiating with Manchin,
confident that could address his many concerns and win his vote, a
must if they were going to pass their massive package of health
care reforms, social spending, climate programs and tax changes.
“If he were going to say no, he would have said no by now,” Sen.
Chris Coons (D-DL), a close White House ally, said just last
week.

Then Manchin said no.

“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,” Manchin told Fox’s Bret Baier. "This is a no on this piece
of legislation.”

Here’s a look at the shockwaves Manchin’s announcement sent
through Washington and what may come next as President Joe Biden
and Democrats scramble to salvage their agenda.

A deteriorating relationship: The White House was rocked
by Manchin’s bombshell, even as the senator had long made clear he
had
serious reservations about almost every element of
the legislation and had said he would be fine if Democrats
did nothing on Biden’s spending plan.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki responded Sunday to
Manchin’s announcement by releasing a lengthy, scorching
statement — that Biden himself reportedly approved
— accusing the senator of going back on his word: “Senator
Manchin’s comments this morning on FOX are at odds with his
discussions this week with the President, with White House staff,
and with his own public utterances. Weeks ago, Senator Manchin
committed to the President, at his home in Wilmington, to support
the Build Back Better framework that the President then
subsequently announced. Senator Manchin pledged repeatedly to
negotiate on finalizing that framework ‘in good faith.’”

Psaki added that Manchin had given Biden his own written outline
for the Build Back Better bill just days earlier. “While that
framework was missing key priorities, we believed it could lead to
a compromise acceptable to all,” Psaki said. “Senator Manchin
promised to continue conversations in the days ahead, and to work
with us to reach that common ground. If his comments on FOX and
written statement indicate an end to that effort, they represent a
sudden and inexplicable reversal in his position, and a breach of
his commitments to the President and the Senator’s colleagues in
the House and Senate.”

Manchin’s off on the economics: Psaki’s statement also
hit back on concerns Manchin had raised that the legislation would
fuel inflation and add to the national debt. She again argued that
the bill would ease long-term price pressures. And while Manchin
and other fiscal conservatives have decried the use of budget
gimmicks to lower the official cost of the bill, Psaki said that it
“is the most fiscally responsible major bill that Congress has
considered in years, and reduces the deficit in the long
run.”

Jim Tankersley of The New York Times
reports that economists by and large back the
White House on the inflation question. “Economic
evidence strongly suggests Mr. Manchin is wrong. A host
of economists and independent analyses have concluded that the bill
is not economic stimulus, and that it will not pump enough money
into consumer pocketbooks next year to raise prices more than a
modest amount.

Economic growth could take a hit: Goldman Sachs Chief
Economist Jan Hatzius said Manchin’s rejection of the Build Back
Better package will likely mean lower GDP growth next year. “BBB
enactment had already looked like a close call and in light of
Manchin’s comments we are adjusting our forecast to remove the
assumption that BBB will become law,” Hatzius said in a note to
clients. Goldman lowered its projection for GDP growth from 3% to
2% in the first quarter of 2022, from 3.5% to 3.0% in the second
quarter, and from 3% to 2.75% in the third quarter.

Hatzius also said he expects inflation to continue to be an
issue, which could affect the fate of the bill next year. “With
headline CPI reaching as high as 7% in the next few months in our
forecast before it begins to fall, the inflation concerns that Sen.
Manchin and others have already expressed are likely to persist,
making passage more difficult,” the firm also noted.

Progressives say ‘I told you so:’ Saying that the people
of Manchin’s home state of West Virginia would “directly benefit
from childcare, pre-Medicare expansion, and long term care”
included in the legislative package, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-NY) accused
Democrats of pursuing a flawed strategy on the bill. “This is
exactly what we warned would happen if we separated Build Back
Better from infrastructure,” Omar tweeted.

Fellow progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said she
was not surprised by Manchin’s comments. “People can be mad at
Manchin all they want, but we knew he would do this months ago,”
she tweeted. Ocasio-Cortez blamed the leaders of the Democratic
party for situation. “*They* chose to move BIF alone instead of w/
BBB, not Manchin,” she said, referring to the infrastructure and
Build Back Better bills. “So they need to fix it.”

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) charged that Manchin had “betrayed”
the president. “Either the president did not have a commitment or
the senator made a commitment and went back. And I believe the
president when he says he had a commitment,” Jayapal said Monday.
There are still questions, however, about what kind of commitment
Manchin did or did not make to the White House.

Manchin defiant: Some on Capitol Hill questioned the tone
of the White House response, and in an interview Monday with a West
Virginia radio station, Manchin hit back, slamming Biden’s
staff.

"They figured surely to God we can move one person. We surely
can badger and beat one person up. Surely we can get enough
protesters to make that person uncomfortable enough that they'll
just say, 'OK I'll vote for anything,'" he said. "Well, guess what?
I'm from West Virginia. I'm not from where they're from and they
can just beat the living crap out of people and think they'll be
submissive."

Manchin indicated that White House staff had angered him during
negotiations, leading to his announcement: “I understand it's
staff. It is not the president. This is staff. And they drove some
things, and they put some things out, that were absolutely
inexcusable. They know what it is."

Can Build Back Better be built back better? The White
House and other Democrats still hope that they can bring their bill
back from the dead. “Just as Senator Manchin reversed his position
on Build Back Better,” Psaki said in her statement, “we will
continue to press him to see if he will reverse his position yet
again, to honor his prior commitments and be true to his word.” She
told reporters Monday that “what's most on the president's mind is
the risk of inaction."

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) vowed Monday to
bring the legislation up for a vote despite Manchin’s announcement,
adding an obvious shot at his fellow Democrat. “Senators should be
aware that the Senate will, in fact, consider the Build Back Better
Act, very early in the new year so that every Member of this body
has the opportunity to make their position known on the Senate
floor, not just on television,” Schumer wrote in a letter to
colleagues. “We are going to vote on a revised version of the
House-passed Build Back Better Act – and we will keep voting on it
until we get something done.”

Schumer added that the Senate would also take up voting rights
legislation and that Democrats would consider changes to the
filibuster rules if Republicans continue to clock that bill.

While the intraparty sniping since Sunday morning doesn’t bode
well for any chance of resurrecting the legislation, Manchin on
Monday left the door open to a new version of the bill.

The Washington Post
reports that Manchin’s offer last week was for a
$1.8 trillion package that included universal prekindergarten, an
expansion of Obamacare and funding for climate change programs —
but excluded an extension of Biden’s expanded child tax credit.
(“In recent months, Manchin has told several of his fellow
Democrats that he thought parents would waste monthly child tax
credit payments on drugs instead of providing for their children,”
HuffPost
reported Monday, citing two sources familiar with
the senator’s comments.)

In his interview, Manchin reportedly again
criticized the artificial sunsets for programs
that Democrats used to hold down the official cost of their package
and said he had only agreed to press ahead with Democrats’ budget
reconciliation bill because wanted a plan that rolled back the 2017
Republican tax cuts. He added that he wants to lower the cost of
more prescription drugs than the House version of the bill covers.
“If you’re going to negotiate then negotiate,” he said. “Don’t
start picking and choosing and playing games.”

Manchin also called for means testing and work requirements for
benefits such as the expanded child tax credit. And he would want
committee hearings about the legislation.

Those demands may be impossible to square with those of other
Democrats. Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), for example, had opposed
raising marginal tax rates and broader plans to lower prescription
drug prices.

The bottom line: Manchin and Biden reportedly
had a cordial conversation Sunday night, and party
leaders aren’t giving up on the bill. Democrats could still try to
salvage a scaled-back version in a reconciliation package. Senate
Democrats are set to hold a virtual meeting Tuesday evening, which
could help clarify the party’s path forward. No matter what,
lawmakers will likely be dealing with the Build Back Better bill —
or at least specific parts of it — for weeks or months to come.

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