I am not ready to say that Senator Manchin has killed the Build Back Better Bill. That remains to be seen. He has at least killed it until after Christmas. However, President Biden does not seem to be dealing with the possibility that the bill might be dead.
On Friday, Red State posted an article about a statement released by the White House regarding the Build Back Better Bill.
The article reports:
Neither the media nor Joe Biden seems to be able to deal with the simple fact that Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) has always been clear that he had issues with the Build Back Better (BBB) bill, from various provisions to the price tag of the whole monstrosity.
As we noted earlier, the AP chastised Manchin, claiming he was the “single senator” standing in the way of the Biden Administration’s grand plans. How to have bias and untruth there, all wrapped up in a fake news package. Then CNN analyst Kirsten Powers suggested it would be better for Joe Biden if Manchin left the Democrats so that Biden wouldn’t be blamed for not uniting all the Democrats — a truly strange take, and not ultimately helpful to the Democrats.
But the worst reaction was that of Joe Biden himself. The BBB imploded after the CBO score came in and laid out how much the true cost of the bill would be with all the social programs properly scored out over 10 years. It wasn’t even close to the number that Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had been pitching of around $1.75 trillion. Manchin said that was “very sobering,” and the reports were that he and Biden were far apart. That’s what resulted in the BBB being put off and essentially killed.
Now, Biden has released a statement where he mentions Manchin three times and falsely claims that Manchin had agreed with him on a number.
The article quotes some of President Biden’s statement:
‘In these discussions, Senator Manchin has reiterated his support for Build Back Better funding at the level of the framework plan I announced in September,’ he said.
‘I believe that we will bridge our differences and advance the Build Back Better plan, even in the face of fierce Republican opposition.’
The article also quotes Senator Manchin’s response:
Manchin is a very genteel fellow, but his response to Biden’s statement, for him, seemed perturbed. “The president put out a statement. It’s his statement, not mine,” Manchin said. That’s probably as close as Manchin will politely come to calling Joe Biden a liar. It also is a comment as to where they are at this point — which is not anywhere close to an agreement.
Let’s hope Senator Manchin continues to hold his ground as the media and the Democrats trash him for doing the right thing.