Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) — seemingly forever intent to make observers wonder why he’s even registered with the Democratic Party at all — announced this weekend that he was a “no” on the Build Back Better Act, a monumental piece of legislation that, if enacted, would provide support for fighting climate change, improving health care access, and more. Because of the close party split in the Senate — it’s 50-50, with Democrats in control only because of Vice President Kamala Harris’s role as a tiebreaker — Democratic leaders could not afford to lose a single vote, meaning that Manchin’s “no” announcement stood poised to sink the bill.
MANCHIN PULLS THE PLUG ON BBB … WHOA … on Fox News Sunday: "I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation. … I can't get there."
"This is a no on this legislation."
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) December 19, 2021
During CNN’s State of the Union over the weekend, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) put Manchin on blast for his cowardice. As Sanders pointedly put it:
‘I think he’s going to have a lot of explaining to do to the people of West Virginia, to tell them why he doesn’t have the guts to take on the drug companies and lower the cost of prescription drugs, why he is not prepared to expand home health care — West Virginia is one of the poorest states in this country. You’ve got elderly people and disabled people who would like to stay at home who are forced into nursing homes. He’s going to have to tell the people of West Virginia why he doesn’t want to expand Medicare to cover dental, hearing, and eyeglasses.’
Manchin is Manchin. But what kind of healthy democracy is structured in a way that can allow one man elected by 290,000 voters in one of the least populous states to thwart the agenda of his party and the President who was elected with 81 million votes. We need structural change.
— Sherrilyn Ifill (@Sifill_LDF) December 19, 2021
Sanders also noted that Manchin would have explaining to do regarding his refusal to go along with the climate-related portions of the bill. Sanders added as follows:
‘What’s going on now in Washington is the big money interests are pouring hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars to make sure that we continue to pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, that the rich do not start paying their fair share of taxes. I would have hoped that we could have had at least 50 Democrats onboard who had the guts to stand up for working families and take on the lobbyists and the powerful special interests… If he doesn’t have the courage to do the right thing for the working families of West Virginia and America, let him vote no in front of the whole world.’
In other words, Sanders still wants to hold a vote in the Senate on the bill, which already passed the House before now effectively grinding to a fatal halt. Watch Sanders’s comments about Manchin below:
"If he doesn't have the courage to do the right thing for the working families of West Virginia and America, let him vote no in front of the whole world." Sen. Bernie Sanders reacts to Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin saying "no" to Biden's Build Back Better Act. #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/oEQaD19tAd
— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) December 19, 2021
As Sanders referenced, the provisions of the Build Back Better agenda, as proposed and passed by the House, cover a whole host of important policy areas. It included provisions like an extension of the expanded Child Tax Credit, which provided financial support to families with children across the country, and an expansion of Medicare benefits. Manchin sunk all of it — for now, at least, although individual policy proposals might fare differently on their own. Maybe.
A Christmas request for fewer stories on what Manchin’s announcement means for Joe Biden and more on what it means for families who will lose the child tax credit they’ve come to depend on. POTUS is not the center of the universe.
— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) December 19, 2021