Following West Virginia Democrat Senator Joe Manchin’s confirmation on Sunday that he would not vote for President Biden’s “Build Back Better” plan, Republicans welcomed the news with one saying that Manchin “put the nail in the coffin” of the bill.
“President Biden’s mega-spending bill is dead and Joe Manchin put the nail in the coffin. This should be a reality check to wild-eyed progressives that they are not the mainstream: With a divided country, a 50-50 Senate, and blowout inflation, the American people don’t want to upend this country with nakedly-partisan legislation,” Nebraska Republican Senator Ben Sasse said.
Sasse said that Build Back Better was “wildly out-of-touch” and praised Manchin for “listening to West Virginians, rather than to bullies and screamers who follow those who disagree into bathrooms and who shut down traffic.”
Manchin’s comments on Sunday seem to confirm earlier reports that the Senate would not vote on Biden’s frequently promoted spending bill before the end of the year. In an interview with Fox News, the moderate senator noted that one of his major concerns involved the effect that the bill would have on inflation, which has seen consumer prices rising at historic rates.
“It’s real, it’s harming every West Virginian, it’s making it almost — difficult for them to continue to go to their jobs,” Manchin said. “The cost of gasoline, the cost of groceries, the cost of utility bills, all of these things are hitting in every aspect of their life.”
Arkansas Republican Representative John Boozman also welcomed the news of Manchin’s decision on the bill, celebrating the defeat of the “Build Back Broke.”
“[They] never had a mandate to radically transform our country. Their proposals to dramatically expand or create new government programs with a record-setting, multi-trillion-dollar price tag had many Americans fearing the predictable consequences: higher taxes, more regulations, and less power over their own lives,” Boozman said.
Boozman claimed that the Democrats did not consult with stakeholders in the agricultural community about how the bill would impact their industry and argued that Congress should focus on inflation and the supply chain crisis.
“Democrats set out to spend billions without any input from myself, my Republican colleagues on the committee or, perhaps most importantly, stakeholders from the agriculture industry and rural America,” Boozman said. “Not a single hearing was held to determine how to allocate these dollars.”
Last week, proponents of Build Back Better learned that the Senate Parliamentarian said that Democrat-backed immigration provisions should not be included in the bill. According to the Center for Immigration Studies, this decision meant that a “‘parole amnesty’ for upwards of 6.5 million” illegal aliens should be removed.
Despite the decision by the Senate Parliamentarian, Democrats are reportedly considering bypassing the ruling.
“The parliamentarian was wrong, as a matter of law. The reconciliation bill has included immigration provisions multiple times in the past, and this bill clearly met the threshold of budgetary impact. … We’re keeping all options on the table,” said Senator Elizabeth Warren.
Even if the Democrats did proceed with their plan to put a “path to citizenship” in Build Back Better, the proposal seems stranded for now with Manchin’s opposition.