On Sunday, Democratic Senator Joe Manchin (WV) said that he cannot guarantee that the reconciliation bill will pass in the Senate.
In an interview on CNN over the weekend, “State of the Union” host Jake Tapper asked Manchin, “Can you guarantee [Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] that the reconciliation package will pass?”
Manchin said, “I can’t really guarantee anybody.”
He added, “And I have not guaranteed anybody on any of these pieces of legislation. Would we like to do more? Yes, you can do what you can pay for. This is paid for, our infrastructure bill is all paid for. We don’t have a debt, that we’re going to incur more debt in throwing onto it.”
“And on the other, as far as reconciliation goes, it should be looked at the same. That’s why I said we’re going to get the budget resolution. Let’s start the process and then see where it goes,” he said.
“On that, we should just work in good faith and be honest with each other, so no one’s misled any way, shape or form, and there should be no quid pro quo. You do this, I will do this,” he added.
“When it comes to big legislation, does it help the American people? How do you tell over 80 percent of people, Democrats and Republicans, that we can’t do an infrastructure bill, a traditional infrastructure? There’s a lot of need out there for the human infrastructure, I understand,” he noted, adding, “But some of these programs that they are going to be putting in place could be in perpetuity, and even though it only has a 10-year run on it. So it’s being scored at 10 years at 3.5. It might have perpetuity, would be $5 trillion or more. So we have to look at everything and be honest with ourselves.”
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) also appeared on the program, pushing that there will not be a bipartisan bill without a passage of the reconciliation bill.
Tapper asked Ocasio-Cortez if she would vote for the recent infrastructure package even though it is smaller than she had wanted.
“It has to — we have to hold onto the — we have to hold onto that bargain,” she said.
“If there is not a reconciliation bill in the House, and if the Senate does not pass the reconciliation bill, we will uphold our end of the bargain and not pass the bipartisan bill until we get all of these investments in,” she added.
She noted, “And I want to be clear that the investments in the bipartisan bill are not all candy land. There are some of these — quote, unquote — ‘pay- fors’ that are very alarming that we need to see the language on. For example, some of the language around privatizing public infrastructure, putting toll roads, leasing public infrastructure to private entities, are very concerning and should be concerning to every American.”
“So, we really need to see that language and see what’s put in there until it reaches — when it reaches the House. Bipartisan doesn’t always mean that it’s in the interests of the public good, frankly. Sometimes, there’s a lot of corporate lobbyist giveaways in some of these bills,” she added.