Democratic Senator Joe Manchin said Sunday he will not endorse his party's nearly $ 2 trillion social and environmental bill, a potentially fatal blow to President Joe Biden's main legislative initiative.
"I can't vote to continue with this legislation. I just can't. I've tried everything humanly possible. But I can't get to that," Manchin said in an interview with the conservative Fox News network,
after five and a half months of negotiations between the Democrats
in which he was the main obstacle within his party.
Manchin's reluctance to vote for the bill that has already passed in the House of Representatives practically dooms the measure to failure in a Senate divided between 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats where a single vote makes the difference.
Senator Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, on Capitol Hill on December 17, 2021.
Scott Applewhite / AP
Manchin has said he would only be willing to back a much smaller version of the social spending package, which currently includes billions of dollars in provisions to help low- and middle-income American families get
free preschool education, an extension of the increased child tax credit and childcare funds.
It also includes more money the federal government has dedicated to climate change and provisions to limit the price of drugs, more help for the elderly, housing and job training.
[The Senate MP refuses to include an immigration plan in Biden's social spending package]
Almost everything would be paid for in tax increases for the wealthiest and the largest corporations.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki called Manchin's refusal "
a sudden and inexplicable change in his position"
and "a violation of his commitments" to Biden and the Democrats in Congress.
"Perhaps Senator Manchin can explain to the millions of children who have been lifted out of poverty, in part because of the child tax credit, why he wants to end a program that is helping to achieve this milestone, we cannot," he stated. Psaki.
"Extremely disappointing."
This is what an activist calls the rejection of the Senate parliamentarian to 'Plan C'
Dec. 17, 202102: 06
For their part,
members of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party attacked Manchin
for his change of mind.
"Today, Senator Manchin has betrayed his commitment not only to the president and the Democrats in Congress, but more importantly, to the American people," said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
"He usually says he's a man of his word, but he can't say that anymore. The people of West Virginia and the country see him clearly for who he is."
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, criticized her Democratic colleagues in Congress for passing the infrastructure bill before the social spending plan, known as
Build Back Better
.
“When a handful of us in the Lower House warned that this would happen if Democratic leaders gave Manchin everything he wanted by first passing [the infrastructure package] before [the social spending package], rather than passing them at the same time , many ridiculed our position.
Maybe they will believe us next time.
Or maybe they keep calling us naive, ”Ocasio-Cortez said in a series of tweets.