On Monday, after Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) announced he will not be backing Former Vice President Biden’s so-called (and controversial) “Build Back Better” $2T social spending plan, prominent Republicans roundly praised the decision.
According to Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE), “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.”
Sasse went on to commend Manchin for “listening to West Virginians, rather than to bullies and screamers who follow those who disagree into bathrooms and who shut down traffic.”
On Sunday, during an interview with Fox News, Manchin explained his reason for not supporting Biden’s spending plan saying, “It’s real, it’s harming every West Virginian, it’s making it almost — difficult for them to continue to go to their jobs. 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 Senator John Boozman said the Democrats, “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 went on to say, “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. Not a single hearing was held to determine how to allocate these dollars.”
Democrats are calling for a vote to continue on the Senate floor.
If Sen. Manchin wants to vote against the Build Back Better Act, he should have the opportunity to do so with a floor vote as soon as the Senate returns. pic.twitter.com/mvAapxtYeq
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) December 19, 2021
100% agree. The Senate must reconvene immediately and bring BBB to a vote regardless of Manchin’s statement.
If they forced folks to go on record with BIF, they can force the Senate to go on record with BBB. We can take it up again next year too.@AyannaPressley is right on. https://t.co/pPhgsXjO7t
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) December 19, 2021
During an interview with MetroNews Talkline on Monday, Manchin mentioned that the White House “retaliated” by releasing previously undisclosed information about the Senator. Manchin noted that the White House staff did because they are not happy with Manchin’s decision to not back the Democrat’s initative. However, Manchin did not say what information has been released saying, “This is staff. And they drove some things and they put some things out that were absolutely inexcusable, And they know what it is. And that’s it.”
