Sen. Joe Manchin has only grown bolder in his opposition to spending $3.5 trillion to transform social programs, prompting irritation in his caucus.
Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema hold the reins on President Joe Biden’s jobs and families plan, and their fellow Democrats are struggling with how to handle it. Led by Manchin’s media tour on Sunday shows and in the Wall Street Journal op-ed pages, the two moderate senators are essentially dictating the final terms of what their colleagues have envisioned as a transformational social spending, tax and environmental package. Manchin’s willingness to take his argument to the public has progressives seething and has made him the focal point of angst within the Democratic Party’s small majorities. Asked if he was aligned with Manchin on reconciliation, Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) cracked: “Are you crazy? Are you trying to get me shot? I’d never, ever want to be aligned with Joe Manchin. My wife would divorce me.” “Joe is Joe. Joe is going to hammer it out, the way he wants to hammer it out and go from there. We both have similar values but we certainly don’t think alike,” added Tester, who’s been more comfortable with the $3.5 trillion spending number that Manchin has rejected but wants it paid for. He said the two have not discussed the reconciliation bill in detail. As consideration of the partisan spending bill hits crunch time, Manchin (D-W. Va.) and Sinema (D-Ariz.) are aiming at shaving the package down so much that it could endanger much of the House’s work so far in completing several sections of the $3.5 trillion package. The party had hoped to have a bill that could pass both the House and Senate sometime this month, a goal that appears increasingly herculean. On Sunday, Manchin suggested he’d support spending at perhaps half that level, or whatever can be paid for via tax increases.
