The Build Back Better bill began as a $4 trillion wish list of every cockamamie left-wing program for every liberal interest group in Washington in one gigantic clusterfark of a bill. After slicing about $1 trillion out of the bill for a bipartisan infrastructure package to rebuild roads and bridges, Biden tried to get the “human infrastructure” part of the bill through a reluctant Democratic Congress.
Eventually, the bill was pared back to about $2.3 trillion. But Biden had a problem: West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin was looking at the inflation numbers and was alarmed at the growing inflation problem.
Manchin balked at supporting the bill. This meant the bill was for all intents and purposes dead since Biden needed all 50 Democratic Senators — plus Vice President Kamala Harris — to pass the legislation using the Reconciliation process.
But like a zombie rising from the grave, the Build Back Better bill kept coming back from the dead. And each time it was resurrected, it got a little smaller in hopes that Manchin might be enticed to support it.
At this point, the White House is running out of time to pass any big bill. With the politicking season this summer for the midterms almost upon us, few members of Congress are going to want to put their political hides on the line for Joe Biden when the president’s approval numbers are underwater.
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In recent weeks, White House officials have quietly tried gauging Manchin’s interest in a package that would consist primarily of clean-energy initiatives, prescription drug reform and higher taxes on the rich and corporations, the people said. The ideas discussed internally include more than $500 billion of deficit reduction, the people said. On Monday, a Manchin spokeswoman reiterated that he supports measures to boost U.S. energy production, lower prescription drug costs and raise tax revenue from corporations and the rich.
Biden’s problem is that Manchin wants to go light on the clean energy stuff and raising corporate taxes while going heavy on drug price reform. And he wants far more deficit reduction.
The devil, as always, is in the details.
But despite his support for these provisions generally, Manchin has not yet made clear to the White House precisely what he would support in a final agreement, the people familiar with the administration’s discussions said. Manchin privately told lawmakers in recent days that he wants Congress to approve a bipartisan energy deal in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which would complicate an already difficult timeline for a broader spending proposal, according to two other people familiar with the matter, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to reflect private talks. A bipartisan group, including Manchin, met on Monday night to discuss energy legislation.
“The White House is throwing every iteration at him,” one senior administration official said about the talks with Manchin. “But the relationship got to a bad place, in part because of tactics used on both sides.”
Manchin met with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday but offered no hope to the White House. “There’s nothing formal,” he told reporters. “I want to make sure y’all understand, there’s no false hopes here.”
Other Democrats are riding Manchin hard, claiming this is a question of loyalty to the party and the West Virginia senator is being selfish. “This is now the time for Manchin to demonstrate he wants a deal of some sort by indicating exactly what would be acceptable to him. The time for 20 questions is over,” said Bill Galston, who served as a top domestic policy aide in the Clinton administration
Or perhaps, Manchin is being wise. It’s when lawmakers stop asking 20 questions that taxpayers need to grab their wallets and head for cover.
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