At least some Democratic leaders seem pretty confident that Sen. Joe Manchin will come around on the Build Back Better bill, the roughly $2 trillion spending package constituting much of President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda that the West Virginia Democrat has single-handedly stopped in its tracks.
On Monday, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said that she thinks Manchin is “gettable” on a revised version of the bill. “I think we will get him. I think this is going to happen,” Raimondo told Politico.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) said he was confident that Democrats would reach an agreement on a modified version of the bill, and even referred to Manchin by name as he discussed how certain he was that the bill would eventually come together.
Manchin, however, appears to have a different take on the matter. Asked about a specific provision of the bill Tuesday, Manchin did not sound like someone on the verge of making a deal. “What Build Back Better bill?” he said. “There is no … I mean, I don’t know what y’all are talking about.”
Asked if he was currently involved in negotiations on the bill, Manchin made it clear that he was not. “No, no, no, no,” he said. “It’s dead.”
Later Tuesday, Manchin provided some clarification that may open the door to a deal just a crack. Asked if he really meant that the bill is “dead,” he said, “If we’re talking about the whole big package, that’s gone.” But when asked about a possibly smaller bill, he offered a still-negative but not absolute response: “We’ll see what people come up with. I don’t know.”
List of concerns grows: Manchin has had numerous complaints about the version of the Build Back Better bill passed by the House, including what he saw as an excessively generous child tax credit, the potential for the spending package to increase inflationary pressure and its potentially negative effect on the national debt.
In comments Tuesday, Manchin reiterated his list of concerns. "My main concern is inflation. The high costs to everyone in my state and around the country I hear from," he said. "And also the geopolitical unrest we have in Ukraine. That's going to be a big cost, some sooner than later. And on top of that: Covid. We have to see which way Covid goes, and what effect it’s going to have on our economy. Those are still the driving forces."
The bottom line: With the White House focused on nominating the next Supreme Court justice and lawmakers soon to be consumed by the February 18 deadline for a 2022 spending deal, the path to an agreement on a modified version of Build Back Better isn’t getting any easier. Manchin’s list of concerns is only getting longer, as is the list of potential distractions in Washington.