Manchin, Sanders At Odds Over Biden's $3.5 Trillion Economic Bill

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Sunday said he will not give fellow Democrats the vote needed to pass President Joe Biden s $3.5 trillion economic rebuilding plan. Instead, he suggested that the deal be cut by more than half, which Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) panned as absolutely not acceptable.

In an interview with CNNs Dana Bash on State of the Union, Manchin questioned why others in his party were moving to pass the bill so quickly.

Weve already put out $5.4 trillion and weve tried to help Americans in every way we possibly can, and a lot of the help that weve put out there is still there and its going to run clear until next year, 2022, so whats the urgency? he said. Whats the urgency that we have? Its not the same urgency that we had with the American Rescue Plan.

.@DanaBashCNN presses Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin on why he doesn't support the $3.5 trillion reconciliation package.

Sen. Chuck Schumer \"will not have my vote on the 3.5,\" Manchin says. pic.twitter.com/LBfgafxkPT

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.@DanaBashCNN presses Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin on why he doesn't support the $3.5 trillion reconciliation package.

Sen. Chuck Schumer "will not have my vote on the 3.5," Manchin says. pic.twitter.com/LBfgafxkPT
State of the Union (@CNNSotu) September 12, 2021

The American Rescue Plan , which was signed into law in March, included stimulus payments, vaccine funding and an extension of unemployment benefits due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Bidens Build Back Better plan, which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) aims to vote on by Sept. 27, would include efforts to lower health care, child care and housing costs, as well as upgrade school infrastructure and create clean energy jobs to help fight climate change.

Manchin argued that enough federal money has been spent. He said hed like to take some time to see where that money is going and better understand the trajectory of the pandemic and inflation before further expanding the nations debt.

Eight million people are still unemployed. Somethings not matching up. Dont you think we ought to hit the pause and find out? The vulnerability that we have right now, we dont know what happened with this COVID, its awful, coming back the way it is with a vengeance, he said. We dont know about inflation, we know its running rampant right now, I can tell you in West Virginia inflation is running rampant, and on top of that, the challenges were going to have, geopolitical challenges, shouldnt we be prepared?

Manchin published similar views in an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal earlier this month.

Sanders, who is writing the economic bill as the Senate Budget Committee chairman, called Manchins stance unacceptable.

I dont think its acceptable to the president, to the American people or to the overwhelming majority of the people in the Democratic caucus, Sanders, speaking with Bash in a separate interview, said of Manchins suggestions to make dramatic cuts to the bill. Many of us made a major compromise in going from the $6 trillion bill that we wanted, supported by the overwhelming majority of Democrats, down to $3.5.

Sen. Bernie Sanders says Sen. Joe Manchin preferring $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion for the reconciliation bill is \"absolutely not acceptable.\"

\"Many of us made a major compromise in going from the $6 trillion bill that we wanted\" down to $3.5 trillion, Sanders says. #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/CNC24VD65f

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Sen. Bernie Sanders says Sen. Joe Manchin preferring $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion for the reconciliation bill is "absolutely not acceptable."

"Many of us made a major compromise in going from the $6 trillion bill that we wanted" down to $3.5 trillion, Sanders says. #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/CNC24VD65f
State of the Union (@CNNSotu) September 12, 2021

Sanders stressed that theres plenty of urgency when it comes to climate change, plus the needs of working families and students.

Working families cannot afford child care for their kids, young people cannot afford to go to college, Sanders said. And then on top of all of that, the scientific community is telling us that were looking at a cataclysmic crisis in terms of climate Oregon is burning, California is burning.

However, in a separate interview with ABC News George Stephanopoulos, Sanders expressed optimism that Democrats will still be able to secure Manchins vote.

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We worked together [on the American Rescue Plan], we did, and I think were going to do it again, he said.