Democrats Insist Build Back Better Only Somewhat Dead

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) annoyed some of his fellow Democrats on Tuesday by describing the Build Back Better Act as “dead” even as they try to resurrect parts of the bill.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters that Democrats are “fighting hard” for the legislation, which Manchin basically killed last year when he said he wouldn’t support it.

“There are lots of provisions in that bill that are very important, many of which Sen. Manchin supports such as, say, drug pricing,” Schumer said. “And so we are continuing to work on it. And there are conversations going on between Senator Manchin and different senators right now.”

Manchin described Build Back Better as dead in response to a reporter’s question about whether he had talked to his colleagues about the legislation.

There’s no doubt about it the Build Back Better Act, at least the version of the bill that existed last year, is dead so long as Manchin won’t support it.

“If we’re talking about the whole big package, that’s gone,” Manchin said. 

But the West Virginia Democrat also repeated what he’s said before many times: that he is happy to talk to his fellow Democrats about a smaller bill with some of Build Back Better’s components.

Higher taxes on the wealthy and lower pharmaceutical costs, Manchin said, were two components of the package that are still “extremely available.” But Manchin lost his patience when asked whether he could support the bill’s provision expanding access to prekindergarten, telling a reporter she was “causing more problems” just by asking.

He also seemed to contradict Schumer’s claim that there are ongoing conversations about the bill.

“There’s no organized conversations going on,” Manchin said. 

The bill is not any deader than it was in December after Manchin said definitively that he wouldn’t vote for it. Whatever form it eventually takes, Democrats will need Manchin’s vote, since they control just 50 out of 100 Senate seats. 

Still, some Democrats seemed annoyed by Manchin’s morbid assessment of the bill’s prospects.

“We have a proposal that has the overwhelming support of the American people. It addresses the long-neglected crises facing working people,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said. “We cannot allow that to die. If Mr. Manchin chooses to side with corporate America in this issue, that’s his business.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said that kids in her district sleep in winter coats because funding for public housing repairs is tied up in the stalled bill.

“Where should I direct them to wait out the cold?” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted . “Manchin’s yacht?”

Senate Democrats are shifting their focus toward confirming a Supreme Court nominee and reforming the congressional role in certifying presidential elections, meaning any action on Build Back Better could be a long ways off.

Meanwhile, there seems to have been no progress on winning Manchin’s support for the parts of Build Back Better he doesn’t like, such as the expanded child tax credit that paid families a monthly child benefit last year. 

In a Tuesday memo the Center for American Progress Action Fund, the liberal think tank’s advocacy arm, urged Democrats to focus on clean energy, health care and child care in a slimmed-down version of the bill that would omit the child tax credit. 

Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), a top proponent of the child credit, disliked that idea, noting that the monthly benefit cut child poverty last year. 

“We should make sure that the reductions in childhood poverty and the reductions in hunger in this country remain in place for kids living in this country that unfortunately don’t have lobbyists in Washington, D.C.,” Bennet told HuffPost.