Manchin demands changes to Biden’s new spending plan
As the presumptive 50th vote on legislation, the Democrats’ most right-leaning senator holds immense sway over Biden’s agenda and made clear on Monday that he plans to use it as the president pushes infrastructure legislation through Congress.
“The bill, basically, is not going to end up that way,” Manchin said in his Monday radio interview. “If I don’t vote to get on it, it’s not going anywhere. So we’re going to have some leverage here. And it’s more than just me, Hoppy, there’s six or seven other Democrats that feel very strongly about this.”
Manchin said he would be comfortable raising the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 25 percent but said the United States has “to be competitive and we’re not going to throw caution to the wind.” Biden told reporters on Monday that he is “not at all” concerned about driving corporations overseas with the higher rate: “There’s no evidence of that.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that Manchin’s comments were part of the give and take of the negotiation going forward and defended Biden’s proposal to pay for his big spending bill as “responsible.”
He also signaled he wants a tighter focus on infrastructure and still wants bipartisan buy-in, though he said his Republican colleagues “can’t just be against everything.”
While Biden and Democrats on Capitol Hill have expressed hope that the president’s priorities on infrastructure might pass with bipartisan support, even the most amenable GOP senators have expressed reservations about the bill’s scope and accompanying price tag. Without the support of at least 10 Republican senators, Democrats could pass an infrastructure package via budget reconciliation, a blunt tool that allows Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to bypass a GOP filibuster and approve legislation with his 50 members plus Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote.
But even if they take that approach, Democrats can’t go around Manchin, who said “this bill will not be in the same form” when it passes.
Quint Forgey contributed to this report.
