Manchin May Have Just Dealt Fatal Blow to Biden’s Dreams for Build Back Better – Opinion

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) is talking about the new CBO score that came in on Friday on the Build Back Better bill and he’s not at all happy.

Although the Biden campaign has falsely claimed the bill will be completely paid for, CBO exposed the true cost if they made the planned social programs permanent. The way they’re trying to hide the true cost of the bill is only putting in the cost of the programs for a couple of years. CBO scored revealed that the program’s true cost would be if they were not discontinued. It would cost nearly $5 trillion and add $3 trillion to the nation’s debt if it remains in effect through 2031.

As we reported, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was furious at the CBO for being honest, calling the report “fake,” saying they weren’t scoring on the real bill. But then Fox’s Peter Doocy asked her if it’s “fake,” which programs did Biden intend to cut in the future if she’s saying it’s not real and she refused to say. Her answer was not good enough to an important question. She also couldn’t get around the fact that Biden has praised the CBO in the past as the “gold standard” for assessing such bills.

Manchin obviously wasn’t taken in by the posturing from the White House. He called the newest numbers “very sobering.”

“Inflation is real. It’s not transitory. It’s alarming. It’s going up, not down. And I think that should be something we’re concerned about. And geopolitical fallout,” Manchin, D-W.Va., said, referencing Russia’s buildup of troops on Ukraine’s border.

Manchin said he was “very concerned.”

In a big warning sign, Manchin said BBB shouldn’t rely on temporary spending that could become permanent. “I don’t think that’s a fair evaluation of saying we are going to spend X amount of dollars but then we are going to have to depend on coming back and finding more money” pic.twitter.com/kxfZfL5N6H

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) December 13, 2021

Manchin warned CNN that the bill shouldn’t rely upon temporary spending, which lawmakers may be under pressure to increase. “I don’t think that’s a fair evaluation of saying we are going to spend X amount of dollars but then we are going to have to depend on coming back and finding more money … I’m concerned about paying down debt too,” he said.

Manchin made it very clear he doesn’t think there’s any rush to try to come to an agreement.

Joe Biden had an interview with Manchin yesterday about the inflation numbers. On Monday evening, after he met with Biden, he was asked if he thought that the bill could be passed this year and he didn’t sound encouraging for it, saying “anything is possible.” But he said the bill should be “within the limits of what we can afford.” Manchin also said the CBO was “non-partisan” and “they’re going to give us the facts whether we like it or not” and “you might as well look at the whole ball of wax if you will.”

Manchin’s big thing right down the line has been the cost and now he’s facing the truth that the $1.75 trillion number they were pitching him is just a smokescreen to hide the real future costs. He’s not buying the White House argument here, and he’s looking at the real costs. It’s very clear that he’s putting the brakes on this and while he’s not outright walking away, he’s not seeing it getting done with the numbers the way they are anytime soon and it surely doesn’t sound like it’s meeting Biden’s dreams of before Christmas if anything at all gets passed. They keep trying to slip this by him but he’s just not going for it.