Sanders hits back at Manchin's climate spending concerns

Independent US Senator Bernie Sanders has slammed Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) he raised a red flag about the costs of Democrats' social and climate spending bill. 

Sanders on Monday didn’t mention Manchin by name, instead said “anybody in the Democratic caucus or elsewhere that’s worried about fiscal responsibility and the deficit.”

“The fact is ... that, according to the CBO [Congressional Budget Office], the infrastructure bill runs up to a $250 billion deficit. It’s not paid for,” Sanders told reporters at the Capitol.

“The legislation that I wanna see passed ... is paid for in its entirety. It will not have an impact on inflation. So if we’re talking about fiscal responsibility, I think what we’re trying to do with the reconciliation bill is the right thing,” he added.

The $1 trillion infrastructure bill, which was negotiated by a group of senators, including Manchin, would add $256 billion to the deficit over the next decade, according to an CBO estimate.

The bipartisan infrastructure bill could provide America’s biggest investment in decades in roads, bridges, airports, and waterways.

The bill includes funds for renewable energy and climate resilience but omits some major climate agenda items such as a clean energy standard.

US President Joe Biden has asked Congress to approve a $36 billion budget for fighting global warming in 2022. 

The lion share of the budget will be allocated to clean energy initiatives, innovations and research, while a lesser share will go to the building infrastructures for storage and transmission of clean energy, as well as retrofitting homes and federal buildings.

But Manchin has expressed concerns about the cost of the spending package and signaled that he wants to see a CBO analysis before the Senate votes.

“Throughout the last three months, I have been straightforward about my concerns that I will not support a reconciliation package that expands social programs and irresponsibly adds to our nearly $29 trillion in national debt that no one else seems to care about. Nor will I support a package that risks hurting American families suffering from historic inflation,” Manchin said earlier.

“Simply put, I will not support a bill that is this consequential without thoroughly understanding the impact it will have on our national debt, our economy and the American people,” he added.

Sanders has sounded the alarm in regard to the severity of the global warming crisis, saying that climate change is “the existential threat to our planet.” 

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Biden has pledged to transition the US economy towards clean energy and reduce emissions from coal, natural gas and oil. Biden brought the US back into the Paris climate accord in January after Trump said in 2017 he was pulling the country out.

Biden has asked Congress to approve a $36 billion budget for fighting global warming in 2022. 

The lion share of the budget will be allocated to clean energy initiatives, innovations and research, while a lesser share will go to the building infrastructures for storage and transmission of clean energy, as well as retrofitting homes and federal buildings.

Sanders and Democratic Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Earl Blumenauer in February introduced legislation that required Biden to declare a national emergency on climate change.

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