Manchin on Biden's $1.75 trillion bill: 'No negotiation going on'

It looks like US President Joe Biden’s social spending and climate bill, called the Build Back Better Act, is dead in the Senate, where Democratic holdout Joe Manchin has said there are “no discussions” going on about reviving it.

Democrats in the Senate are struggling to get unified behind the president’s signature domestic policy plan. The White House and some Democrats claim that the $1.75 trillion bill will reduce the cost of living for many low-income families and ease inflation over the long run. Republicans however are concerned about the potential impact the bill would have on inflation.

“I’m really not going to talk about Build Back Better anymore because I think I’ve been very clear on that. There is no negotiations going on at this time,” Manchin said on Tuesday.

Manchin, who is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, announced last month that he would not vote to proceed with the legislation.

The Build Back Better bill, which passed the House in November, currently contains a variety of tax cuts and new federal spending provisions.

Manchin expressed concern about pushing legislation that further divides Democrats and Republicans and said he’s more interested in working on a bill that has bipartisan support.

“There’s an awful lot of things, a lot of things that were very, I think, well-intended. And there was a lot of things that was a pretty far reach,” he explained. “Our country is divided and I don’t intend to do anything that divides our country anymore.”

Instead, Manchin said he wants “whatever I can do to unite and bring people together.”

He said he could back legislation that seeks more federal support for renewable energy sources and technologies, raising the possibility that he might be able to vote for a smaller climate-focused package.

Manchin had previously signaled concerns about the roughly $2 trillion cost of the bill and its potential effects on inflation.

Inflation rates in the US continue to soar. Last month, reports said that consumer prices had risen by 6.8 percent in the past year leading into November which is the highest annual inflation rate since 1982.

The grim economic situation has posed a political nightmare for the Biden administration and cemented expectations for the Federal Reserve to start raising interest rates next year.

Sixty-nine percent of Americans disapprove of Biden's handling of inflation: Poll

More than two-thirds of Americans say they disapprove of how US President Joe Biden is handling inflation.

Senator Manchin voiced concerns last month about inflation and the effect of Biden's Build Back Better bill on rising prices.

"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," the West Virginia moderate said, according to The Hill. "These are all concerns.... The unknown right now is very, very great."

More than two-thirds of Americans say they disapprove of how Biden is handling inflation, which is creating hardships for most people in the United States, according to a recent poll.

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