Dems introduce $3.5 TRILLION reconciliation bill and Manchin has already signaled support for some of it

by The Right Scoop

Democrats have unveiled a whopping $3.5 trillion dollar budget reconciliation bill that is going to be loaded with Democrat agenda items, including items on immigration, child care, climate change, and more. It will only require a simple majority for passage in the Senate, assuming it gets that far:

DAILY CALLER – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the chair of the Senate Budget Committee, announced a $3.5 trillion deal on their infrastructure reconciliation package late Tuesday.

The deal is the first step to beginning the reconciliation process, which Democrats hope will allow them to bypass a certain GOP filibuster and pass the plan on a party-line vote. The package includes an array of Democratic priorities that face near unanimous Republican opposition, including billions for child care, climate change and other forms of so-called human infrastructure, Schumer and Sanders said in a joint press conference Tuesday.

In addition to the human infrastructure provisions Democrats sought, the bill will also include money for Medicare to include dental, vision and hearing coverage. The expansions were a key goal for progressives, and Schumer endorsed them in June.

Other floated provisions include two years of free community college, paid leave and boosts toward the child tax credit, which Biden extended for a year in the American Rescue Plan.

Though Democrats have a Senate majority, the 50-50 split means that the plan almost certainly needs unified support from Schumer’s caucus to pass. Democrats also only have three votes to spare in the House, meaning that just a few defections could tank the bill if Republicans vote unanimously in opposition.

The bill is coupled with a smaller $1.2 trillion infrastructure framework that focuses mostly on physical infrastructure and has the support from several Senate Republicans and President Joe Biden. Schumer has said that Democrats will vote on both the bipartisan and reconciliation bills before the Senate leaves for its August recess, though he has not yet given specific days when they will do so.

Before the reconciliation bill gets a vote, Democrats need to be sure that moderates in their caucus like Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Jon Tester of Montana are fully on board. They have all signaled that they are open to a reconciliation bill, but have yet to endorse its $3.5 trillion amount.

Manchin told ABC News in June that a bill totaling “$1 trillion or $1.5 trillion or $2 trillion” is something “I would be voting for,” and told reporters earlier Tuesday that any plan had to be fully paid for.

“We need to pay for it,” he said. “I’d like to pay for all of it. I don’t think we need more debt.”

Even if Senate Democrats are in full agreement, the reconciliation process provides few guarantees that the bill will become law. Before a full vote on the bill the Senate must undergo two vote-a-ramas, marathon sessions where Republicans can offer numerous trivial or politically tricky amendments.

The bill and its provisions must also be approved by the Senate parliamentarian, since reconciliation is only allowed for budget-related legislation. In April, the parliamentarian said that a $15 minimum wage could not be included in a reconciliation bill, infuriating progressives who planned to pass it on a party-line vote.

Democrats met with Biden to discuss the bill today and it just came out in the last little bit that Manchin has signaled his support for the immigration portion of the reconciliation bill:

This is likely a full amnesty:

That would be very bad news if Democrats were able to pass full amnesty, especially with Biden’s border nightmare still raging.

But on the flip side, Manchin is reportedly very unhappy with the topline cost of 3.5 trillion AND has suggested he won’t support anything in the bill that moves toward the elimination of fossil fuels:

TPM writes it this way…

Coming out of the meeting with Biden, Manchin said he told the President about concerns he has with provisions that move the United States away from dependence on fossil fuels.

“I’m concerned also about maintaining the energy independence the United States of America has,” he told reporters after mentioning his concern about inflation. “And with that you cannot be moving towards eliminating fossil, you should be innovating and using more technology, and we should be leading the rest of the world in the technology that you can use all of the above energy sources, and I told him that I was concerned about some of the language I’ve seen that moves away from fossil.”

While such a statement, amid a summer where the devastating effects of climate change are already becoming apparent, may seem ludicrous, Manchin is from a coal state. And these comments may preview a skirmish Democrats are going to have to work through.

Progressives see including climate provisions in the reconciliation bill as absolutely crucial. While they have not been the ones to torpedo parts of Biden’s agenda because of their personal stances (looking at you, Manchin and Sinema), many have indicated that stripping out climate provisions would be a line in the sand.

So this bill is still a long way from passage. And if Manchin holds firm on his stance regarding fossil fuels, it could doom the bill assuming other Democrats demand this stay in the bill.

There’s been no word on if Kyrsten Sinema supports any of it yet.


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