Joe Manchin just torpedoed Biden’s agenda today

Joe Manchin just fooled Democrats today and announced that he will not allow the 1.2 trillion dollar infrastructure bill to be used to force him to support for the much larger social safety net bill that Biden really wants passed:

CNN – When Joe Manchin stepped to the podium in the US Capitol on Monday afternoon, the hope among Democrats was that he was going to announce that he supported the $1.75 trillion social safety net bill — a moment that would virtually ensure passage of the bulk of President Joe Biden’s first-term domestic agenda.

After all, why else would Manchin call a news conference and tell reporters that he was going to “clear up a lot of things”?

Well, not that, as it turns out.

What the West Virginia Democrat announced was that liberals’ attempts to secure his vote for the safety net bill in exchange for their backing of the $1.2 trillion “hard” infrastructure bill aren’t working — and won’t work.

“It is time to vote on the (bipartisan infrastructure) bill, up or down,” said Manchin. “Holding this bill hostage is not going to work in getting my support for the reconciliation bill.”

As to whether he will EVER support the social safety net bill, Manchin was decidedly noncommittal. Raju, who was at the Manchin presser, also noted:

“One thing that Manchin’s statement makes clear is it’s going to take time — potentially a lot more time — to win his support, if that’s even possible.”

As far as I can tell, Biden’s agenda is going nowhere fast.

Neither Manchin nor Sinema support the formerly $3.5 trillion, now $1.75 trillion social safety net bill AND progressives in the House refuse to budge on the $1.2 trillion dollar ‘infrastructure’ bill unless they get the bigger one.

So unless someone breaks, neither bill is going to pass and that is the best thing that could happen for this country.


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