Joe Manchin Deals Huge Blow To Pelosi On Biden On BBB: “I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation”
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) stunned the Dem establishment and announced on “Fox News Sunday” that he will not vote for Biden’s “mammoth” spending bill Build Back Better.
“I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation, I just can’t. I tried everything humanly possible, I can’t get there” Manchin said to host Bret Baier. “You’re done, this is a no,” Baier said.
“This is a no on this legislation,” Manchin said. “I have tried everything I know to do,” he added killing the bill before with his words.
“When you have these things coming at you the way they are right now, I’ve always said this, Bret, if I can’t go home to the people of West Virginia, I can’t vote for it,” he said.
“He knows that I’ve had concerns and the problems I’ve had,” he said of Biden.
“The thing we should all be directing our attention towards is the variant of COVID we have coming back at us in so many different aspects and different ways.
“It’s affecting our lives again.
“So I think that’s where our attention needs to be directed toward immediately,” he said.
“Everyone still has the aspirational things they want to do,” Joe said. “They say, ‘Can we still make this fit? We’ll just cut it down to two years versus 10 years, we’ll cut this one to four years versus 10 years or one year versus 10 years.
“That’s not being genuine as far as I’m concerned with my constituents in West Virginia,” he said.
Manchin released a statement after appearing on Fox News that said:
“Despite my best efforts, I cannot explain the sweeping Build Back Better Act in West Virginia and I cannot vote to move forward on this mammoth piece of legislation.
“My Democratic colleagues in Washington are determined to dramatically reshape our society in a way that leaves our country even more vulnerable to the threats we face.
“I cannot take that risk with a staggering debt of more than $29 trillion and inflation taxes that are real and harmful to every hard-working American at the gasoline pumps, grocery stores and utility bills with no end in sight.
“If enacted, the bill will also risk the reliability of our electric grid and increase our dependence on foreign supply chains.
“Our ability to quickly and effectively respond to these pending threats would be drastically hindered by our rising debt,” he said.
Manchin's full statement on BBB. He leans in heavily on the national debt (which Biden says his proposal wouldn't increase). He also talks about a 2010 debt warning from Adm. Mullen (debt service costs are up since then but still well, well below levels seen in the 80s and 90s). pic.twitter.com/j3GBGFjZbL
— Josh Wingrove (@josh_wingrove) December 19, 2021
“I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation.”