On Sunday, Manchin effectively killed a much more wide-ranging bill, recognized as the Build Back Better Act by declaring his opposition, deeply disappointing and enraging the White House and fellow congressional Democrats.
Days later, the pain stings, though Democrats are actively pursuing answers that might find muster with the West Virginia senator, whose vote is a necessity in the 50-50 Senate evenly split between the two parties.
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Democratic lawmakers, lobbyists, and specialists at think tanks believe Manchin might be won over if the bill is changed to contain fewer programs for a longer time.
“That is the way forward here,” announced Ben Ritz, director of the Center for Funding America’s Future at the Progressive Policy Institute, who has advocated for a bill with fewer items.
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“Most of the party is starting to come around to that,” Ritz stated.
Some Democrats think their party made a mistake in going too large.
Progressives initially pushed a $6 trillion measure before falling back to $3.5 trillion — in part to signal that the cut represented a concession on their party.
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The lower figure proved too high for Manchin and fellow Centrist Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), yet the House ultimately passed an approximately $2 trillion version of Biden’s spending plan in November, which had several key provisions that were temporary.
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For instance, the bill included provisions to extend the increased child tax credit amount for one year and form a universal preschool program for six years.
“To get someone like Manchin, a Democrat representing a conservative state, to a point where they can support something, [Democrats] started on the wrong foot about letting the bill get too big about too many things,” announced Tucker Shumack, a principal at Ogilvy Government Relations. He previously worked as an aide to former Moderate Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine).
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Manchin claimed that Democrats are not being honest regarding the cost of the bill since temporary programs are likely to be extended in the future.
“They continue to camouflage the real cost of the intent behind this bill,” Manchin announced in a statement Sunday describing his opposition to the measure.
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In his recent remarks, Manchin announced he couldn’t explain voting for Build Back Better in West Virginia. A state former President Trump won twice by double digits.
Jorge Castro, co-lead of the tax-policy practice at Miller & Chevalier and a former aide to former West Virginia Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D), announced that a more focused bill could help Democrats counter Republican attacks the bill is a grab-bag of spending.
“I think it definitely helps from a messaging perspective,” he stated.
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