Senator Joe Manchin out of West Virginia is losing patience with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
Friday, the former presidential candidate wrote an op-ed in the Charleston Gazette-Mail urging Manchin to support the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package. Manchin did not like the move.
Bernie Sanders urges Joe Manchin to back Build Back Better bill
While most Democrats in Congress support the process, Manchin and his colleague from Arizona, Kyrsten Sinema, say the bill is too pricey.
Sanders, who won the 2016 West Virginia Democratic presidential primary, took his case directly to the people living in the state.
Sanders, a proud socialist, wrote: “The $3.5 trillion Build Back Better bill, supported by President Biden and almost all Democrats in Congress, is an unprecedented effort to finally address the long-neglected crises facing working families and demand that the wealthiest people and largest corporations in the country start paying their fair share of taxes.”
Manchin rejects “socialist and out-of-stater” Sanders’ offer
Manchin did not waste much time and hit back on social media. The 74-year-old politician told Sanders that he does not know what people in West Virginia really want.
He said: “This isn’t the first time an out-of-stater has tried to tell West Virginians what is best for them despite having no relationship to our state. Millions of jobs are open, supply chains are strained, and unavoidable inflation taxes are draining workers’ hard-earned wages as the price of gasoline and groceries continues to climb.”
The former governor of West Virginia continued: “Congress should proceed with caution on any additional spending, and I will not vote for a reckless expansion of government programs. No op-ed from a self-declared Independent socialist is going to change that.”
Manchin does not like when Democratic leaders from outside come to his state and try to create a wedge between him and his constituents.
Earlier this year, he gave Vice President Kamala Harris the cold shoulder when she tried to push the American Rescue Plan in his state.
President Biden needs united Democratic Party to pass budget reconciliation package
Democrats cannot get the Build Back Better plan through Congress without Manchin’s support. So far, the moderate is only offering his colleagues a $1.5 trillion package.
President Joe Biden, who knows that the initial price tag will go down, hopes to get a number between $1.9 trillion and $2.3 trillion.
The Democratic Party is split between progressives like Sanders and moderates like Manchin. The two sides cannot agree on which programs need to be removed from the initial package to reduce the price.
Progressives have offered to keep all the programs funded for five years instead of 10. Moderates said they would prefer to have fewer programs but wholly funded.
Friday, Mr. Biden sided with the left-wing of his party on this topic but offered no timeline for the bill to move forward.
