Dem says Sen. Manchin blocking energy, tax provisions in big bill
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Joe Manchin has told Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer that he will oppose an economic measure they have been negotiating if it includes climate or energy provisions or boosts taxes on the rich or corporations, a Democrat briefed on the conversations said late Thursday.
Manchin’s demands upend party leaders’ hopes for a more sweeping election-season package they’ve hoped to present to voters by August, leaving the measure’s future unclear. In talks with Schumer, D-N.Y., that have lasted months, Manchin had previously expressed support for energy and climate language and for raising levies on high-earners and big companies.
The official said Manchin, D-W.Va., who derailed his party’s far bigger and wider-ranging social and environment package last December, has told Schumer he will only support a package limited to curbing pharmaceutical prices and extending federal subsidies for buying health care coverage.
President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats have been hoping to revive a roughly $1 trillion version of the $2 trillion bill that Manchin killed in December and push it through Congress by next month to tout as an achievement before the November elections. Half of it was to be dedicated to reducing federal deficits.
Manchin’s demands mean Democrats would probably only be able to produce a far smaller bill that erases the hopes of many in the party to use it to fund clean energy incentives that could begin to help curb global warming.
However, containing the costs of prescription drugs and extending subsidies for people buying health insurance under former President Barack Obama’s 2010 health care law are also top Democratic priorities. Manchin’s stance puts his party in the position of having to decide whether it should accept a more modest package, as opposed to perhaps nothing.
The official was not authorized to discuss the negotiations publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Manchin spokesperson Sam Runyon issued a statement that reiterated the senator’s assertions that he did not want any measure that emerged to worsen the consumer cost of living. The government reported this week that inflation last month reached an annual level of 9.1%, the highest figure in four decades.
“Political headlines are of no value to the millions of Americans struggling to afford groceries and gas as inflation soars to 9.1%,” Runyon said. “Senator Manchin believes it’s time for leaders to put political agendas aside, reevaluate and adjust to the economic realities the country faces to avoid taking steps that add fuel to the inflation fire.”