Biden, Manchin set to resume talks over Build Back Better Act

Yahoo Finance's Rick Newman details how President Biden and Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) are set to resume negotiating the terms of the Build Back Better Act and which components of the plan Democrats are especially pushing for.

Video Transcript

AKIKO FUJITA: Let's bring in Yahoo Finance's Rick Newman who's been following the months long discussion, a very drawn-out debate that didn't lead to much last year. What's changed in the new year?

RICK NEWMAN: Well, let's review. Manchin said at the end of December, he just could not vote for the Build Back Better legislation as it was written in Congress. And he was the needed 50th vote, so the Democrats couldn't pass it. So Manchin has actually indicated what he would be willing to vote for. Basically, it's take out that child tax credit. Either take that out or keep it included, but provide the funding to keep it in place for, let's say, 5 to 10 years, something that looks less gimmicky than just a one year extension of that tax credit. So if that's the way the legislation goes, though, that's going to upset other elements within the Democratic Party who insist that that child tax credit has to be in there.

So the real question is whether President Biden can just get Democrats on the same page. I mean, there are a number of things that I think all Democrats could agree on in that legislation-- climate change funding, for example, green energy transition, funding for that. But it's getting everybody to agree to give up some things. And that's what it's going to take to get this over the finish line.

We're probably not even going to get to this, though, until late January because in the meanwhile, Democrats are going to be trying to pass election reforms that really have no chance of passing for all the reasons we're familiar with. It will get no Republican support. There's not enough votes to get rid of the filibuster in the Senate and so on. So the short story here is Congress is not going to be accomplishing much anytime soon.

ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah, Rick, just to hit on that filibuster point one more time, I mean, that's another thing that it sounds like Senator Manchin not in favor of. And for, I guess, a refresher for some of our viewers out there, what that even means, I mean, how impactful is that in terms of deadlocking anything that maybe more progressive Democrats wanted to get done?

RICK NEWMAN: Right. Look, nothing is going to change on the filibuster. It's a big story in Washington, DC, if there seems to be a little movement this way or that way. I think ordinary people can just completely ignore that because nothing is going to change. The filibuster, again, requires 60 votes to basically to pass legislation. And because Democrats only have 51 votes, they can't get anything done unless they get at least nine Republican votes. You know, they did-- let's remind everybody, they did pass an infrastructure bill that did get some Republican votes so it did overcome the filibuster. So it's possible to do that.

Democrats just are not putting forth any legislation that has Republican support. So that is going to be the story for the rest of 2022. And I think it's important to point out that if Democrats don't get this Build Back Better legislation passed by, let's say, the first two or three months of the year at the most, then it's probably dead because Congress just does not get anything done really as we get closer to midterm elections. And members of Congress, basically, they want to be campaigning, not passing legislation that might be controversial.