Advertisement
U.S. markets closed
  • S&P 500

    5,254.35
    +5.86 (+0.11%)
     
  • Dow 30

    39,807.37
    +47.29 (+0.12%)
     
  • Nasdaq

    16,379.46
    -20.06 (-0.12%)
     
  • Russell 2000

    2,124.55
    +10.20 (+0.48%)
     
  • Crude Oil

    83.11
    -0.06 (-0.07%)
     
  • Gold

    2,254.80
    +16.40 (+0.73%)
     
  • Silver

    25.10
    +0.18 (+0.74%)
     
  • EUR/USD

    1.0798
    +0.0005 (+0.04%)
     
  • 10-Yr Bond

    4.2060
    +0.0100 (+0.24%)
     
  • dólar/libra

    1.2640
    +0.0017 (+0.14%)
     
  • USD/JPY

    151.2390
    -0.1330 (-0.09%)
     
  • Bitcoin USD

    70,118.22
    -1,420.77 (-1.99%)
     
  • CMC Crypto 200

    885.54
    0.00 (0.00%)
     
  • FTSE 100

    7,952.62
    +20.64 (+0.26%)
     
  • Nikkei 225

    40,369.44
    +201.37 (+0.50%)
     

Manchin (D-WV) says he’s a ‘no’ on Biden’s Build Back Better plan

Yahoo Finance's Jessica Smith joins the Live show to detail Senator Joe Manchin's (D-WV) latest comments on whether he will be supportive of President Biden's Build Back Better plan as Democratic party leaders regroup over legislative negotiations.

Video Transcript

- Well, the concerns of the Omicron variant appear to be one thing that's hitting markets. Another thing, potentially, that is weighing on stocks this morning, the Build Back Better Act, busted, seems like by Joe Manchin. We've got our Jessica Smith in Washington covering that for us. And Jess, I would ask, first of all, how much of a surprise was this, that Manchin appears to have killed this bill?

JESSICA SMITH: Well, I think if you've been watching this carefully over the past few months, you've heard Senator Manchin repeatedly say that he has concerns with many of the provisions in the legislation, but I think it did keep or take the White House off-guard that he made this announcement on Fox News as they were negotiating with him, as they were continuing to work with him on a framework for or on an agreement for this legislation. This really is a huge blow to President Biden's agenda because every Republican opposes the Build Back Better plan, so the bill cannot pass without Senator Manchin.

This morning, Majority Leader Schumer said that the Senate will vote on the Build Back Better plan, and force every Senator to go on the record on the Senate floor, he said not just on television. He says the Senate will vote on a revised version of the bill that the House already passed, and then keep voting until they get something done. He said the Senate simply cannot give up. But again, as the bill stands right now, it's effectively dead without Senator Manchin's vote.

In a Fox News interview, he made that announcement, but then he went on to explain his rationale in a statement saying, "my Democratic colleagues in Washington are determined to dramatically reshape our society in a way that leads 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 hardworking American." He went on to cite fears about the cost of the Build, his opposition to energy provisions in it, and concerns about the new variant as reasons why he is opposed to it.

The White House issued a pretty blistering response saying the administration was working with Manchin, and his announcement was a, quote, "sudden and inexplicable reversal of his position in a breach of his commitments to the president and the Senator's colleagues in the House and Senate." They went on to cite economists who say that the plan won't have an impact on inflation in the short term and will actually ease price increases in the long term. Now, Senator Manchin's progressive colleagues are clearly very upset this morning. You've heard from people like Senator Sanders, who noted that Manchin voted for the annual defense bill, that was nearly $800 billion without concerns about the deficit.

And we're also hearing from that handful of progressives who voted against the bipartisan infrastructure bill earlier this year. They wanted to move both Build Back Better and the infrastructure bill together because they argued that if Senator Manchin got the infrastructure bill, which he wanted, he could then tank Build Back Better, and now this morning, they are saying I told you so, guys.

- Jess, can this bill be broken up and voted on in piecemeal?

JESSICA SMITH: You know, that's an idea that has been tossed around. But the problem for Democrats is they have a limited number of reconciliation bills, which allows them to pass this legislation with just Democratic votes, just 50 votes. And Republicans are uniformly opposed to this, so even if they did break up these provisions, they would need 10 Republicans to get on board and Senator Manchin, so that's not likely. But it sounds like Democrats are going to keep pushing for this, maybe vote on another slimmed-down version of this bill, start working on that sometime in the new year.

- Our Jessica Smith in Washington. Thanks so much, Jess. Appreciate.

Advertisement