Manchin calls for "strategic pause" on $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill
CBSN
Democratic Senator Joe Manchin is calling for a "strategic pause" on the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill, citing concerns about the price tag and inflation, as the White House and other Democrats push for its passage.
Manchin's hesitation matters because the bill needs all 50 Senate Democrats to vote in favor for it to pass. Manchin voiced his desire for a pause on the bill at a West Virginia Chamber of Commerce meeting on Wednesday, then again in a Wall Street Journal op-ed Thursday. "Instead of rushing to spend trillions on new government programs and additional stimulus funding, Congress should hit a strategic pause on the budget-reconciliation legislation," Manchin wrote. "A pause is warranted because it will provide more clarity on the trajectory of the pandemic, and it will allow us to determine whether inflation is transitory or not. While some have suggested this reconciliation legislation must be passed now, I believe that making budgetary decisions under artificial political deadlines never leads to good policy or sound decisions."President Joe Biden said France was America's "first friend" at its founding and is one of its closest allies more than two centuries later as he was honored with a state visit Saturday by French President Emmanuel Macron aimed at showing off their partnership on global security issues and easing past trade tensions.
The Consumer Federal Protection Bureau last week launched an inquiry into what the agency is calling "junk fees in mortgage closing costs." These additional fees, involving home appraisal, title insurance and other services, have spiked in recent years and can add thousands of dollars to the final cost of buying a home.
Retired Maj. Gen. William Anders, the former Apollo 8 astronaut who took the iconic "Earthrise" photo showing the planet as a shadowed blue marble from space in 1968, was killed Friday when the plane he was piloting alone plummeted into the waters off the San Juan Islands in Washington state. He was 90.