Why Manchin And Democratic Leaders Might Not Be Quite So Far Apart
HuffPost
It depends on whether Manchin cares about the bill's sheer ambition or just its increase in federal spending.
Intense negotiations over the Democratic Build Back Better legislation are now underway again, following a week of congressional finagling on Capitol Hill. And that has everybody focused on the legislation’s price tag.
The original proposal from President Joe Biden and party leaders allocated about $3.5 trillion over 10 years toward a variety of purposes including subsidies for electric vehicles, programs for young children and the elderly, and expansions of health insurance coverage.
A very small handful of conservative Democrats have said that $3.5 trillion is too much; Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.), has said explicitly that he would prefer shrinking it to $1.5 trillion.