Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., a key holdout on Democrats' reconciliation package, on Friday said he would reconsider President Joe Biden's tax and climate plan in September after seeing July inflation data and what the Federal Reserve does next, though the White House said it would not "negotiate in public as it comes to climate change and the president's climate change plan and how he’s going to get there."
"The president has always been very clear that he's going to use every tool in his toolbox, every authorities that he has to make sure that we deal with the climate crisis that we are currently in, but as far as the negotiations, I'm just not going to say much more about that in public," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said reporters when asked for a reaction to Manchin’s latest move, reports The Hill.
Manchin on Friday said he told Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer he would oppose an economic measure they have been negotiating if it includes climate or energy provisions or boosts taxes on the rich or corporations.
"I said, 'Chuck, can we just wait until the inflation figures come out in July?" Manchin said on "Talkline with Hoppy Kercheval" on West Virginia broadcast station MetroNews. "He took that as no, I guess."
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.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.