Senate Democrats on Build Back Better: 'It All Comes Down to Joe' Manchin

Senate Democrats are reportedly feeling increasingly frustrated with Sen. Joe Manchin’s latest proposal of a trimmed-down version to President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better social and climate spending plan.

"It all comes down to Joe," one Democrat senator, who requested anonymity to discuss caucus frustrations, told The Hill. "He wants to keep changing things. The great mystery has been why is it so damn hard to have senators sit down and work out the details?"

Manchin, D-W.Va., is suggesting that his colleagues choose one 10-year program to concentrate on and allocate the other half of revenues raised from tax reform and prescription drug reform to reducing the deficit and fighting inflation.

"It just keeps adding up and up," Manchin told reporters. "To me, it’s all about inflation. Inflation is the No. 1 enemy we have in America today."

Manchin said the country has to "get its fiscal house in order" before greenlighting huge new spending plans; however, his position is creating friction with the progressives in his party who aren’t ready to let go of the bold reforms they’ve touted for more than a year, such as direct federal support for expanded access to childcare.

"If he wants to focus on an economic package, then he needs to remember childcare is an economic issue," Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., told The Hill when asked about Manchin’s latest, scaled-back proposal. "We have many, many, many parents at home today because they cannot get childcare."

"Let me point out, that affects inflation," she continued. "When you don’t have enough workers, then prices go up."

Leading the effort to pass funding for expanded access to childcare and universal prekindergarten, Senate Health Committee Chair Patty Murray, D-Wash., told The Hill that her priorities "are all part of dealing with inflation."

"We all understand that and we’re all fighting for it," she said. "What I feel very strongly is that Congress needs to address some of the costs that families are feeling today. Childcare is a huge part of that and it is a barrier for people to be able to go back to work so they can support their families in this challenging time."

Manchin, however, has questioned the argument that massive spending on new social programs will combat inflation by reducing costs.

"I’ve never found out that you can lower costs by spending more," he told reporters after Biden’s first State of the Union address Tuesday evening.

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