Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said on Monday that President Joe Biden's spending plan, known as the Build Back Better Act, needs ''a lot of changes,'' Breitbart reported.
He is also uncertain if the bill could be passed before Christmas, as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has said he hopes to do.
''I'm not skeptical. I'm just basically a realist. There's an awful lot there, and a lot of changes to be done, and you're throwing it at a time when it's very vulnerable in our economy,'' Manchin said.
He added that he doesn't know ''how you control inflation when there's the first year of spending is going to be quite large,'' contradicting Biden's assertion that the bill would reduce inflation.
The Congressional Budget Office found that the Build Back Better Act would amount to trillions of dollars in spending, and would cost $750 billion over the first five years. The CBO also found that the bill would add $367 billion to the deficit.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget found that if the programs and policies with sunsets do not expire, the bill would cost $4.91 trillion.
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