Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said Wednesday that "unbelievable" GOP wins in Virginia confirm his worries about rushing the Biden administration’s $1.75 trillion social spending plan through Congress, The Hill reported.
Manchin said Glenn Youngkin’s gubernatorial victory in a state President Joe Biden won by 10 points last year also underlines why the House needs to pass a bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure bill.
"It’s unbelievable to see what went on in Virginia, and not just from the governor’s race, but all the way down that ticket. A good bit of change has happened," Manchin said, referring to the state races for lieutenant governor and attorney general, The Hill reported.
"You can read so much into all of that last night. I think it should be a call to all of us. [We] have to be more attentive to the people back home," he added.
Manchin told The Hill he’s been "saying this for many, many months. People have concerns, people are concerned" about a spending spree that could jack up inflation.
"And for us to go down a path that we’ve been going and trying to accelerate it and it has been slowed down — I think we need to take our time and do it right," he said of social program spending.
According to Manchin, Democratic leaders can't ignore people's concerns about overspending and inflation.
"We need to be cognizant of that. We just can’t just say, Look we can do this, this, and this and it will take care of it. We’ve got to be very careful," he said, The Hill reported.
Democrats led by Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., have been been pushing to get the Build Back Better Act finished by Thanksgiving.
Democratic leaders plan to pass it without any Republican support under special budget reconciliation rules that allow them to circumvent a Senate filibuster, The Hill reported.
Manchin argues the GOP wave in Virginia and the close governor’s race in New Jersey make that strategy questionable.
"We have a divided country that needs to be united, and you can’t be unite it by just doing it by one-party system," he warned, The Hill reported.
Manchin also criticized secrecy around tax increases included in the reconciliation bill, despite assurances from Biden that tax hikes won’t affect people earning less than $400,000 a year, The Hill reported.
"We’re talking about revamping the whole entire tax code. That’s mammoth. We’ve had no hearings, no open hearings," he said, The Hill reported. "They’re scared to death."
"The House needs to really truly pass the infrastructure bill," he urged, the news outlet reported. "That’s something that’s proven."
Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
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