MORGANTOWN – Talks on the latest version of President Biden’s Build Back Better stalled this week after Sen. Joe Manchin expressed his concerns about record inflation and how the bill could worsen that.
Manchin issued a press release Friday that linked to his conversation that morning with MetroNews’ Talkline host Hoppy Kercheval. Also Friday, various groups fired off statements for and against Manchin’s position.
The scaled-down Build Back Better legislation – in the form of a reconciliation bill that would not require any Republican votes – included tax hikes on the wealthy and corporations, according to The Hill.
A Democrat insider told The Hill that Majority Leader Chuck Schumer wanted to include $375 billion for climate- and energy-related provisions in the package and offered Manchin several concessions.
Schumer committed that half of the revenue raised from tax reform would go toward deficit reduction and dropped a proposal to include tax credits for electric vehicles, The Hill reported. Schumer would support permitting reform and other measures to increase domestic fossil fuel production.
Manchin’s opposition to the original $2 trillion Build Back Better helped derail it last December. Following that, he told Talkline, he’s been in talks for months on a scaled-down version. But rather than pass something before the August recess, as Schumer was hoping for, Manchin wanted to wait to see the July inflation figures and how the Federal Reserve would respond with interest rates.
He had joined with Sen. Shelley Moore Capito on Wednesday to decry the most recent inflation figure: 9.1%, the highest since 1981. He doesn’t want to pass a bill, he said Friday, that would contribute to even more inflation.
“Inflation is absolutely killing many, many people,” he said. The country is $30.5 trillion in debt and the left wing of his party has moved opposite direction of President John F. Kennedy by now asking, “How much more can my country do for me?”
He said later his aims don’t aim at advancing party lines. “My main goal is what’s good for my country.”
Manchin said he favors running the portion of the bill allowing Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices. That would save $288 billion over 10 years. They could use $40 billion to extend Affordable Care Act premium subsidies for another two years and use the rest for debt reduction.
Action on tax hikes and climate policy can wait until the new inflation figures are out, he said. And he wants a sensible energy policy that develops clean carbon fuel technology, along with hydrogen, battery storage, advanced nuclear and geothermal.
The transition will take more than 10 years and we can’t abruptly cut off fossil fuels while the rest of the world is increasing fossil fuel use, he said.
Manchin said the Senate could have a bill ready to pass when it returns in September. Meanwhile, he’ll be seeking expert views on how proposed tax hikes on corporations and the wealthy might affect the economy.
“I want people to pay their fair share. I think corporations should pay their fair share, but I’ve got to be careful that corporations aren’t basically stymied to where they won’t invest, they won’t hire, they start laying off,” he said.
Groups react
Manchin’s actions caused pleasure for some and pain for others.
The West Virginia Coal Association praised Manchin. President and CEO Chris Hamilton said, “Excessive and expansive incentives for renewables and a potential phase out of fossil energy would quickly obliterate our state’s coal industry and the thousands of West Virginians who depend on the revenues from these jobs in West Virginia. Every day we hear warnings of possible brownouts and blackouts due to underperforming renewable power facilities and lack of energy infrastructure. The shuttering of U.S. coal-fired power plants across America has led us to this position.”
Various progressive groups bemoaned the stalled talks.
E2 (Environmental Entrepreneurs), said, “For the country, for our economy, for the planet, Sen. Manchin should reconsider. Yes, inflation is a problem. But so are the rising costs of climate disasters, which are now costing our economy $150 billion a year. … The budget reconciliation bill would make clean energy, electric vehicles, energy efficiency programs more affordable and more available to more Americans, while also helping blunt the rising costs of climate change and making our economy more secure.”
Perry Bryant, founder of the WV Climate Alliance, said, “Every day that we delay taking action on the climate crisis makes our weather more extreme and the implementation of solutions even more challenging. The country, and indeed the planet, need Sen. Manchin to negotiate in good faith on a bill addressing the climate crisis with the goal of keeping global warming below an increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius.”
And Eve Marcum-Atkinson, with WV Citizen Action Group, said, “The overall cost of building climate change resilient infrastructure, as well as the transition to a clean energy economy, can be paid for now. Tax minimums for millionaires and the elimination of zero-tax-paying loopholes for corporations are how we do this. … We need Sen. Manchin to fully embrace this now, as climate change is a now issue, a global issue. It’s not going away.”
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