Democrat strategist James Carville said Monday on CNN that President Joe Biden’s social spending agenda is not dead after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) announced he would not vote for the Build Back Better Act.
Carville said, “Build Back Better is dead, but build back differently is going to be very alive after the first of the year. They are going to get back, have a substantial agreement on things. Everybody needs a little cooling-off period. Look, it’s 50. A second-grade math teacher needs to go to Washington and explain the number 50 to people. You know, we didn’t do that well in these congressional and Senate elections, so we’re where we are. I think the president and Senator Manchin are going to be able to work this out. But for right now, we’re just going to put it on hold for a couple of weeks. But I have no doubt this thing is going to come back.”
He added, “I’m not a legislative mechanic. But it will contain many good things, and what stupid people need to do is stop talking about is what’s not in it when we get it and what’s in it. And by the way, we have had a good year economically — historically good year economically in this country. There is a piece in BusinessWeek by a guy named Matthew Winkler, a very good journalist. This has been a historic year in terms of some of the things we accomplished. And the biggest thing this president can do is keep this recovery going and fight this virus. And I think he can do both things, and I think we can get there. So I don’t think anything is dead right now at all.”
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