Sen. Joe Manchin on Tuesday demanded an immediate vote on the $1.2 trillion “bipartisan” bill after being summoned to the White House to meet with President Biden. The far-left House caucus has blocked a vote on the bill as leverage to ensure the $3.5 trillion reconciliation package is enacted into law.
“If we have the trust of each other, then we should be able to vote immediately on the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which is a tremendous piece of legislation for the president to take with him to Glasgow,” Manchin told reporters. Biden will depart for a foreign tour in late October.
Manchin is one senator on a long list congresspeople Biden is whipping in order to enact the largest welfare legislation since the 1960s, dating back to Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society.
To achieve his huge expansion of the federal government, Biden is attempting to bring the far-left and the more temperate Democrat senators in line with one another. Manchin currently opposes the reconciliation package over concerns the bill would create an enlarged entitlement state, while Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who met with Manchin on Monday about the package, is totally onboard with Biden’s radical agenda.
Far-left Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), however, told Politico Tuesday the White House does not hold much leverage over the infighting. “We’ll know the answer to that when we make it across the finish line and assess what we’ve got,” she said.
Tuesday afternoon, Biden will meet with Sens. Jon Tester (D-MT), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), and Mark Warner (D-VA), along with far-left and “moderate” House members.
“I’m going to be pushing the president to try to get it done from his side sooner rather than later,” Tester said before the meeting. Politico noted Tester believes Biden is not the only closer to enact the legislation but that the president “certainly is a big part of it.”
The White House stated Tuesday the talks are “coming closer to a path forward.”
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø
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