Free pre-K, Medicare expansion: What won’t happen with Build Back Better likely dead – By Michael Collins & Joey Garrison (USA Today) / December 19, 2021
WASHINGTON – Sen. Joe Manchin’s announcement Sunday that he won’t support President Joe Biden’s ambitious package to expand the nation’s social safety net and fight climate change could doom a series of initiatives that would benefit millions of Americans.
Free preschool. Subsidized child care. Medicaid expansion. Paid family and medical leave. Those initiatives and others could be in jeopardy if Manchin’s decision sinks the roughly $2 trillion Build Back Better bill.
Manchin, D-W.Va., said he concluded after months of behind-the-scenes negotiations with the White House that he cannot vote for the proposal, which is Biden’s signature domestic agenda.
“I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation. I just can’t. I’ve tried everything humanly possible. I can’t get there,” Manchin said on “Fox News Sunday.” “This is a no.”
