Manchin’s Inflation Concerns Dampen Dem Hopes for Major Spending Plan – By Yuval Rosenberg (The Fiscal Times) / February 11, 2022
Democrats’ plans to resurrect some version of their Build Back Better social spending and climate package already appeared to be hanging by a thread, with some in the party acknowledging that they might have to shelve the roughly $1.7 trillion plan indefinitely while Congress turns to other items that will fill up the calendar for months. Thursday’s inflation report likely snipped a few more strands from that thread, making it even less likely that Democrats will be able to scrounge up the votes they’d need to pass a large and ambitious spending bill along the lines many in the party had envisioned.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who effectively killed the last version of the Build Back Better Act when he announced in December that he couldn’t support it, on Thursday reiterated his concerns about inflation and his view that now is not the time for sweeping government spending plans.
“For months, I have been ringing the alarm bell about inflation. Once again, we are witnessing that the threat of inflation is real,” Manchin said in a statement. “It’s beyond time for the Federal Reserve to tackle this issue head on, and Congress and the Administration must proceed with caution before adding more fuel to an economy already on fire. As inflation and our $30 trillion in national debt continue a historic climb, only in Washington, DC do people seem to think that spending trillions more of taxpayers’ money will cure our problems, let alone inflation.”
