Democratic Senator of West Virginia, Joe Manchin, has pledged to vote against the expensive $3.5 trillion economic package that Democrats want to try and pass in the Senate with only 50 Democratic votes and not a single Republican vote.
The West Virginia Senator says that there is no way that he can currently support the legislation with the corporate tax rate increase and the price tag in general. Manchin said the additional $3.5 trillion is unnecessary because Republicans and Democrats have already spent more than $5.2 trillion with stimulus packages and economic relief packages.
Nancy Pelosi set strict deadlines for the economic package and Joe Manchin is now saying that he wants to slow everything down and evaluate where the country truly is before deciding to spend anymore money. This likely means that Nancy Pelosi’s deadline at the end of September will not be met.
Democrats are fearful that they will run out of time at the end of 2022 to get their agenda through congress because it is increasingly likely that Republicans will take over the House of Representatives with a new majority after the midterm elections. Some political analysts are even speculating if it’s possible that Republicans could win the Senate. If Democrats lose both majorities in congress, Biden would have to be considered a ‘’lame-duck’’ president and his agenda will likely result in gridlock.
Joe Manchin holds the key to Biden’s agenda and right now it doesn’t appear that he has much urgency in letting the expensive economic package pass along party lines in congress. Republicans are grateful that Manchin and a few other moderate democrats have enough sense to limit spending because the amount of debt that the U.S. government is currently dealing with could spiral into an unnecessary debt crisis if government spending doesn’t slow down soon.