Photo: Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images
For: EFE
Saturday, November 23
Senator Manchin Refuses to Vote for Biden's 'Build Back Better' Agenda and Protecting Immigrants; sink democratic options
By denying his vote, Senator Joe Manchin (West Virginia) sinks the Democrats’ options to pass the economic package of the agenda ‘Build Back Better’ (BBB – Rebuild Better) that would provide protection for undocumented immigrants.
The biting senator said Sunday that he will vote against the $ 1 social spending package. 75 trillions of dollars defended by the president Joe Biden .
Experts who defend immigrants point out, however, that the US president is still could approve an executive order to protect the undocumented , although they recognize challenges in court by Republicans.
Manchin, the most conservative politician within the Democratic wing in the Senate, said in a speech on Fox News channel that he cannot “vote to continue this legislation “, although he claimed to have” trying everything humanly possible “to make it go forward.
“(President Biden) knows the concerns and problems I have had” , in Said Manchin, who from the beginning had always been very skeptical of this star measure by the White House, considering that it would skyrocket public spending and further increase the already very high inflation.
Biden’s plan, which was already approved by the House of Representatives in a tight vote in November, represents a historic expansion of public spending (it has come to be compared to the former president’s “New Deal” Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the years 30), especially in the fields of health, poverty child and the fight against climate change.
The vote of Manchin, who despite belonging to the Democratic Party represents West Virginia, one of the most conservative states in the country, it is essential to carry out the legislation in the Senate, divided into 50 % between Democrats and Republicans.
Democrats wanted to approve bar the plan without the need for Republican support -all conservatives have been against-, through a process known as “reconciliation” that allows a budget law to be carried out in the Upper House with a simple majority, instead of the 60 that are normally required.
Without Manchin’s vote, the Democrats, who only have 30 of the 100 seats, will not reach that threshold
After knowing the decision of the senator, his colleague ranks Bernie Sanders , from the most progressive wing of the Democratic Party, He said that the bill should continue its journey and be voted on in the ple not from the Senate for Manchin to “have to explain to the people of West Virginia why he doesn’t have the courage to stand up to the power of special interests.”