President Joe Biden’s approval ratings cratered this August, when Americans watched in horror as his strategic and tactical errors led to the death of 13 U.S. armed service members.
Now that September is starting, it appears Biden’s domestic agenda is collapsing as well.
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West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday announcing his opposition to Biden’s $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill.
“Over the past 18 months, we’ve spent more than $5 trillion responding to the coronavirus pandemic. Now Democratic congressional leaders propose to pass the largest single spending bill in history with no regard to rising inflation, crippling debt or the inevitability of future crises,” Manchin said. “Ignoring the fiscal consequences of our policy choices will create a disastrous future for the next generation of Americans.”
Manchin’s adoption of conservative talking points on Biden’s spending spree causing the economy’s current inflation surge must be particularly galling for the White House.
Worse for Biden, Manchin’s opposition to Biden’s reconciliation bill will also likely kill Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure legislation. Progressives in the House of Representatives have promised not to vote for the infrastructure bill unless a vote for the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill is scheduled with it. A House vote on the infrastructure bill is scheduled for Sept. 27.
With Manchin now calling for a “strategic pause on the budget-reconciliation legislation,” there is no way the bill will be ready to be voted on by Sept. 27. It is entirely possible Biden will see his domestic priorities go down in flames just one month after the same thing happened to his foreign policy agenda.
