Joe Biden’s gigantic social and climate spending plan is deadlocked. The text is blocked in the Senate by the sole voice of Joe Manchin, an “old school” Democrat.
With its 1.750 billion dollars, the “Build Back Better” plan is one of the flagship projects of the first year of Joe Biden’s mandate.
Adopted in November by the House of Representatives, it contains a range of social measures such as free school and meals for certain children, a reduction in the cost of childcare or even the extension of care covered by the ‘health insurance.
The climate component of the text provides for massive investments in “clean” energies, the restoration of ecosystems affected by climatic disasters or the ban on offshore oil drilling, authorized by Donald Trump.
Too expensive a plan
Problem, the text is blocked in the Senate by Senator Joe Manchin, yet from the same political side as his longtime friend Joe Biden. Due to the division of the Senate 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats, a single dissonant voice prevents the text from being adopted.
The elected centrist repeated Monday that he would not vote in favor of this “colossal” plan, too ambitious financially according to him. He fears an inflationary effect, considers that aid should be more targeted and raises the threat of the new Omicron variant. He also estimates that the project represents a real “risk” while the “appalling” debt of the United States has reached “more than 29,000 billion dollars”.
The White House blasted in a press release “a sudden and inexplicable turnaround” and a “violation” of Joe Manchin’s commitments.
Senator from West Virginia, a rural and mining state, Joe Manchin is one of the more conservative members of the Democratic Party. A practicing Catholic, opposed to abortion and marriage between same-sex couples, he had supported Donald Trump’s decision to leave the Paris Agreement and voted in favor of the highly controversial appointment of Brett Kavanaugh, accused of assault sexual, to the Supreme Court. But the elected official, who claims his independence, was also opposed to the ban on transgender people in the army wanted by the former president.