President Joe Biden’s signature legislation, the so-called “Build Back Better Act,” this past weekend was dealt a major blow due to U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) rejection of the $2 trillion bill.
Failing to gain the moderate Democratic senator’s support for Biden’s top legislative priority represented a significant loss for the majority party’s progressive social spending agenda.
During a Monday interview with Fox Business Network’s “Kudlow,” U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) gave his assessment of how the legislation met what many believe to be its demise.
Tuberville advised that most Republicans knew Manchin would not support the legislation and expressed astonishment over Democrats’ lack of understanding of where the West Virginia senator stood.
“[I]t’s amazing to me, most of us on the right have known for months Joe Manchin’s not going to vote for this. They kept changing it and he kept telling them ‘I’m not voting for that,’ they’d take it out and they’d put it back in,” said Tuberville. “It’s absolutely amazing. They don’t listen to anybody, they don’t listen to their own people. I call it the payback better bill because they want to payback everybody in this country that voted for them in terms of the woke mayors and governors.”
Alabama’s junior senator indicated that he would like to see Senate Republicans adopt the strategy of having the bill’s provisions voted on separately to place Democrats on the record showing which policies they support.
“You know, it’s absolutely amazing how we got to this point but we have got to come to some sense in this country,” he added. “I would love, being a first-year senator, I would love to take this bill and cut it out what 16, 17 ways, however many provisions they have in it, and let’s vote on it individually. Get them on record about the 100,000 more IRS agents or $550 billion in climate change provisions. Where’s that money going to?”
Tuberville continued, “I can’t believe there’s not more of these Democratic senators, Larry, that are standing up and saying ‘listen, I’m against this too,’ they don’t have the guts Joe Manchin does. Joe Manchin’s a hard-nosed guy from West Virginia. He understands his people. He’s not voting for Joe Manchin, he’s voting for the people of West Virginia.”
According to Tuberville, should Democrats continue to promote the bill, it would serve to benefit Republicans in the 2022 midterm elections due to the legislation’s unpopularity.
“What in the world are we doing passing a trillion dollars at a time on anything anymore? We are dead broke in this country. We should go back to $50 to $75 billion at least, no more than that – the limit on any bill and discuss it and go through regular order,” advised Tuberville. “None of this has gone through regular order, it’s a disaster. I kind of wish we’d keep talking about this for the next few months because they [Democrats] are losing voters right and left and rightly so because this isn’t for all Americans.”
Tuberville went on to express gratitude to Manchin for his opposition to the legislation. He also gave a nod to U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), who has bucked Democratic leadership by rejecting some of the caucus’ more progressive policy proposals.
“Thank goodness for Joe Manchin stepping up for the American people,” said the senator. “There was no one else on the Democratic side that would do that. Krysten Sinema stepped up and she’s the reason we don’t have a bunch of taxes in this. She said ‘I am not for taxing the American people.’ So thanks to her too. Those two have saved this country.”
Dylan Smith is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSmithAL
Don’t miss out! Subscribe today to have Alabama’s leading headlines delivered to your inbox.