Biden’s Hopes to Get $1.75 Trillion Bill Passed This Year Dashed

Empty Shelves Joe;s attempts to pass a giant pork barrel social spending bill have been frustrated so far. (Flickr)

Biden’s Build Back Better Act won’t be finished or passed this year, as a key Democrat senator remains opposed to crucial provisions from the $1.75 trillion bill.

The development comes as a major blow to Sleepy Joe, as both the entire Biden administration and almost every single Democrat lawmaker in Congress was hoping to pass the lavish spending bill before Christmas.

‘Miles Apart’

The vital stumbling block to Build Back Better remains Democrat Senator of West Virginia, Joe Manchin.

In order to pass Build Back Better under the budget reconciliation procedure, circumventing the Republican filibuster, Biden and the Democrat Party need every single one of their 50 senators to vote in favor.

Manchin has been negotiating with the Democrat leadership, including with the White House. However, he remains adamantly opposed to the existing draft provisions on child tax credit.

Wednesday, December 15, is actually the last day when some 36 million American families are getting child tax credit payments from the IRS. The monthly payments in question started on July 15 and were slated only for the second half of 2021.

As the Democrat majority in the House of Representatives passed the 2,100-page Build Back Better bill, its provisions provide for an extension of the advance child tax credit payments to families throughout 2022.

Senator Manchin, who describes himself as a conservative Democrat, wants all of that gone. He is insisting these payments are causing inflation to spike further.

His logic is reasonable, considering that in November, the United States saw its highest inflation rate since June 1982.

Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia has remained one of the few voices of reason in the Democratic Party. (Shutterstock)

The failure to get all 50 Democrat senators on board – as none of the Senate Republicans will support the bill – led Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to delay the vote in the Senate, according to an NBC News report.

Biden himself negotiated with Manchin. Their positions on the provisions of Build Back Better remain “miles apart”, according to a report by the Daily Mail, which cited a person familiar with the negotiations.

Shifting to ‘Voting Rights Legislation’

On Sunday, the Senate adopted the National Defense Authorization Act for funding the Department of Defense, thus wrapping up the draft legislation list it must pass by the end of 2021.

When asked if Build Back Better could be passed by the end of this year, Sleepy Joe said this is “going to be close”.  Also on Wednesday, Schumer conveyed he was still going to work to bring the Senate to a position for voting on Biden’s $1.75 trillion social spending bill.

Schumer declared the so-called “voting rights legislation” – a so-called “Freedom to Vote Act” and “John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act” – is a top priority for the Democrat Party.

The passing of the voting rights legislation, however, remains conditional upon the Democrats’ ability to negotiate a “rules change” in order to circumvent the GOP filibuster and pass it with a simple majority.

The bills in question appear to be directed against the election security laws passed by numerous Republican-led states in the wake of the questionable 2020 election.

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