Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Blasts Manchin For Nixing Build Back Better

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) has publicly criticized Sen. Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) after he announced on Sunday that he would not support President Joe Biden‘s social safety net bill known as the Build Back Better Act.

On Sunday, after months of negotiations, Manchin announced that he would not provide his support for the bill. His vote was necessary for the bill to succeed in the divided Senate, and his rejection has dashed the hopes of Democrats who wished to pass the legislation before the end of the year.

The Build Back Better Act had already undergone major revisions at Manchin’s behest, including the reduction of the provisions for social spending and climate change reform. Provisions on infrastructure were also detached from the bill and passed in a separate legislation known as BIF, with the promise that Build Back Better would soon join it. After these revisions, Manchin has determined that he still will not support the legislation.

“The Senate must reconvene immediately and bring BBB to a vote regardless of Manchin’s statement,” said Ocasio-Cortez in a Tweet on Sunday, following Manchin’s announcement. “If they forced folks to go on record with BIF, they can force the Senate to go on record with BBB. We can take it up again next year too.”

Ocasio-Cortez also rebuked Manchin’s reasoning for the rejection. He stated that a main concern for his refusal to support the bill came from his expressed inability to justify it to his majority-Republican constituents of West Virginia.

“Despite my best efforts, I cannot explain the sweeping Build Back Better Act in West Virginia and I cannot vote to move forward on this mammoth piece of legislation,” he said in his statement.

“The idea that Joe Manchin says he can’t explain this back home to his people is a farce,” said Ocasio-Cortez. “It’s a farce in terms of plain democracy.”