Senate Democrats Seek To Revive Slimmer Build Back Better Bill

Senate Democrats are making efforts to resuscitate President Joe Biden‘s Build Back Better social spending bill with concerns that if they don’t, the party will suffer in the midterm elections in November.

“Democrats win elections when we show we understand the painful economic realities facing American families and convince voters we will deliver meaningful change,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) wrote in a Times op-ed published on Monday. “To put it bluntly: if we fail to use the months remaining before the elections to deliver on more of our agenda, Democrats are headed toward big losses in the midterms.”

All 50 Democratic senators must unanimously vote for the bill to be able to pass it through the evenly split Senate. They have the tie-breaker in Vice President Kamala Harris.

The progressive Senators are focused on redrafting the bill so centrist Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin (West Virginia) and Kyrsten Sinema (Arizona) will get behind it.

“Sinema is unenthusiastic about tax hikes,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) said at a Kentucky Chamber of Commerce event last week.

“Hopefully that will be enough to keep this thing underwater permanently,” he added.

Manchin, on the other hand, is an adamant supporter of raising taxes on large companies and the rich. He also wants to give the federal government a voice in the prices of prescription drugs. The senator has additionally shown hesitancy regarding provisions to ensure that all cars sold after 2030 are electric-powered.

Manchin and Sinema don’t see eye-to-eye on the tax issue, but Democrats can’t afford to lose either of their votes.

“We’ll just see if there’s a pathway forward,” Manchin told reporters last week. “We don’t know if there’s a pathway forward yet.”