Game over. US Democratic Senator Joe Manchin said Sunday, December 19, that he would not approve Joe Biden’s gigantic “Build back better” plan. This refusal could spell the end of this program intended to transform America, by fighting in the process against global warming. “I can’t go any further”, declared on the Fox channel the elected official of West Virginia, who has been for weeks one of the main obstacles to this program of social and ecological reforms.
“I can’t vote for this”, added Manchin, citing in particular the rise in prices and the extent of the debt. “I just can’t. I’ve tried everything humanly possible, I can’t.”, he added. “It’s no”. Senator Manchin’s statements “are at odds with his discussions this week with the president, with White House staff and with his own public statements”, said the spokesperson of the executive, Jen Psaki, in a long press release in which frustration was evident.
This plan of 1,750 billion dollars notably provides for kindergarten for all, tax credits for American households and substantial investments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), the engines of global warming.
A few months ago, Joe Manchin, who made his fortune in coal – the most GHG-emitting energy – and who received numerous funds from the fossil fuel industry for his campaigns, had already obtained the elimination of the greenest measure of the plan, a program to encourage renewable energy. A political gesture which had earned him to be part of the list of “twelve bastards of the climate” from Journal The Guardian (in English).
After a first vote in November in the House of Representatives, where Democrats had overcome their internal differences between centrists, worried about the effect on the debt, and the left wing, which wanted to go further in spending, its adoption in Senate has been postponed in recent days. The Senate being divided (50 elected for each camp), any Democrat or affiliate has in fact what is akin to a veto on any bill if the Republicans close ranks.