Sen. Joe Manchin has offered Democrats hope that he still could support President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better legislation, Politico reported.
The West Virginia Democrat, who Sunday said he would not back the roughly $2 trillion social spending and climate bill, has been lauded by Republicans for sticking to his principles of not adding to the deficit and not increasing spending amid rising inflation.
However, Politico reported Monday that Manchin wants the legislation to go through Senate committees and focus on rolling back the 2017 tax cuts signed by former President Donald Trump.
Manchin has said that the only reason during the summer he voted for a $3.5 trillion budget resolution — that paved the way for Democrats to continue negotiating the spending bill — was because he was so eager to “to fix the taxes so that everybody paid their fair share,” Manchin told MetroNews “Talkline.”
“We have one chance at this, OK? You have a chance to fix the tax code that makes it fair and equitable,” Manchin said, Politico told MetroNews. “So, if we all disagree with Republicans’ reconciliation on tax cuts, don’t you think we can sit down and fix a fair and equitable tax code?”
Doing that, however, could move another moderate Democrat into the spotlight. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., has opposed the rate increases on corporate taxes and taxes on the wealthy that Manchin supports.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, recently discussed the Trump tax cuts during an interview on CNBC. He addressed Democrat accusations that the tax cuts under Trump weren’t paid for, and that Republicans are too tax friendly toward wealthy Americans.
“Well, sure, one’s good for the economy, one’s terrible for the economy,” Cruz told “Squawk Box.”
“If you look at the 2017 tax cut, that tax cut was focused on jobs. It was focused on reducing tax cuts on job creators. And the purpose of it was to create more jobs, to drive up wages, to bring manufacturing to America, and it worked extraordinarily well.”
Cruz mentioned that 2018 saw the lowest rate of unemployment in 40 years and the lowest rates of both African American and Hispanic unemployment ever recorded.
“When we cut taxes in 2017, the next year federal tax revenue went up, and the next year federal tax revenue went up, and it went up every year after that,” Cruz said. “So, it generated more revenue because of growth and economic productivity and more jobs.”
Manchin has not guaranteed supporting the Build Back Better bill even with potential changes.
