明显受挫的参议员乔·曼钦(Joe Manchin)周一表示，众议院民主党人应该“停止玩弄”1万亿美元的两党基础设施法案，并告诉下议院的进步议员，“拿法案当人质”不会赢得他对1.75万亿美元社会支出计划的支持。

这位西弗吉尼亚州民主党人通过召开一次不同寻常的新闻发布会来强调他的反对意见，他暗示，就拜登的“重建得更好”计划达成协议——如果可能的话——需要更长的时间，尽管拜登和白宫希望在本周通过该计划，支持拜登的海外之行。

星期一，在一个应对气候变化国际会议，他吹捧该措施关于解决问题的规定。

众议院的进步人士一再拒绝支持两党基础设施法案——或者说“BIF”支持两党基础设施框架——以此为杠杆，确保他们的更多优先事项被纳入社会支出和气候政策法案，曼钦反对其中许多优先事项。

“政治游戏必须停止。现在众议院已经两次拒绝了向总统提交BIF法案的机会，”曼钦说，他呼吁众议院对该法案进行投票表决。“拿这个法案当人质不会让我支持和解法案。”

曼钦周一的讲话尤其引人注目，拜登登上了世界舞台，他的经济议程悬而未决。曼钦说，他正试图澄清自拜登上周四会见众议院民主党人以来——就在前往海外之前——对其立场的“错误描述”。

几分钟后，白宫新闻秘书珍·普萨基发表声明，反驳曼钦的担忧，并表示拜登入主白宫“有信心”他会同意。

她在声明中说:“参议员曼钦表示，他准备支持一项“重建得更好”的计划，该计划将抗击通胀，对财政负责，并将创造就业机会。“众议院正在敲定的计划符合这些标准——它得到了全额支付，将减少赤字，并降低医疗保健、儿童护理、老年人护理和住房成本。专家一致认为:17位诺贝尔奖得主的经济学家已经表示这将降低通货膨胀。因此，我们仍然有信心该计划将获得参议员曼钦的支持。”

曼钦说，他将继续真诚地寻找一个妥协的和解方案，但似乎呼吁进步人士不要让步。

“很明显，对我在国会的同事来说，妥协还不够好，”曼钦说，他指的是进步人士。“要么全有，要么全无。除非我们同意一切，否则立场似乎不会改变。适可而止。”

尽管政府一再表示，社会支出和气候法案的成本为1.75万亿美元，但曼钦表示，实际成本实际上要高得多，他称框架中的大部分内容为“预算噱头”和“空壳游戏”

为了降低更大法案的整体价格标签，民主党人比最初建议的时间更早地提出取消一些关键项目。例如，儿童税收抵免将只延长一年。患者保护与平价医疗法案时代的补贴将只延长三年，免费普及学前教育将是一项为期六年的计划。

“如果不彻底了解它将对我们的国债、我们的经济以及最重要的美国人民产生的影响，我不会支持一项如此重要的法案。”

他重申了他对通货膨胀、社会安全网项目破产和不断增长的国债的担忧。他反对扩大医疗保险，这是像伯尼·桑德斯这样的进步人士的一个关键优先事项。

曼钦说:“在不知道该法案将如何影响我们的债务、我们的经济和我们的国家的情况下，我不会支持和解立法，在我们完成文本之前，我们不会知道这一点。

德鲁·安格雷尔/盖蒂图像公司

2021年10月28日，美国国会众议员普拉米拉·贾亚帕尔(Pramila Jayapal)在美国国会大厦与美国总统乔·拜登(Joe Biden)和众议院民主党人会面时，与记者交谈。拜登总统将于周四上午与众议院民主党人会面，试图确保参议院通过的两党基础设施法案获得投票。

国会进步核心小组主席普拉米拉·贾亚帕尔在曼钦的新闻发布会后不久出现在美国有线电视新闻网上，她说众议院有望最快在本周通过基础设施法案和更大的社会支出法案。

但她在整个采访过程中多次重申，让曼钦参议员支持社会支出法案完全取决于乔·拜登总统。

“总统说，他认为他可以为这项法案获得51票。我们会信任他。我们将在众议院做我们的工作，让参议院做它的工作，但是我们厌倦了，你知道，只是...继续等待一两个人，”贾亚帕尔说，他指的是曼钦和另一位参议院民主党人、亚利桑那州的基尔斯顿·西内马。

当被问及她是否正在与曼钦进行任何直接对话以让他加入时，贾亚帕尔回答说:“我让总统进行这些对话。”

当被问及她是否对曼钦关于谈判充满“空壳游戏”和“预算噱头”的指控有所回应时，贾亚帕尔拒绝参与。

“我希望每一位参议员，包括那些想谈论我们在谈判中所处位置的人，都明白我们正准备通过众议院的一项法案，该法案将投资5550亿美元应对气候变化，大幅降低碳排放，以便我们能够实现总统正在谈论的减排目标，以及世界期待我们看到的目标。那是我们的工作，”她说。

Manchin deals heavy new blow to Biden's hopes for social spending, climate policy bill

A clearly frustrated Sen. Joe Manchin, dealing a new and heavy blow to President Joe Biden's hopes for getting his agenda passed, said Monday that House Democrats should "stop playing games" with the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill and told progressive lawmakers in the lower chamber that "holding the bill hostage" won't earn his support for the $1.75 trillion social spending package.

Stressing his objections by calling an unusual news conference, the West Virginia Democrat suggested it will take much longer to reach a deal -- if even possible -- on Biden's "Build Back Better" package, even as Biden and the White House were hoping for passage this week to back Biden while on his overseas trip.

On Monday, at aninternational conference on dealing with climate change, he touted the measure's provisions on fighting the problem.

House progressives have repeatedly withheld support for the bipartisan infrastructure bill -- or "BIF" for bipartisan infrastructure framework -- using it as leverage to ensure more of their priorities, many of which Manchin opposes, are included in the social spending and climate policy bill.

"The political games have to stop. Twice now the House has balked at the opportunity to send the BIF legislation to the president," Manchin said, calling for the House to hold an up-or-down vote on the bill. "Holding this bill hostage is not going to work in getting my support for the reconciliation bill."

Monday's remarks from Manchin are especially remarkable, coming with Biden on the world stage and his economic agenda hanging in the balance. Manchin said he's attempting to clarify "mischaracterizations" of his position he said have been made since Biden met with House Democrats last Thursday -- just before heading overseas.

Within minutes, White House press secretary Jen Psaki issued a statement countering Manchin's concerns and stating the Biden White House is "confident" he will go along.

"Senator Manchin says he is prepared to support a Build Back Better plan that combats inflation, is fiscally responsible, and will create jobs," her statement said. "The plan the House is finalizing meets those tests -- it is fully paid for, will reduce the deficit, and brings down costs for health care, child care, elder care, and housing. Experts agree: Seventeen Nobel Prize-winning economists have said it will reduce inflation. As a result, we remain confident that the plan will gain Senator Manchin’s support."

Manchin said he's continuing to work in good faith on finding a compromise reconciliation package but seemed to call out progressives on their lack of willingness to budge.

"It is obvious compromise is not good enough for my colleagues in Congress," Manchin said, referring to the progressives. "It is all or nothing. And the position doesn't seem to change unless we agree to everything. Enough is enough."

Though the administration has repeatedly said the social spending and climate bill costs $1.75 trillion, Manchin said the real cost is actually quite a bit higher, calling much of what he sees in the framework "budget gimmicks" and "shell games."

In order to bring down the overall price tag of the larger bill, Democrats have proposed sunsetting some key programs earlier than first suggested. The Child Tax Credit, for example, would be extended for only one year. Subsidies under the Affordable Care Act would be extended for just three years, and free universal pre-K would be a six-year-long program.

"I would not support a bill that is this consequential without thoroughly understanding the impact it will have on our national debt, our economy and most importantly of the American people."

He repeated his concerns about inflation, the insolvency of social safety net programs and the growing national debt. He's opposed to expansion of Medicare, a key priority for progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders.

"I will not support the reconciliation legislation without knowing how the bill will impact our debt and our economy and our country and we won't know that until we work through the text," Manchin said.

Congressional Progressive Caucus Chairwoman Pramila Jayapal appeared on CNN just moments after Manchin's news conference and said the House is on track to pass both the infrastructure bill and the larger social spending bill as soon as this week.

But getting Sen. Manchin on board to support the social spending bill is all on President Joe Biden, she reiterated multiple times throughout the interview.

"The president said he thinks he can get 51 votes for this bill. We are going to trust him. We are going to do our work in the House and let the Senate do its work, but we're tired of, you know, just ... continuing to wait for one or two people," Jayapal said, referring to Manchin and another Senate Democratic holdout, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.

Questioned whether she is having any direct conversations with Manchin to get him on board, Jayapal replied: "I'm letting the president have those conversations."

When asked if she had a response to Manchin's allegations that negotiations have been full of "shell games" and "budgetary gimmicks," Jayapal refused to engage.

"I hope that every senator, including those that want to speak about where we are in negotiations, understands that we are getting ready to pass through the House of Representatives a bill with $555 billion in investing in taking on climate change, bringing down carbon emissions significantly so that we can get to the reductions, goals of emissions that the president is talking about and that the world expects us to see. That's our job," she said.