Joe Manchin gave Fox News the exclusive. I am saying no to Build Back Better. He then gives the most disingenuous reason. 

Joe Manchin fails Democrats again

The Washington Post reported it as follows.

Manchin says he ‘cannot vote’ for Democrats’ $2 trillion spending package – The Washington Post

Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) on Sunday said that he could not support Democrats’ roughly $2 trillion bill to overhaul the country’s health care, education, immigration, climate and tax laws, dealing a potentially fatal blow to the final piece of President Biden’s economic agenda.

The statement of opposition amounted to the most forceful condemnation yet from the moderate Democratic holdout, who cited rising consumer prices, a growing federal debt and the arrival of a new coronavirus variant as reasons he could not supply his must-have vote to help his party adopt its signature spending package.

“I can’t move forward. I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation, I just can’t,” Manchin said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“I tried everything humanly possible,” he added of his negotiations with Democrats, including Biden. “I can’t get there. … This is a no.”

Manchin’s stalwart refusal immediatelythrust the bill, known as the Build Back Better Act, into fresh political peril. Without his support, Senate Democrats simply cannot move the sprawling measure through the narrowly divided chamber even using the process known as reconciliation, an intricate legislative tactic that allows the party to bypass a guaranteed Republican filibuster.

Joe Manchin claimed that he told the President and Democratic leaders about his decision. He blamed inflation, the deficit, and the price tag for not supporting the bill. Unfortunately, he never once spoke about the people helped by the bill.