A4 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27 , 2021
BY MIKE DEBONIS
AND JOHN WAGNERSen. Joe Manchin III started
his Tuesday in a downtown hotel
ballroom, trading stories with
one of Washington’s richest men
in front of a crowd of hundreds of
business leaders, journalists and
fellow politicians all scrutinizing
his every utterance for fresh clues
about the fate of the pending
trillion-dollar legislation pushed
by President Biden.
Afterward, he arrived at the
Capitol greeted by television
cameras, and when he strolled to
his of fice a few hours later, he was
accompanied — as is now typical
— by a chaotic pack of reporters
pressing for news and a clutch of
climate activists demanding he
abandon his fossilfuel-friendly
views.
Later — again in the full view
of reporters — h e huddled in the
Senate basement with his chief
antagonist, Senate Budget Com-
mittee Chairman Bernie Sanders
(I-Vt.), who has been sharply criti-
cal of Manchin’s effort to slash his
$3.5 trillion spending framework
by more than half.
Manchin (D-W.Va.) ended the
day much as he started it — in the
spotlight and at the height of his
power as a one-man pivot point
for an all-Democratic govern-
ment and a self-styled emergency
brake on what he has increasing-
ly characterized as a liberal agen-
da run amok.
“This position, I guess, I
wouldn’t w ish it on anybody,” he
told billionaire Carlyle Group co-
founder David Rubenstein at the
morning event staged by the Eco-
nomic Club of Washington — a
remark that skimmed over just
how eagerly and thoroughly he
has sought to shape Biden’s legis-
lative agenda to his liking.
Manchin is not alone in using
his leverage to shape the pending
legislation: Sen. Kyrsten Sinema
(D-Ariz.) has delivered equally
thorny ultimatums, albeit behind
closed doors, and dozens of other
lawmakers are looking to put a
personal stamp on the must-pass
domestic policy bill.
But none have turned their
influence into public spectacle
the way that Manchin has this
year, and none have openly
sought to distance themselves
from their party label as the West
Virginian has. Now — with Dem-
ocrats eager to strike a deal be-
fore Biden leaves for Europe this
week — Manchin’s machinations
have reached a crescendo.
Manchin spent his Sunday
morning at Biden’s home in
Wilmington, Del., hashing out
fine details over breakfast with
the president and Senate Majori-
ty Leader Charles E. Schumer
(D-N .Y.).
Then on Monday, he darted
from meeting to meeting, includ-
ing on climate policy — where
Manchin, chairman of the Senate
Energy and Natural Resources
Committee, has already scaled
back Democratic decarboniza-
tion plans — and then to a private
room at Cafe Milano, the George-
town power den, where he de-
clared himself “totally out of
sync” with his party to a group of
corporate bigwigs.
“I’m just trying to survive in a
very, very, very divided Congress
and a very divided country,” he
said there, according to accounts
from NBC and Politico reporters
who attended the dinner, after
declaring himself “totally out of
sync” with fellow Senate Demo-
crats. “And I don’t know how thisis going to work out, guys. I really
don’t.”
Describing his political philos-
ophy to Rubenstein on Tuesday,
Manchin said that while govern-
ment has a “moral responsibility
to take care of those who can’t
take care of themselves,” it
“should be my partner, not my
provider.” Where private industry
is willing and able to step in, he
said, government should step
back.
While those views may be out
of step with an increasing liberal
Democratic Party, Manchin also
delivered a general vote of confi-
dence in its de facto leader: “I
support Joe Biden. I really think
he was the right person at the
right time. We just got to balance
things out.”
Manchin has weighed in on
virtually every aspect of the
sprawling domestic policy bill
known as Build Back Better that
represents Biden’s best chance to
enact major legislation ahead of
the 2022 midterms.
A power utility penalty-and-in-
centive framework known as the
Clean Electricity Performance
Program has already been dis-
carded because of Manchin’s op-position, and other climate provi-
sions — including a methane tax
— appear to be on the chopping
block. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand
(D-N .Y.) and others scrambled
this week to salvage a paid family
leave program after Manchin
balked, while his objections
threw plans to expand Medicare
and Medicaid into serious doubt.
On Tuesday, Manchin threw a
new wrench into the gears when
he announced at the Economic
Club event that he had single-
handedly vetoed a key Democrat-
ic proposal to increase tax rev-
enue by requiring banks to report
a much wider swath of financial
activity to the IRS. That would
give the federal government pow-
erful new tools to combat tax
evasion, potentially raising hun-
dreds of billions of dollars over
the coming decade for spending
proposals, but it has fueled politi-
cal attacks from Republicans who
say it amounts to IRS “snooping”
in innocent taxpayers’ bank ac-
counts.
Manchin said he told Biden in
the Sunday meeting that any such
reporting requirement — even
restricted only to accounts of
$10,000 or more — would be a redline.
“I said, ‘Do you understand
how messed up that is? To think
that Uncle Sam’s going to be
watching?’ ” he told Rubenstein.
“And so [Biden] says, ‘I think Joe’s
right on that.’ So I think that was
going to be gone.”
The declaration hit Capitol Hill
as yet another bolt from the gods
— a surprise attack from a mercu-
rial lawmaker who, to some col-
leagues, has randomly swung a
meat ax at their policy agenda.
Manchin, however, has toed
the party line on other aspects on
the package. He has supported
increasing tax rates for corpora-
tions and wealthy individuals,
and he is also backing an effort to
force pharmaceutical companies
to negotiate with Medicare over
the billions of dollars in costs that
taxpayers foot annually for pre-
scription drugs. (It’s Sinema, not
Manchin, who has thrown those
provisions into doubt.)
For some liberal Democrats,
the fact that a single senator has
been able to rein in what they and
Biden have billed as a once-in-a-
lifetime chance to address the
climate crisis and improve the
lives of poor and middle-class
Americans has been a bitter let-
down.
“I think we’ve given, you know,
a lot of oxygen to that, and I don’t
think we’re giving enough oxygen
and daylight to the hardship and
the struggles that the American
people are experiencing right
now,” Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-
Mass.) said w hen asked about
Manchin’s influence.
But others have been more
forbearing of the 74-year-old for-
mer West Virginia governor, who
spent three decades navigating
though Mountain State politics
before succeeding the late Robert
C. Byrd in 2010 — and adhering to
a backslapping, aisle-crossing ap-
proach to business in a chamber
where power was increasingly
wielded only through sharp-
edged partisan tactics.
During Donald Trump’s presi-
dency, for instance, Manchin vot-
ed to confirm more Trump Cabi-
net nominees than any other
Democrat and, at least for a time,
entertained voting for Trump’s
tax-cut bill. He’s a fixture of bipar-
tisan “gangs” that have assem-
bled to tackle sticky issues, and
he’s firmly opposed changingSenate rules to sideline the mi-
nority party. The approach has
allowed Manchin to win three
elections in what has become an
overwhelmingly Republican
state, one that voted for Trump
over Biden by 39 points in 2020.
“We’ve known that Joe has
differences with the rest of the
caucus. None of this is a big
surprise,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-
Conn.) said. “I mean, is it frustrat-
ing to have no margin of error in a
50-vote majority? Sure. But I
think all of us knew what we were
in for .”
Manchin’s eagerness to chip
away at his own colleagues’ legis-
lative priorities — and his in-
creasingly prominent status as a
nemesis of the political left — h as
fueled new speculation that he
might abandon the Democrats
altogether. Similar rumors
swirled during the Trump admin-
istr ation, when Manchin was
bri efly considered for a Cabinet
post, Democrats were stuck in the
Senate minority and Republicans
were eager to pad their thin
majority.
Following a report in Mother
Jones magazine that he had dis-
cussed a potential party switch,
Manchin acknowledged last
week that he offered to become
an independent — like Sanders
and Sen. Angus King of Maine —
while continuing to caucus with
Senate Democrats, only to be
dissuaded by his colleagues.
In fact, Manchin has made
clear in his deeds and words that
he would be no more comfortable
as a Republican than he is as a
Democrat. During Trump’s presi-
dency, he was sharply critical of
the party’s efforts to repeal
health-care coverage and cut tax-
es on the rich. He twice voted to
impeach Trump and has ex-
pressed deep qualms about the
Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — and
the refusal of GOP leaders to
support an independent commis-
sion to investigate it.
“Do you think by having a D or
an I or an R is going to change
who I am?” he told Rubenstein on
Tuesday. “I don’t think the R’s
would be any more happier with
me than the D’s are right now.”
[email protected]
[email protected]Jacqueline Alemany contributed to
this report.Manchin distances from his party while shaping its agenda
JABIN BOTSFORD/THE WASHINGTON POST
Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), who has forced Democrats to pare back a social spending package,
told reporters that he is “just trying to survive” in a d ivided Congress and a divided country.back to the drawing board.
In response, party lawmakers
on Tuesday fine-tuned a new plan
to tax billionaires’ assets based on
their market gains, a move that
could raise hundreds of billions of
dollars from about 700 of the
country’s wealthiest Americans.
But the emerging proposal from
Sinema, Warren and Wyden soon
raised early alarms among Demo-
crats, including Rep. Richard E.
Neal (Mass.), the leader of the
House’s tax-focused Ways and
Means Committee, who has said
that it might not raise as much as
its supporters hope.
“We’ll have to see,” Neal told
reporters, a day after he suggest-
ed the idea could face legal chal-
lenges. In a l ater exchange, House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)
said she is awaiting details as to
how much money it can actually
raise. “We haven’t seen it,” she
said.
Yet other Democrats saw early
signs for hope: Wyden, Warren
and others including Sen. Angus
King (I-Vt.) on Tuesday also un-
veiled a plan to impose a mini-
mum 15 percent tax on corpora-
tions, seeking to address the fact
that some of the most profitable
firms use creative means to lower
their burdens to zero. Sinema
endorsed the plan Tuesday, call-
ing it a “common sense step.”
With so much unresolved, lib-
eral Democrats have opted to
hold firm in their earlier political
threats: They have refused to
budge and allow the House to
advance a bipartisan infrastruc-
ture proposal that contains new
investments to fight climate
change. Even as Biden has sought
to tout those very provisions in
Glasgow, Scotland, the site of a
global climate summit starting
Sunday, liberal Democrats see it
as leverage to secure additional
aid to respond to global warming.
Jayapal reiterated the threat
Tuesday, telling reporters after a
meeting with Pelosi that some
lawmakers in her bloc of roughly
100 do not believe a verbal or
written deal with Manchin and
Sinema is enough to assuage their
concerns.
“In an ideal world, we would
vote on both of them this week-
end,” Jayapal said. “I would love
that. But we have to have an
agreement on what it is, so it can
be written up, and then we can
vote both of those through.”
[email protected]and eyeglasses,” Sanders told re-
porters, without acknowledging
if it is a red line for him.
Lawmakers also continued to
work out their differences over
other health-care priorities, in-
cluding a proposed expansion of
Medicaid benefits to states that
did not choose to do so when the
federal government offered a re-
tooled program under former
president Barack Obama. And
they kept haggling over the best
ways to reduce carbon emissions,
especially after Manchin opposed
an earlier plan to pay power
producers to switch to clean en-
ergy and penalize those that did
not — an idea that once formed
the basis of Biden’s planned pitch
globally to reduce carbon emis-
sions.
As they warred over the core
spending proposals in the pack-
age, Democrats similarly forged
ahead in their quest to rethink
how to pay for it. Biden previously
has sought to unwind the tax cuts
imposed under President Donald
Trump, yet Sinema has vehe-
mently opposed such rate in-
creases — forcing lawmakersafter Biden agreed to reduce the
benefits that they seek to provide
Americans to four weeks from an
original 12 weeks. Manchin has
opposed the program, prompting
a renewed effort from Sen.
Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), an
advocate for paid leave, to try to
craft a compromise.
“I’m optimistic we can contin-
ue to work together on a proposed
solution,” she said on Tuesday,
declining to offer specifics be-
yond saying they are pursuing a
“new idea.”
Another effort to expand Medi-
care benefits similarly appeared
in jeopardy. Democrats, led by
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the
architect of the party’s spending
blueprints, had hoped to offer
new dental, vision and hearing
benefits to American seniors. But
Manchin has raised cost concerns
with the idea, forcing Democrats
to weigh a wide array of alterna-
tives — from cutting benefits to
eliminating the provision entirely
from the still-forming bill.
“A serious reconciliation bill
must include expanding Medi-
care to cover dental, hearing aidsManchin in particular saying the
amount should be slashed by
more than half.
In recent days, Democrats have
signaled the package could total
between $1.75 trillion and
$1.9 trillion, with many party
lawmakers anticipating it is like
to fall lower on the range. Man-
chin, meanwhile, appeared to
sug gest Tuesday an openness to
spending more than the $1.5 tril-
lion maximum he initially out-
lined, even as he repeated his
belief at an event in Washington
that Congress already has spent
too much money this year, includ-
ing as part of a $1.9 trillion
coronavirus aid package adopted
in the spring.
“I don't know for sure, we’re all
negotiating,” he said at the Eco-
nomic Club of Washington, add-
ing: “I think 1.5 was more than
fair since we just did 1.9.”
But Democrats nonetheless
continued to haggle over the
number — along with the poten-
tial cuts they may have to make to
bring their package down to size.
Disputes continued to plague
the party over paid leave, even“Build Back Better” tax-and-
spending proposal, a sweeping
effort to overhaul federal health-
care, education, climate and tax
laws that shares the name of his
2020 presidential campaign slo-
gan. But Biden and his Democrat-
ic allies still have considerable
work on the horizon to finalize
the initiative and bring it to the
House and Senate for a final vote,
a reality some Democrats ac-
knowledged even as they sound-
ed a fresh optimistic note Tues-
day.
“We all know we need to do
something promptly,” said Sen.
Tim Kaine (D-Va.), adding there
are still issues to be addressed.
“We want President Biden to be
able to go to the [Group of 20
summit] and the climate summit
with deliverables that are reflec-
tive of his values and ours, too.”
“I think we'll get there,” he
said, “but we 're not there yet.”
By Tuesday, Democrats had yet
to se ttle on a final price tag for the
package, which they once valued
at $3.5 trillion. Sinema and Man-
chin for months have demanded
steep cuts to its total cost — with“We’re still working, and we
are closer to reaching a final
agreement,” said Senate Majority
Leader Charles E. Schumer
(D-N .Y.) said after meeting with
his caucus at a l unch Tuesday.
“We will get it done soon.”
For now, though, the persistent
battles only continued to bog
down Democrats’ signature eco-
nomic initiative. And they raised
new obstacles for the future of a
second, separate measure to im-
prove the nation’s roads, bridges,
pipes, ports and Internet connec-
tions. The la tter proposal cleared
the Senate in August, but it re-
mains imperiled in the House,
where left-leaning lawmakers on
Tuesday maintained that they
will not vote on one without the
other — raising the odds that a
resolution on Biden’s agenda
could slip by another week.
“There are still several issues
that are not done,” said Rep.
Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the
leader of the Congressional Pro-
gressive Caucus. She added there
are “dozens of our members” who
are prepared to vote against an
infrastructure bill unless they can
have a vote on the same day on
their other spending initiatives.
The standoff instead illustrat-
ed anew the perils of governing in
a ti me of narrow majorities.
Biden may appear to enjoy a
moment of rare power in Wash-
ington, where the House, Senate
and White House all are in Demo-
cratic hands. But his party’s div i-
sions are many, and distrust
among its members remains
high, making the process of shep-
herding the president’s economic
vision into reality all the more
complicated.
Ahead of his foreign trips start-
ing later this week, Biden has
intensified his outreach to Capi-
tol Hill, hoping to secure new
spending as part of a broader
push to tout Washington’s com-
mitment to combating global
warming on an international
stage. He met with some Demo-
crats at his private residence in
Delaware this weekend and hud-
dled with others at the White
House on Tuesday, and Biden
administration officials then met
late into the evening with two
moderate holdouts, Sinema and
Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.).
The outreach has helped close
some of the gaps around his
SPENDING FROM A
Democrats stuck on health care and paid leave but make progress on taxation
Estimated distribution of $500 billion raised over 5 years in one scenario
of a proposed billionaire taxTHE WASHINGTON POSTA proposed billionaire tax could raise much of its revenue from just the 10 wealthiest Americans
Estimated taxes paid by the 10 wealthiest Americans over 5 years in one
scenario of a proposed billionaire taxNotes: The analysis assumes all current public shares owned by founders in their own companies are taxable, other marketable assets such as stakes in other companies are taxed at a basis of 50 percent of the
current market value, inherited assets are taxed with a basis of 25 percent of market value and private companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin are exempt.
Sources: Gabriel Zucman; Bloomberg Billionaires Index (as of Oct. 24)Elon
MuskJeff
BezosLarry
PageMark
ZuckerbergSergey
BrinLarry
EllisonWarren
BuffettBill
GatesSteve
BallmerJim
Walton$50B$44B$29B $29B$28B$27B$25B$19B$13B$12BJim WaltonWarren BuffettSteve BallmerLarry EllisonSergey BrinMark ZuckerbergLarry PageBill GatesJeff BezosElon Musk$
billion50 100 150 200 250TAX: $50B444444191919292929292929282828272727131313252525121212About 700 other
billionaires
subject to the taxOther wealth Taxable gains$224B