Government Spending

Joe Manchin Drives Final Nail Into Doomed 'Build Back Better' Plan. For Now.

Plus: The pragmatic approach to omicron is emerging, lumber prices are skyrocketing again, and more...

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rollcallpix141926 | Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Newscom
(Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Newscom)

Sen. Joe Manchin (D–W.Va.), who has spent months outlining various reasons why he does not support President Joe Biden's "Build Back Better" plan, said on Sunday that he does not support Biden's "Build Back Better" plan.

"I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation. I just can't," Manchin told Fox News in an interview. "This is a 'no' on this legislation."

In case anyone was still confused about where Manchin stands, the senator also released a lengthy statement helpfully explaining why he was driving the final nail into a proposal that has never enjoyed support from a majority of the U.S. Senate.

"My Democratic colleagues in Washington are determined to dramatically reshape our society in a way that leaves our country even more vulnerable to the threats we face. I cannot take that risk with a staggering debt of more than $29 trillion and inflation taxes that are real and harmful to every hard-working American at the gasoline pumps, grocery stores, and utility bills with no end in sight," Manchin said in that statement. He also pointed to the fact that the Congressional Budget Office says the bill would cost far more if many of its temporary provisions are made permanent, and accused the bill's supporters of trying "to camouflage the real cost of the intent behind this bill."

Congress is the sort of place where what is dead may never die, and there will almost certainly be attempts to resurrect parts of the "Build Back Better" plan next year or later. By Sunday night, Sen. Ron Wyden (D–Ore.) had already released a slimmed-down version of the proposal. But the White House's response to Manchin's comments on Sunday suggests that the negotiating well has been poisoned for now.

The "Build Back Better" plan has gone through several iterations this year. The current form is a $1.75 trillion package—though, as Manchin notes, the actual cost is more than double that when budget gimmicks are ignored—that would greatly expand the size of government to help defer the cost of child care, health care, and living in states with high taxes. It passed the House last month in a party-line vote.

It's certainly fair to point out—as some progressives have—that Manchin's fiscal conservatism is applied somewhat unevenly. Manchin was one of the 88 senators to vote last week in favor of the National Defense Authorization Act, which sets the Pentagon's budget at $770 billion next year. Even without any future increases—and those will definitely happen, no matter which party controls Washington—that means the Pentagon is on pace to receive about $7.7 trillion over the next decade.

Yes, it would be preferable for Manchin to apply this level of scrutiny to all spending decisions. Heck, it would be preferable for everyone in Congress (and the media) to scrutinize routine, recurring spending as closely as they've watched the crafting of the "Build Back Better" plan.

But Manchin's opposition to Biden's spending plan has been consistent for months. The Biden administration and its allies have done virtually nothing to address his primary objections: that the bill will add to America's unsteady pile of debt, and that its true cost is being hidden by gimmicks.

Still, Manchin's comments on Sunday set off the expected unhinged reactions. Jennifer Rubin, The Washington Post's nominally conservative columnist, declared democracy to be "hanging by a thread"—even though this seems like a pretty clear-cut example of the majority getting its way. Perhaps the true lesson here is that enacting sweeping policy changes with the smallest possible Senate majority, as Democrats are trying to do, is pretty difficult. That's by design!

Let's be clear about this. The "Build Back Better" plan's apparent demise is not the result of a breakdown in the democratic process or deliberate sabotage by the senator from West Virginia. What's been lacking for months is an affirmative case for the bill's passage that could convince 50 senators plus the vice president to support it. There was no moment in this entire year when the plan, in all its various forms and permutations, had the support of a simple majority of the U.S. Senate—the bare minimum required to pass bills into law.

In short, what Manchin said on Sunday didn't doom Biden's huge domestic spending plan. It was never anything but doomed. Manchin merely provided some closure.

FREE MINDS

A pragmatic approach to dealing with the latest COVID-19 surge is emerging. Here's what Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D), who continues to chart an independent course through the latest round of COVID-19 hysteria, told Meet the Press on Sunday:

The New York Times notes that Polis, along with Govs. Larry Hogan (R) of Maryland and Phil Murphy (D) of New Jersey, has been the most vocal in opposing new mandates and economic restrictions amid the surge of COVID-19 cases in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, the NFL announced a new testing and quarantine regime that effectively acknowledges COVID-19 is an endemic issue. That's a key shift—even if it happened only after the league was forced to postpone some games this weekend because an overwhelming number of positive tests left a few teams unable to field full rosters.

And it's a shift that may outline the way forward for the rest of America, too.

"Successfully navigating the next wave of the coronavirus pandemic requires charting a middle course—one designed with clear goals in mind: preventing deaths, protecting our hospitals from crushing caseloads, and keeping schools and businesses open. We can do this with the proven, effective tools we already have, while giving in to neither dismay nor dismissal," writes Ashish K. Jha, a physician and the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, in The Atlantic.

FREE MARKETS

Lumber prices are surging again due to inflation and supply chain issues, with the price for 1,000 board feet of wood doubling since November. The Wall Street Journal reports:

Lumber prices have a way to go before they threaten the records set in spring, when futures hit $1,711.20. Still, lumber prices with a comma were unimaginable before the lockdown, when mills were caught off guard by do-it-yourself and home-building booms and all the decks needed to facilitate outdoor dining.

Analysts and traders say conditions are ripe for prices to keep climbing through winter, as they often do ahead of the spring building season.

Another contributing factor: U.S. tariffs on lumber imported from Canada, which the Biden administration doubled last month.

QUICK HITS

• The New York Times published Pentagon documents related to more than 1,300 reports of civilian casualties caused by U.S. drone strikes in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria.

• Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.) and Cory Booker (D–N.J.) announced that they have tested positive for COVID-19.

• White House COVID-19 adviser Anthony Fauci says you'll be wearing masks on planes for the rest of your life:

• The new Spider-Man movie became the first film released during the pandemic to earn more than $100 million in its opening weekend. It pulled in nearly $250 million in the United States, the third-largest opening weekend in Hollywood's history.

• Oreo cookies are the secret weapon in New York City's new war on rats.

• Network Effect, Martha Wells' novel about a sentient artificial intelligence known by the cuddly nickname "Murderbot," was named best novel at the 2021 Hugo Awards, which annually honor the best science fiction writing. (A personal recommendation for Two Truths and a Lie, which won the Hugo Award for best novelette and is one of the most unsettling things I've read this year.)