Bernie Sanders criticizes Joe Manchin for opposition to Build Back Better bill

With US President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better social and climate infrastructure bill in the hands of the Senate, West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin recently expressed his opposition to the proposal. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders commented on Manchin’s public announcement of opposition.

Speaking on MSNBC Monday, Sanders ripped into Manchin following his opposition to the proposal that would require all 50 Democratic senators to vote in favor of. Manchin announced over the weekend that he would not be supporting the bill, which is already facing unanimous Republican opposition.

The West Virginia senator was also reportedly telling colleagues in private that he believes the funds received by his constituents from the child tax credit provision would be used to spend on drugs rather than on their children.

Sanders criticized Manchin’s comments, saying that people in West Virginia are in need of the provisions of the Build Back Better proposal. The Vermont progressive senator cited the need for West Virginians to have affordable prescription drugs, including expanded Medicare and Medicaid coverage that has hearing and dental.

Sanders added that if he were the one voicing his opposition to the bill, Manchin would criticize him harshly.

“In the caucus, as everybody knows, there’s a wide diversity of opinion from progressive to pretty conservative. But what is troubling to me is that you have two senators who are not just prepared to fight for their ideas but they have said, ‘It’s my way or the highway, If you don’t do what I want, Mr. President or members of the Democratic caucus, I’m walking away from here,’ and that is an arrogance I think is unacceptable,” Sanders told host Rachel Maddow, also indirectly referring to Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema.

One of Manchin’s reasons why he said he could not vote for the Build Back Better bill was that he did not know how to explain the piece of legislation to his constituents. Manchin also cited the national debt, the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, and inflation as his reasons for opposing the bill.

During his appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday, Sanders told host Jake Tapper that Manchin voted in support of the high military defense budget but would not support a piece of legislation that would cost a fraction of the military spending. Sanders also challenged Manchin’s reasons for not supporting the bill by calling to conduct a poll that would ask the residents of West Virginia whether or not they support the healthcare provisions of the bill.