Spanberger, Manchin hit Biden, progressives for massive reconciliation demands: 'Nobody elected him to be FDR'

Sen. Joe Manchin speaks to Fox News on impact of Tuesday’s elections on Biden agenda

Sen. Joe Manchin speaks with Fox News’ Bret Baier on the deep partisan divide on Biden’s spending blueprints on ‘Special Report’

Two high-profile moderate Democrats are hitting President Biden and progressives in Congress over their massive demands what spending should be included in Democrats’ reconciliation bill, noting that Democrats do not have the kind of majorities former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had when he passed his New Deal. 

“Nobody elected him to be F.D.R., they elected him to be normal and stop the chaos,” Rep, Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., told the New York Times Wednesday, regarding the president’s ambitious legislative agenda. 

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., echoed a similar point on CNN’s “New Day” Thursday morning. 

“We don’t have the numbers that FDR had or that Lyndon Baines Johnson had in order to get some major, major legislation done,” Manchin said on CNN. “So we have to come to realization what we have and deal in good faith that we can do at least something.”

U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) delivers remarks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., U.S. November 1, 2021.
(REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)

House Democrats released a new reconciliation bill text on Wednesday and are frantically working to vote on it potentially Thursday, Friday, or over the weekend. The bill text includes money for paid family leave, which Manchin says should not be included in the bill and instead should be passed separately. There’s a strong chance that even if the bill is passed through the House this weekend, that provision will be stripped in the Senate. 

Manchin said on Fox News’ “Special Report” Wednesday, “They’re working off the House bill. That’s not going to be the bill I work off of.”

Spanberger’s and Manchin’s comments come in the wake of a devastating loss for Democrats in the Virginia gubernatorial race. Some progressive Democrats have blamed moderates for not acting quickly enough or boldly enough on liberal policies and spending plans to fire up the Democrat base, while moderates say the lesson from Virginia is that Democrats should govern pragmatically from the middle. 

Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., speaking at a press conference sponsored by the Problem Solvers Caucus and the Common Sense Coalition at the US Capitol in Washington, DC. (Photo by Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

“This is not a center-left or a left country. We are a center, if anything a center-right country,” Manchin told CNN Thursday. “That’s being shown. And we ought to be able to recognize that.”

Manchin added on CNN: “Now we have a reconciliation bill which is only a partisan bill by our Democratic Party, and that’s holding up the other bills that were bipartisan that’s the problem we have and there has to be some good faith. But if you want someone to agree that I’ll sign off on everything you want and that’ll be the way it’ll come and if I do that you’ll pass the other two .. that’s not the way democracy works.”

Nevertheless, top Democrats appear ready to move the reconciliation bill in the House soon. 

“I’m hoping you guys don’t have plans for the next couple of days,” Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., said Thursday. 

President Biden speaks about the authorization of the COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5-11, in the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus on Nov. 3, 2021 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
(Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

“Everything’s moving forward in a very positive direction,” House Democratic Caucus Chair Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., added. 

But whatever comes out of the House is unlikely to excite Manchin – or potentially even House moderates who are aligned with him. Fox News asked Manchin Thursday whether the Penn Wharton Budget Model analysis of the reconciliation bill –  which is expected to show its real cost is nearly $4 trillion – concerns him.

“Of course it does,” Manchin told Fox News. “It should concern everybody.” 

Fox News’ Hillary Vaughn and Jason Donner contributed to this report. 

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