While Senator Manchin has not publicly admitted he does not want a vote on the Build Back Better bill until December, it is clear that is what he would prefer, and here is the reason he wants to wait.
On Tuesday, Joe Manchin again called for the Debt Ceiling to be raised by the Build Back Better bill:
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said Democrats should use arcane budget rules to raise the debt ceiling if they can't get a deal with Republicans….
"If we can't do it, and they don't agree on that, Democrats have the responsibility, being the majority party right now, to do it through reconciliation," Manchin said.
Manchin's comments come after Congress approved a short-term debt limit hike that raises the nation's borrowing limit through roughly Dec. 3.
Back on October 4th, he called for the Debt Ceiling to be raised by the Build Back Better bill then too:
Manchin said that Democrats "shouldn't rule out anything," including a budget process that Democratic leaders have made clear they will not employ.
Speaking to reporters, Manchin also would not commit to the new timeline set by party leaders to find a deal on the social safety net expansion by October 31. And he sounded resistant to calls from progressives and other top Democrats to raise his $1.5 trillion price tag for the package, which many in his party view as too low to achieve key policy objectives.
Why does Manchin want the Debt Ceiling increase to be part of the Build Back Better reconciliation bill, fueling 2022 mid term TV commercials that practically write themselves? To make Democrats look bad for passing a spending bill, even if it is fully funded. Instead, he wants Republicans to be able to argue the bill “raised the National Debt by trillions of dollars” by including the Debt Ceiling increase in the same reconciliation bill, so he can say “there they go again, taxing and spending”. What this means is you can expect him to keep dragging this out more and more, adding more and more poison pills and demands, until surprise the Debt Ceiling is up again, and he wants it included.
Never mind that the Debt Ceiling increase is needed due to the Trump tax cuts and Covid-19 relief. Blaming it on Democrats by literally increasing the debt by trillions in Biden’s signature bill is exactly what Manchin and McConnell want so they can point to it in the future and remind Democrats how much they “increased the debt”, so they can argue for austerity and cutting spending in the future. Why would Manchin care he is helping Republicans defeat Democrats in the midterms, it’s not him. He’s not up for reelection until 2024, when he will likely steer clear of Biden, to try to win reelection.
The solution is fairly easy, force Manchin’s hand and do not pass the infrastructure bill until the text for the Build Back Better reconciliation bill is finalized, without the Debt Ceiling increase Manchin wants but won’t admit, at least at this point, that he is holding out to see if he can get included.