Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia warned lawmakers about skyrocketing inflation on 10 November, arguing that the threat posed by the recent trend to the American people is by no means "transitory", as the Federal Reserve previously claimed, but is instead getting worse.
"From the grocery store to the gas pump, Americans know the inflation tax is real and D.C. can no longer ignore the economic pain Americans feel every day", tweeted the Democratic lawmaker.
Earlier, the West Virginia senator and a group of Democratic House moderates signalled that they would not vote for the president's $1.75 trillion social spending package until the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) weighs up the true cost of each of Biden’s Build Back Better programmes, as well as the tax plans to fund them.
Axios noted, citing sources familiar with the matter, that the "red-hot inflation data validates the instinct of Senator Manchin to punt President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda until next year". This could pour cold water on the Democrats' plan to pass the social spending bill in both chambers by 25 November 2021.
Last week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer asserted to the press that Democrats aim to pass the social spending bill by Thanksgiving. For his part, President Biden told reporters on 6 November: “I feel confident that we will have enough votes to pass the Build Back Better plan".
The $1.75 trillion bill is a revamped version of the president's earlier $3.5 trillion spending package. While the Democratic Party chose to pass the bill through reconciliation process to sideline their Republican peers outraged by the president's "spending spree", moderate Democrats forced Biden to slash the bill's price tag by slightly less than a half.
With Republicans showing little if any support for the president's Build Back Better plan, the Dems could currently lose up to three Democratic votes for the spending bill in the House and zero party votes in the evenly split Senate. Senator Manchin may potentially push the pause button on the president's plan, according to Axios' sources.
2022: Why Dems are 'No Longer Safe'
Biden's Build Back Better bill is seen as more than a mere legislative initiative: it is part of the Democratic Party's 2022 midterm campaign. Previously, a number of American observers suggested that a Democratic candidate's resounding defeat in the Virginia gubernatorial race could be partially explained by the Democratic Party and the president's incapability of passing any of their landmark bills.
A vast number of the Dems' politico-economic initiatives, including a voting rights bill and gun control legislation, to name but a few, have stalled in the upper chamber. Meanwhile, the latest passage of the bipartisan infrastructure legislation has been eclipsed by uncertainties surrounding the president's Build Back Better agenda.
The president's party historically tends to lose midterms, especially if a commander-in-chief's approval rates are low. And that's the case when it comes to Joe Biden: Suffolk University's latest survey indicated just 37.8% of respondents approve of Biden’s performance in office, while 59% of Americans disapprove of him. Meanwhile, a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS showed that 58% of Americans believe the president hasn't paid enough attention to the nation's most important problems.
To complicate matters further, a recent NBC News poll found that 71% of US respondents believe the nation is headed in the wrong direction. Commenting on the trend, GOP strategist Doug Heye told CNN's Kate Bolduan that Biden's approval rating and Republican Glenn Youngkin's win in Virginia "are potential signs of a GOP resurgence in the 2022 midterm elections".
"I think the fall of ’22 is likely to be a very good election for Republicans", Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters on Monday at the St. Elizabeth Healthcare and Life Learning Center in northern Kentucky.
For his part, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy asserted to journalists last week that it’s possible that the House GOP would pick up 60 more seats in 2022: "If you’re a Democrat and President Biden won your seat by 16 points, you’re in a competitive race next year. You are no longer safe", McCarthy stressed, as quoted by The Hill.