US President Joe Biden expressed his confidence on Tuesday that the $1.75 trillion Build Back Better Act, which was just submitted to the House for a vote, would pass the lower chamber "within a week as fully paid for and reduce the deficit over the long term."
Amid all the criticism surrounding the bill, a recent preliminary report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) indicated that the federal budget would increase by more than $150 billion in debt and spending.
Adding fuel to the fire, Democratic Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have repeatedly criticized some aspects of the bill, particularly the purported inflation it would cause, and have demanded time to evaluate the package more thoroughly. Skeptical Democrats want to know if the legislation will pay for itself and not add to the national debt.
Earlier this week, President Biden signed a separate $1.2 billion bipartisan infrastructure bill into law. The measure cleared the House after negotiations yielded pledges of support from moderate Democrats, conditioned on a favorable financial impact analysis by the CBO.
Manchin blasted his fellow lawmakers over an attempt to force party members to vote for both bills as a whole, ostensibly in the hope of passing a socially-oriented bill through Congress following the infrastructure bill without changes.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has expressed support for Manchin and Sinema. In September, he reportedly claimed he prayed for the two Democrats "every night" and hoped they would be able to "withstand the pressure" from the Democratic caucus' other 48 members, who had all backed the $3.5 trillion measure until Manchin's objections led it to be cut in half.