Joe Manchin's negotiations update

Axios is reporting that Joe Manchin has some stiff conditions to gain his vote on the Democrats' Build Back Better Bill. According to Axios's article, "Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has told the White House the child tax credit must include a firm work requirement and family income cap in the $60,000 range, people familiar with the matter tell Axios." This won't get a hero's reception with the socialist wing of the Democrat Party.

The idea behind Build Back Better is for the federal government to be Santa to the middle class. Democrats want the middle class to think that they're the party who extends the middle class's paychecks. The bad news for the middle class is that what they gain in 'free' benefits will get stripped away by high inflation. That's already happening.

Work requirements aren't popular with Sanders/AOC wing because they were the cornerstone of the Clinton-Gingrich welfare reforms of 1996. Sen. Sanders thinks that Bill Clinton is Republican lite.

• White House officials say that a permanent and expanded CTC can reduce childhood poverty by half.
• But the program is expensive, costing some $450 billion to extend it for the four years Biden requested — and an estimated $1.6 trillion over 10 years.
• By placing income caps and a W-2 eligibility requirement for receiving the child tax credit, Manchin would lower the overall price by a figure still to be determined.

Sen. Sanders is picking a fight on climate change with Sen. Manchin in West Virginia:

Sen. Manchin tweeted this in response to Sen. Sanders' op-ed:

To be clear, again, Congress should proceed with caution on any additional spending and I will not vote for any reckless expansion of government progrrams. No op-ed from a self-declared Independent Socialist is going to change that.

I wouldn't say that Sanders and Manchin are throwing sharp elbows yet but they're warming to that at this point. Manchin's insistence on a "firm work requirement" and a "family income cap in the $60,000 range" aren't popular with AOC but that's their problem, not his.

Newt Gingrich's op-ed is a great guide to stopping the Build Back Better Bill. In it, he said "The left’s constant refrain of the word "free" is a key example of how misguided Big Government Socialism really is. None of the things the Big Government Socialists want to do are free. In a bygone, saner political era, they would be described as what they are: taxpayer-funded programs."

Between Manchin's negotiations and Gingrich's messaging, Biden's Build Back Better Bill doesn't stand much of a chance. Further, this bombshell just hit:

The meeting notably comes after reports that a sweeping climate measure, known as the Clean Energy Performance Program, is likely to be removed from the spending plan because of Manchin's opposition.

If that doesn't get Democrats mad, nothing will. That portion of the bill isn't as high of a priority as the entitlements but it's still important to Democrats. To Democrats, the environment is close to achieving sacred cow status.