Biden has faith he will finally get Joe Manchin’s vote on his $1.75 trillion economic agenda: ‘I believe that Joe will be there’

• Biden said he has faith Sen. Joe Manchin will vote for his $1.75 trillion social-spending plan.
• But Manchin on Monday expressed concerns with the cost of the bill, saying he needs more “clarity.”
• Democrats want to pass both the infrastructure and reconciliation bills before Thanksgiving.

President Joe Biden has been at the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland this past week while negotiations on his $1.75 trillion social-spending framework have been ongoing in the US – particularly with Sen. Joe Manchin.

But Biden seemed confident during a Tuesday press briefing that he will get Manchin’s vote on the legislation.

“I believe that Joe will be there,” Biden said. “He will vote for this if we have in this proposal what he has anticipated, and that is looking at the fine print and the detail of what comes out of the House in terms of the actual legislative initiatives.”

Last week, Biden released a scaled-down social-spending framework with many proposals, like free community college and a five year extended child tax credit, left out due to opposition from key holdouts, Manchin and Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. As Biden left for Glasgow with a massive $555 billion plan to fight the climate crisis, Manchin continued to express concerns with the cost of the bill.

Insider reported yesterday that Manchin wanted “greater clarity” on the framework, particularly with how it would contribute to inflation.

“I’m open to supporting a final bill that helps move our country forward. But I’m equally open to voting against a bill that hurts our country,” he said.

“I will not support a bill that is this consequential without thoroughly understanding the impact it will have on our national debt, our economy, and the American people,” Manchin added, saying he wanted time to review the final bill.

This could jeopardize the Democrats’ timeline of voting for a bill this week.

“Holding this bill hostage is not going to increase my support for the reconciliation bill,” Manchin said.

Still, Biden and his administration believe Manchin will not be a roadblock to passing their social agenda. On Tuesday, Senate Democrats struck a deal with Sinema and Manchin on including a measure to lower prescription drug prices, suggesting concerns the centrist holdouts have had with Biden’s framework are slowly being smoothed out.

“We remain confident that the plan will gain Senator Manchin’s support,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement on Monday.