No. 2 Senate Democrat 'stunned' by Manchin's stance on child tax credit

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Source: The Hill

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told reporters Thursday that he was “stunned” to discover that Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is opposed to a one-year extension of the expanded child tax credit, a core component of President Biden’s agenda. Durbin said he’s “frustrated and disappointed” while acknowledging that Biden’s sweeping social spending and climate bill doesn’t appear to be headed to the president’s desk anytime soon.

Manchin recently told White House negotiators that he wants the Build Back Better bill to include a 10-year extension of the expanded child tax credit so that its true cost is reflected in the official Congressional Budget Office score of the bill.
At the same time, he wants to keep the overall cost of the bill at $1.75 trillion, which means there would be little room for other Democratic priorities.
A 10-year extension of the expanded child tax credit would cost about $1.5 trillion alone. That would leave only $250 billion to $350 billion for other priorities such as long-term home health care, expanded child care subsidies, universal prekindergarten and raising the cap on state and local tax deductions.

“I was stunned by that,” Durbin said on Thursday when asked about his reaction to the late-breaking news that Manchin didn’t want to include a one-year extension of the expanded child tax credit. “We were so proud of what we accomplished there and for this to come up as an issue toward the end was stunning.”

“Apparently, Manchin’s approach to this has changed a lot.
I don’t know where Manchin is today or where he’ll be tomorrow,” he added.



Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/586121-no-2-senate-democrat-stunned-by-manchins-stance-on-child-tax-credit

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