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Sen. Joe Manchin, DW.Va., explained why he agreed to support a new spending package, promising it won’t raise taxes or make inflation worse, while admitting he was wrong about an earlier spending bill .
In a “Fox News Sunday” interview, host Bret Baier noted that last year, Manchin appeared on the same show and said that an earlier Democratic spending bill, the American Rescue Plan, would not lead to the inflation On Sunday, Manchin admitted he was wrong about that.
“Why should Americans believe you now when you say this new bill won’t make inflation worse?” Baier asked.
“I’m going to make sure I don’t make that mistake again,” Manchin said. “In short, I’ll make sure I don’t make that mistake again.”
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WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 6: Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) speaks at a news conference outside his office on Capitol Hill on October 6, 2021 in Washington, DC. Manchin talked about the debt limit and the infrastructure bill. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Manchin also emphatically stated that the new bill will not raise taxes, despite groups such as Americans for Tax Reform claiming that it will.
“It doesn’t raise taxes,” Manchin said, explaining that “all it does is close loopholes.”
Manchin said he had doubted he could ever reach a deal with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and that when he did reach a deal, “he made sure there was no increase in ‘taxes’.
The new bill, known as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, is significantly scaled back from the Better Reconstruction Act that Democrats failed to pass. That bill would have cost roughly $3 trillion, while the current bill would cost $433 billion.
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The new bill includes a minimum corporate tax of 15% for companies valued at more than $1 billion, which is estimated to raise $313 billion; increased IRS tax enforcement, estimated to raise $124 billion; and will close the interest loophole, which is estimated to raise $14 billion. The senator insisted that this is not the same as raising taxes.
“All it does is close loopholes,” he said.
Another part of the bill Manchin addressed Sunday is a subsidy for people making up to $300,000 a year to buy an electric car. The provision has been criticized for forcing the general public to pay for wealthy Americans to buy expensive vehicles. Manchin himself had dismissed the idea in the past, noting how the vehicles were already in high demand, so incentives didn’t make sense.
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Today, Manchin says he still holds the same belief, but says the current bill is not just about buying electricity but about supporting American manufacturing. To qualify for the subsidy, a car’s battery must be manufactured in the US, not China.
“We shouldn’t be looking to China to make sure they have total control over us and that’s what we’re trying to break. And we’re going to break it as soon as we can, because we’re incentivizing it.” He said.
Fox News’ Jason Donner and Tyler Olson contributed to this report.