Vermont independent Senator Bernie Sanders is pushing back against Senator Joe Manchin after the West Virginia Democrat said he would oppose much of President Biden’s $3.5 trillion, 10-year budget reconciliation package, known as the Build Back Better Act. Manchin told reporters last week he doesn’t want to create an “entitlement society.” On Wednesday, Senator Sanders said U.S. working families should be entitled to child care, universal pre-K, affordable prescription drugs, dental and vision benefits, free community college and a world free from catastrophic climate change. Sanders called on Manchin to make it clear which of these proposals he wants to cut.
Sen. Bernie Sanders: “The time is long overdue for him to tell us, with specificity, not generalities — we’re beyond generalities — with specificity, what he wants and what he does not want, and to explain that to the people of West Virginia and America.”