Before reaching an agreement on the Inflation Reduction Act with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Sen. Joe Manchin says that negotiations were interrupted several times due to unprecedented inflation rates.
“On this one here, we started in April and kept working, and working, and working and back and forth,” Manchin told NBC News.
“And all of a sudden, inflation went from six, to 8.1, to 9.1 and I said, ‘Hey. Chuck, listen, we’d better wait and let’s see what’s coming in July, numbers coming in August before we do anything more.’”
“But the bottom line was we reduced it and scrubbed it clear down to 739. Nothing inflammatory in that piece of legislation,” he added.
About whether he thinks Sen. Krysten Sinema would vote yes for the Inflation Reduction Act announced last Wednesday, Manchin replied that she had “a tremendous, tremendous input in this piece of legislation.”
“She basically insisted that there are no tax increases. We’ve done that. she was very, very adamant about that, and I support and I agree with her,” he said.
“She was also very instrumental in making sure that we had drug prices that Medicare could compete on certain drugs to bring it down so that there wouldn’t be an impact on individuals, on Medicare across. She’s done all this.”
“And I would like to think she would be favorable towards it, that I respect her decision. She’ll make her own decision based on the contents,” Manchin concluded.
