Manchin says he can’t support Biden’s $3.5 trillion spending plan

Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.), a key moderate Democrat, said on Sunday that he can’t support President Biden’s $3.5 trillion spending plan. 

“We don’t have the need to rush into this and get it done within one week because there’s some deadline we’re meeting or someone’s going to fall through the cracks,” Manchin said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” 

“I want to make sure that children are getting taken care of, that people are basically having an opportunity to go back to work. We have 11 million jobs that we haven’t filled, 8 million people still unemployed. Something’s not matching up there,” he added.

Manchin also said he would look at adjusting the tax code first if he were writing the bill from scratch. 

WATCH: @Sen_JoeManchin says he will not support the $3.5 trillion plan. pic.twitter.com/tcZW0P8WyF

— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) September 12, 2021

On CNN’s “State of the Union,” Manchin told host Dana Bash that he didn’t support the timeline of voting on the measure this week so that the House could pass it by Sept. 27.

“There’s no way we can get this done by the 27th if we do our job,” he said.

Manchin added that Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) “will not have my vote, and Chuck knows that.”

Manchin earlier this month advised Democrats to “hit the pause button” on Biden’s plan. 

“Let’s sit back. Let’s see what happens,” he said at an event in West Virginia. “We have so much on our plate. We really have an awful lot. I think that would be the prudent, wise thing to do.”

Updated at 10:40 a.m.