Centrist House members agree to the $3.5 trillion budget — isolating Joe Manchin even more: report

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) made it clear that he will not vote for President Joe Biden's budget bill because he says that it will add to the deficit. The bill doesn't add to the debt as it corrects the Republican Party's corporate tax cut. Still, Manchin maintains that he's against it.

As of Sunday, he's looking even more isolated. According to Axios, centrists officials have told House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) that they will support the budget bill at the $3.5 trillion price tag. Two of the nine members who previously demanded that the roads and bridges bill be brought to the floor are now standing behind her on the larger package.

"By explicitly announcing their support for a big package targeting climate change and expanding the social safety net, Reps. Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX) and Filemon Vela (D-TX) are trying to convince progressives to vote for the infrastructure bill this week," said Axios.

Progressives have been frustrated with the centrists because they proposed a $6 trillion package and agreed to cut it nearly in half. The centrists like Vela, Gonzalez and Manchin haven't been willing to compromise on anything in the bill.

"We support swift passage of the president's $3.5 trillion reconciliation package," the members wrote in a joint statement. "The bipartisan infrastructure framework would, on average, deliver $1.2 billion per congressional district."

"However, the idea that denying passage of the Senate's Bipartisan Infrastructure bill [BIF] somehow exercises 'leverage' over some of our more fiscally conservative members is wholly misguided," the statement also said.

Pelosi told ABC News that she intends to bring the bipartisan infrastructure bill to a vote this Monday.

Read the full report.