(CNSNews.com) – President Joe Biden said Tuesday that despite Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-W.Va.) stated refusal to vote for the $1.75 trillion reconciliation framework agreement because of “budget gimmicks” and “shell games,” the senator will vote for it if it has what Manchin “has anticipated” after looking at the “fine print.”
During a press conference in Glasgow, Scotland, NBC News White House Correspondent Peter Alexander asked Biden, “Mr. President, your touting on this visit your 1.75 trillion plan that includes climate, but your party is still not united behind it. Senator Joe Manchin yesterday called it budget gimmicks, shell games, and a recipe for economic crisis. Today he said he never signed off on the frame work. So do you have a specific commitment from Senator Manchin to support your Build Back Better bill – yes or no - and how do you respond to those criticisms?”
BIDEN: Number 1, I'm not going to talk about the specifics of my conversation. He will vote for this if we have in this proposal what he has anticipated, and that is looking at the fine print and the detail of what comes out of the House in terms of the actual legislative initiatives. I believe that Joe will be there.
With regard to the issue of whether or not he thinks that -- he's worried about this being inflationary or gonna be negative impact in the economy, I think that I made it clear to Joe and will continue to and we will that as -- I apologize for repeating Peter, but 17 Nobel laureates on economics said it’s gonna lower inflation, raise wages, increase competition, create 2 million jobs a year, et cetera.
And so I think that I understand Joe is looking for precise detail to make sure nothing got slipped in in terms of the way in which the legislation got written that is different than he acknowledged he would agree to, but I think we'll get it done.
ALEXANDER: You mentioned the word inflation there. You recently said you have no short term answer to bring down gas prices but as you know It's not gas prices. Rents are up. The cost of every day items are up. Inflation in the U.S. is at a 13-year high. So when specifically should Americans expect those prices to come down?
BIDEN: Look, first of all, the significant reason why prices are up is because of COVID affecting the supply chain. I’m not trying to be instructive -- I know you know this - Number 1. Number 2, if you take a look at gas prices and you take a look at oil prices, that is a consequence of thus far the refusal of Russia or the OPEC nations to pump more oil. We'll see what happens on that score sooner than later.
Number 3, I think if you take a look at who we're talking about, look at this coming Thanksgiving. We're in a situation where we find that we're in a very different circumstance. Last Thanksgiving, you know, I -- as I said this year, we're working on the supply chain issue. Last Thanksgiving, I sat down with my wife, my daughter and my son-in-law.
This Thanksgiving we're all in a very different circumstance. Things are a hell of a lot better, and the wages have gone up higher, faster than inflation, and we have generated real economic growth. It doesn't mean these dislocations aren’t real.
They do affect people's lives. For example, one of the reasons why I decided to talk about the need to deal with the operation and the gouging and the curves and some of the pricing of beef and chicken and other things is that that's why I think -- that's why I indicated to you were going to look at whether or not there's a violation of antitrust laws and what they're doing.
So there's a lot to look at, but the bottom line is that I think -- anyone who would prefer as bad as things are in terms of prices helping -- hurting families now, trade this Thanksgiving for last Thanksgiving.