WASHINGTON — The proposed federal $2 trillion Build Back Better (BBB) bill has “hit a huge brick wall” and would actually cost $5 trillion, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said last week.
Capito said during a virtual press conference the bill is opposed by most West Virginians, would worsen inflation and the price tag would over time be $5 trillion with no plan in place to pay for it.
Pres. Joe Biden, who has pushed the initiative, had hoped the bill would be addressed and passed by the Senate before Christmas, but admitted last week that is not likely to happen.
In fact, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has said he will not support the $2 trillion version and agrees with Capito the price tag would be much higher.
He and Biden have been meeting to discuss the details of the bill and a possible compromise, but so far Manchin has only issued a statement saying the meetings have gone well.
Manchin’s support is needed to get the 50 votes necessary for passage and he has wanted the price tag to be $1.75 trillion.
Capito has always opposed the bill and continues to say she will not vote for any version of it, but would consider some provisions in a separate, bipartisan initiative.
Child care is one of those, an issue she addressed at length last week.
“I think child care is a great example of where we could have a bipartisan agreement,” she said, rather than being done by one party.
Capito said the child care provision in the BBB is being “touted to offer child care assistance to every American.”
But in reality, she said, reading the fine print shows child care costs could go up $13,000 a year under the BBB plan, and even with federal subsidies the price would still double.
That’s because of the federal strings attached to programs, transportation, hours and other requirements.
“it takes the programs and flexibility out of the state’s hands and puts it in the federal government’s,” she said.
Not only that, after five years, states must start picking up about 40 percent of the costs, yet have no input.
Capito said it would also penalize faith-based child care, which is where 53 percent of children are enrolled.
During a “very eyeopening” roundtable discussion with faith-based child care leaders recently in West Virginia, she said she was told it would put them at a “competitive disadvantage” since they would not receive any help.
Under the bill’s restrictions, religious facilities such as schools and charities which operate chapels would be blocked from funding.
Capito said this would make it “very, very difficult” for them.
Any bill that is passed to aid child care should include faith-based centers, she said, but such a bill should also be based on bipartisan discussions and support.
Capito is not optimistic the current Build Back Better bill will pass, at least not now.
“It is the President’s initiative backed by progressive groups (Democrats),” she said, and it is filled will an expansion of programs they have pushed for years.
But they are getting a “reality check,” she said, because most people do not support the bill. However, that doesn’t mean they will give up.
“I don’t think they will give up, and I think they will have the realization of what the American people want,” she said, and that is the timing is wrong, with inflation, the pandemic and uncertainty.
Time should be allowed for all of these things to “settle down,” she said, and then approach provisions in the bill in a bipartisan effort.
On other issues, Capito said: