“The View” hosts sparred Tuesday with guest host Tara Setmayer over President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Act.
Setmayer cited Biden’s “huge achievement” of passing the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill with bipartisan support, but argued that the progressive wing of the Democratic Party destroyed “political capital” by “whining” about not being able to pass Build Back Better through the Senate. Hosts Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin immediately denied these claims.
“The difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is that the Republican Party — not just the nutso’s, and you know who they are — most of them in the party are afraid of the Trump base. The Democrats are not afraid of the Democratic base, and they should be,” Behar said. “Because I am in the Democratic base, I consider myself a liberal Democrat, and I’m annoyed with the way they’re behaving. They should be scared of me, right now.”
“Are you going to stay home, though?” Setmayer pushed back. “Are you not going to vote? The point is, the difference is that they need to demonstrate that, ok, if you’re upset that you didn’t get Build Back Better at a $6 billion price tag, which is untenable, then what are the alternatives?”
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“Kill the environment,” Behar interjected. “Roll back Roe v. Wade, get rid of gay rights.” (RELATED: Pelosi Lays Out Dems’ Agenda After Failures On Build Back Better, Voting Bills)
Hostin said the progressives “gave up their leverage” on Build Back Better to ensure that the infrastructure bill would pass, citing its intention to enact a Child Tax Credit, paid family and medical leave and universal pre-K. The legislation also contains provisions to expand visas to prospective immigrants.
“Which they couldn’t pay for,” Setmayer interrupted.
“They can pay for it,” Hostin argued. “They paid for infrastructure and this country pays for so many things, Tara. This country pays for wars, this country gives tax breaks for the rich, this country does everything except for poor people and except for education—”
“It doesn’t work like that,” Setmayer fired back. “It sounds like a great sound bite but I worked in Congress, and that’s not how it works, trust me!”
The $1.7 trillion Build Back Better bill failed to gain support from Senate Republicans and Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Manchin cited record-high inflation and the national debt as his reasoning for being a stark critic of the legislation.