Moderate Democrat Joe Manchin is all set to use his 50th vote in the evenly divided Senate in revising US President Joe Biden’s new infrastructure bill. 

Manchin wants the bill to be rewritten and claims to have the support of other Senators, reports Politico. 

In a radio talk show on Monday, Manchin said, “The bill, basically, is not going to end up that way. 

If I don’t vote to get on it, it’s not going anywhere. So we’re going to have some leverage here. And it’s more than just me, Hoppy, there’s six or seven other Democrats that feel very strongly about this.”

The right-leaning Democrat had Senate leader Chuck Schumer and other democrats lobbying and negotiating heavily during the voting of Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus last month and got a few terms revised in the bill. 

Also Read: Arkansas Gov. vetoes ban on treatments in transgender youth

While talking to Hoppy Kercheval, West Virginia radio host Manchin said that “this whole thing here has to change” while referring to the bill. He said that the 28% corporate tax rate is a non-starter. 

He further elaborated that he would be okay with raising the corporate tax between 21%-25% but maintained that the US has “to be competitive and we’re not going to throw caution to the wind.”

Following Manchin’s comments, press secretary Jen Psaki said that the remarks were part of negotiations for the passing of the bill while defending the infrastructure proposal bill as “responsible”. 

Also Read: US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen calls for global minimum corporate tax

On Monday, President Biden told reporters that he is not concerned about driving corporations away from the United States due to the increased tax rate. He said, “There’s no evidence of that,” while emphasizing on wanting a bipartisan buy-in. 

Biden said that the Republican leaders “can’t just be against everything.”

Many Republicans have expressed concerns over the high spending in the new infrastructure bill. If 10 Republican senators do not vote in favour of the bill, the package could be passed using the budget reconciliation tool which allows Senate leader Chuck Schumer to bypass the GOP filibuster. He will be able to approve the legislation with 50 Democrat votes along with VP Harris’ tie-breaking vote. 

However, there is no room for any Democrat Senator digressing from a ‘yes’ vote which makes Manchin’s dicey stance a problem for the infrastructure bill. Manchin earlier said, “this bill will not be in the same form” when it passes in the Senate.