During a press gaggle outside the Capitol on Thursday, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) complained about Dollar Tree’s recent decision to offer items that cost more than a buck, though he gave the name of the wrong dollar store.

The press gaggle came as Manchin has been front and center due to his opposition to the Democratic $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, and as House progressive Democrats threaten to sink a bipartisan infrastructure bill that is expected to be brought up for a vote on Thursday.

Manchin confirmed to reporters a scoop published by Politico co-congressional bureau chief Burgess Everett earlier in the day that Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) signed an agreement on July 28 to cap the Democratic reconciliation bill at $1.5 trillion.

Politico obtained a copy of the agreement, which also included a stipulation that debate on the bill start no earlier than Oct. 1.

“I brought the $1.5 [trillion], as you’ve seen, I think, by now, the 1.5 was always done from my heart, or, basically, what we could do and not jeopardize our economy,” Manchin told reporters. “I asked for the strategic pause because after that then we basically had Covid coming back at us and we’ve got all the unknowns right now, especially with what the financial fallout might be or the geopolitical fallout, excuse me, the geopolitical fallout that might come from the Afghanistan departure and also inflation.”

Manchin went on to give an example, albeit by incorrectly citing Dollar General and not Dollar Tree.

“I’ll give you a perfect example. In West Virginia, I just saw today to where the One Dollar, what we call General Dollar Store, Dollar General, they’re no longer Dollar General, they are a Dollar-and-a-Quarter, a Dollar-and-Fifty-Cent General. That’s hard for West Virginia. A lot of people do shop there and that’s all they have,” he said. “We have to take all this into consideration. We have a lot of good things we can do. And here’s the thing. My goodness, you have the infrastructure bill, you’ve got this bill we have right now and we have reconciliation bill.”

“I’m willing to sit down and work through that 1.5 to get by our priorities and they can come back and do later and they run on the rest of it later,” continued Manchin. “I think there’s many ways to get to where they want to, just not everything at one time.”

Manchin said that he has shared the $1.5 trillion figure with President Joe Biden and Sen. Krysten Sinema (D-AZ), who is also against the $3.5 trillion package.

Watch above, via CNN.

The post WATCH: Manchin Complains About Dollar Store Prices During Press Scrum About $3.5 Trillion Spending Plan first appeared on Mediaite.

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