Appearing on CNN’s "State of the Union," Manchin was asked by anchor Dana Bash to respond to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who said Democrats were moving "full speed ahead" on the package for which Manchin previously called for a "pause." Manchin, who sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said his main issue with the package is its hefty price tag.

"He will not have my vote on 3.5 and Chuck knows that," he said, adding that it should be more like $1.5 trillion. "It’s not going to be three and a half I can assure you."

Manchin said the bill that Democrats should be primarily focused on is the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill that passed in the Senate and is awaiting House action. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said a vote on that bill would be held on Sept. 27, but progressives have threatened to vote against it if the reconciliation bill is held up in the Senate.

Manchin said there is "no way" the reconciliation will pass this month, and he said progressives are making a big mistake if they follow through on their threat.

"They have to do what they have to do," he said. "And if they play politics with the needs of America, I can tell you America will recoil."

“We’ve already put out $5.4 trillion and we’ve tried to help Americans in every way we possibly can and a lot of the help that we’ve put out there is still there and it’s going to run clear until next year, 2022, so what’s the urgency?” Manchin said on CNN. “What’s the urgency that we have? It’s not the same urgency that we had with the American Rescue Plan. We got that out the door quickly. That was about $2 trillion.”

The lib media thinks they’re “catching” him or “getting” him, but guess what? The American people say otherwise, as Daily Caller notes.

A majority of Americans agree with Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia’s opinion there should be a “strategic pause” on Democrats’ $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, according to a No Labels poll on Thursday.

The survey shows 6 out of 10 support Manchin saying to PUMP THE BRAKES. That’s 78% of Republicans. Democrats were 52% in favor of the massive bill, which for them is NOT a win on the issue. Massive lib spending should poll around 80% for Dems.

Maybe people are finally starting to see through the far left politicians? It’s not definitive, by any means, but it’s something to hope for.

And Manchin may not be the hero we want, but right now he’s the one we need. Someone to stand athwart history and say “now hold up a second young feller, lemme get a look at that.”