�Թϲ�����

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin all but delivered a death blow to President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion domestic initiative, throwing his party’s agenda into jeopardy, infuriating the White House and leaving angry colleagues desperate to salvage what’s left of a top priority. The West Virginia senator’s brazen announcement, delivered on “Fox News Sunday” after only a cursory heads-up to the president’s staff, potentially derails not only Biden’s “Build Back Better Act,” but sparks fresh questions over passing voting rights legislation and potentially other significant bills that would require his vote in the 50-50 Senate. (Mascaro, Fram and Yen, 12/19)

With an evenly split Senate, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer needs every Democrat to go along with the legislation, which only requires a simple majority vote. That dynamic gives Manchin enormous leverage over Biden's agenda, allowing him to single-handedly sink a priority that Democrats have spent much of the year working on. Manchin’s rollout on Fox News infuriated Democrats Sunday morning. Psaki said that the senator had brought Biden an outline of a bill similar in size and scope that "could lead to a compromise acceptable to all." (Everett, Wu and Lemire, 12/19)

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-W.Va.) opposition to President Biden's social spending package was "a breach of his commitments," calling his reversal on the bill "inexplicable." "Senator Manchin’s comments this morning on FOX are at odds with his discussions this week with the President, with White House staff, and with his own public utterances," Psaki said in a statement on Sunday shortly after Manchin told Fox's Bret Baier that he was a "no" on the legislation. (Gangitano, 12/19)

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., led the progressive charge in denouncing Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V.a., on Sunday after he said he would not support President Joe Biden's Build Back Better Act. "Today, Senator Manchin has betrayed his commitment not only to the President and Democrats in Congress but most importantly, to the American people," Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said in a statement. "He routinely touts that he is a man of his word, but he can no longer say that. West Virginians, and the country, see clearly who he is." (Finn, 12/19)

Democrats, stunned and angry at Sen. Joe Manchin's move Sunday to knife the Build Back Better Act, are grappling with whether President Joe Biden's signature legislation can be salvaged in a smaller form. Based on remarks by Manchin, D-W.Va., some lawmakers see a glimmer of hope that the roughly $2 trillion bill could still be restructured to meet his demands, albeit with painful sacrifices. Put another way: The patient may not have a heartbeat, but they believe it can still be resuscitated. (Kapur, 12/20)

As 2021 draws to a close on an exceedingly sour note for their party, some Senate Democrats conceded in recent days that they need to talk more about accomplishments — and less about aspirations. "Our greatest skill is not how we sell our programs. We spend a lot of time trying to create programs that really help people," said Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), a freshman who flipped a GOP seat last fall. “We created a bipartisan infrastructure bill. When I started, people told me it was impossible, it would never happen. So on that level it’s successful. Is it successful on a grander level? No.” (Levine and Everett, 12/19)

Here‘s where Manchin stands on individual pieces of the president’s plan: What’s in it: Expanded Medicare benefits to include dental, vision and hearing. That coverage would be phased in over most of the next decade. Manchin's take: Manchin objected to adding new benefits, warning the entitlement program is headed toward insolvency in its present form. He eventually acceded to a pared-back plan to cover just hearing, but then said that even those benefits may be a problem — citing concerns about the program’s cash flow. (Scholtes, Bustillo and Choi, 12/19)

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. cut its forecast for U.S. economic growth after Senator Joe Manchin rejected the Biden administration’s roughly $2 trillion tax-and-spend program, leaving Democrats with few options for reviving the economic agenda. (Heath and Chua, 12/19)