Lone Senate Democrat blocks Biden’s spending agenda

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said Sunday he will not vote for the president’s $1.74 trillion social spending and climate change package. With the Senate divided evenly between the parties, Democrats needed all 50 of their votes plus Vice President Kamala Harris’ tiebreaker to pass the legislation. Manchin has said he wants to decrease the bill’s price tag while extending short-term programs. He said the House bill uses budget gimmicks that hide its true costs, and that Congress would have to extend short-term programs in a few years anyway.

Does this mean the Build Back Better Act is dead? White House press secretary Jen Psaki said President Joe Biden would continue trying to persuade Manchin to vote for the bill. Manchin wants the bill’s initiatives to last the measure’s full 10-year duration; currently, they would require additional spending and a vote to renew them before the decade ended. Democrats specifically made many of them temporary to keep the bill’s overall price tag lower.

Dig deeper: Read Esther Eaton’s breakdown of the Build Back Better Act in The Stew.