Is President Biden’s Climate Agenda Toast?

What Do You Know, Joe?

Introduction

The Manchin saga continues. In Part 1 of this occasional series, I discussed the aftermath of Manchin’s abrupt announcement on Fox Sunday News a week before Christmas that he would not be voting in favor of President Biden’s Build Back Better act (BBB) — or what was left of it. He’d already whacked away at the original $3.5 trillion — reducing it by half.

The announcement unleashed a torrent of condemnation from congressional Democrats and some White House staff. Things have calmed. Attention is now being directed towards the possibility of a smaller and more focused package. Think of it as going from BBB to bbb.

Biden and the Democrats have a lot riding on the Build Back Better act. Eighty percent of the President’s once-in-a-generation investments in climate, health-care, jobs training, child care, universal pre-kindergarten, etc., are in the one bill.

There’s a lot of anger towards Manchin that’s unlikely to dissipate anytime soon. Progressive Democrats feel betrayed after agreeing to deal separately with the bipartisan infrastructure and BBB bills.

Representative Ocasio-Cortez and other House progressives had warned that treating the bills separately would only make the passage of the BBB more difficult…