Millions of Americans could be impacted by the reconciliation bill — if it passes

Democrats — forced to consider an even narrower version of Build Back Better after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) rejected climate and tax proposals — are moving forward on legislation that focuses primarily on health care policy.

This legislation includes provisions that would lower prescription drug prices and Affordable Care Act premium costs, though it omits key Democratic priorities like clean energy tax credits.

On Sunday, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) appeared ready to kill the Build Back Better Act, a legislative package funding child care, early childhood education, health care, clean energy, and tax credits for parents, which is one of President Joe Biden’s top legislative priorities.

It’s possible, as my colleague Andrew Prokop notes, to read Manchin’s recent denunciation of the bill as merely an effort to force harsh concessions from other Democrats.

For members of “the Squad,” a group of staunch progressives in the House, Sen. Joe Manchin’s statement opposing the Build Back Better Act didn’t come as a surprise. They’d long warned it was just a matter of time before Manchin derailed the bill if a vote on infrastructure legislation, which he supported, was held first.

It turns out they were right.

On Sunday, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) may have delivered a final blow to the United States’s best chance to take action on the climate crisis this decade.

After months of negotiations with the White House and Democratic leaders, Manchin announced on Fox News that he will be a “no” vote on the centerpiece of the president’s domestic agenda in its current form. That agenda — known as the Build Back Better Act — would have invested $555 billion in clean electricity, electric vehicles, and reducing methane emissions. Although the $1.75 trillion bill has already passed the House of Representatives, a no vote from Manchin would ensure the bill does not have a path forward in the Senate. That’s because Democrats were relying on a budget process that requires 50 Senate votes to get it to President Joe Biden’s desk.

The Build Back Better Act — at least as currently written — is dead, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said Sunday in an appearance on Fox News Sunday. Whether it can be resurrected in some new form depends on Manchin.

The bill, which proposed $1.75 trillion in social and climate spending, has been on shaky ground for a while. Despite the measure being a key part of President Joe Biden’s agenda, Manchin has for months raised concerns about the bill’s scope and cost. Now, Manchin, whose vote is crucial given Democrats’ slim majority in the Senate, says he won’t support it because of concerns about the resurgent Covid-19 pandemic and rising inflation.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) appeared to plunge his knife in the heart of President Joe Biden’s agenda Sunday, saying in a Fox News appearance that he “cannot vote to continue with” the Build Back Better Act. “I can’t get there.” He added, “This is a no — on this legislation.”

Manchin’s statement seemed to herald the end for Democrats’ hopes that the bill can pass in anything like its current form. And White House press secretary Jen Psaki soon released a statement blasting Manchin for waffling, accusing him of “a breach of his commitments to the President,” and revealing private details of Manchin’s negotiations with Biden.

The need for paid leave has only become more clear during the pandemic.

In the last two years, workers have been forced to juggle caregiving, sick leave, and professional responsibilities, often facing impossible choices among all three. Many women, who’ve borne the brunt of these demands, have reduced their involvement in the workforce or left it altogether.

As it weighs what to keep in the budget bill, Congress is poised to abandon plans for a comprehensive paid family leave program yet again. Had the proposal been included, it would have brought low-wage workers — many of whom have no access to paid leave — a major new benefit.

The US is the only industrialized country that doesn’t guarantee workers paid leave, a gap that hits low-wage workers the hardest. According to a 2020 survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, just 8 percent of low-wage workers (people making less than $683 a week, or roughly $35,516 per year) have access to paid family leave, compared to 20 percent of all workers and 33 percent of higher-wage workers. And 49 percent of low-wage workers have paid sick leave, compared to the 75 percent of workers overall and 92 percent of higher-wage workers who have access to the benefit.

Lawmakers are again talking about taxing billionaires, and billionaires have some feelings about it — namely, they’d rather not. It looks like they’re going to get their way, too.

It’s a familiar sentiment among the super-rich whenever there are discussions like this: They’re maybe open to the idea of taxing people like themselves more, but they’re not quite sold on any specific proposals. On taxes, Bill Gates turns into Goldilocks: There are soups, chairs, and beds out there that work, but so far, it doesn’t seem like he’s found one that’s just right — it’s hard not to wonder if Bill’s just really not into soup.

After a major setback on a historic package of climate legislation, President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress are scrambling to find other ways to slash US emissions. As they race to create a Plan B for an escalating climate crisis, they stand to learn a lot from the Obama era — a history that’s littered with similar setbacks and climate policies that never saw the light of day.

One of the most impactful climate policies that Congress has ever considered, the clean electricity payment program (CEPP), is on the chopping block. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) says he will not support a bill that penalizes coal and natural gas for the outsized role they play in US pollution. Democrats can’t pass their budget bill, the Build Back Better Act, without his support, and its size and scope has been shrinking.

Democrats are pretty optimistic about their budget reconciliation bill, but they’re not quite at an agreement.

“I do think I’ll get a deal,” President Joe Biden said Thursday. “We’re down to four or five issues. ... I think we can get there.”

Democrats are finalizing their health care plans for this Congress and coalescing around one particular goal: filling the gaps in Obamacare.

Lawmakers appear likely to prioritize proposed fixes to the Affordable Care Act in the forthcoming budget reconciliation bill, but some of the party’s other ideas for expanding health coverage may end up getting cut out of the legislation.

Democrats, it seems, are looking to pare down their budget bill by going the route favored by progressives. While they’re weighing some big cuts to the $3.5 trillion package, the general approach — which isn’t yet finalized — skews toward funding more programs for a shorter period of time, rather than fewer programs for longer.

Pushback from moderates over the size of the package has meant tough decisions about what to cut and what to keep. Progressives argued for preserving as many of the proposal’s policies as possible, while saving money by having them expire sooner than initially planned. Some moderates, meanwhile, advocated for the opposite: funding fewer programs for more time.

A key climate policy designed to phase out fossil fuels will likely be cut from Democrats’ upcoming reconciliation package due to opposition from Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who has reportedly refused to back the measure as negotiations over the budget bill continue.

According to the New York Times’s Coral Davenport, who first reported the news on Friday, Manchin, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, will not support the sweeping clean electricity program widely seen as the centerpiece of the bill’s climate plan.

Congress’s ambitious plans to expand health coverage are crashing up against one of the great questions in health policy: Can they force the pharmaceutical industry to hold down prescription drug prices without sacrificing the medical innovation that could lead to new treatments and cures in the future?

Democrats’ Build Back Better reconciliation bill sets a hard cap on the price Medicare would pay for some prescription drugs, ensuring that the program would pay no more than 20 percent more than other wealthy nations. Those prices would also be available to the commercial plans that cover most working Americans.