Did Joe Manchin just kill Joe Biden's Build Back Better Bill?

The House version of Joe Biden's Build Back Better Bill has been dead since it was passed. Larry Kudlow's 'Save America. Kill the Bill.' campaign played a major role in killing the bill. Still, Joe Manchin deserves credit for doing the heavy lifting for killing that original bill.

Since then, the question has been whether Joe Biden and Sen. Manchin could work out a compromise on a smaller version of Build Back Better. That's looking doubtful at this point. According to this article, Sen. Manchin is walking away from negotiations.

According to the article, "Manchin’s proposal would have included funding for universal pre-K and an additional tax on billionaires. However, the WaPo said, there would be no expanded child tax credit in Manchin’s compromise. The latter was considered potentially becoming permanent, vastly increasing the cost of the original Biden proposal." It's impossible to picture the House voting for a bill that's stripped of the Green New Deal and the child tax credit.

Rep. McEachin is kidding himself. Each time Democrats have attacked Manchin over BBB, Manchin's approval rating has improved in West Virginia. Sen. Manchin's approval rating currently sits at 59%. If he's becoming more popular with the Democrats' attacks, why would he cave now?

OTOH, Democrats have botched this situation totally. What could they have done differently to make the outcome worse? That's what Democrats get for putting Bernie Sanders in charge of the Budget Committee.

The good news is that this is good news on the inflation front. There won't be any economy-killing tax increases for several years. The Fed still needs to do its part to slow inflation but this is a positive first step.

Sen. Manchin should switch parties. Democrats have shown him what they think of him. Republicans would cheerfully welcome him into their conference.

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