Bye Bye Build Back Better.

[Ted King]

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/08...e-00014883

Manchin is floating a package that would reduce the deficit, lower prescription drug costs, plow some money into fighting climate change and reform the tax code. While he’s repeatedly said there are no formal talks going on with Biden or his colleagues, most Democrats take it as a sign he’s open for business.

And that’s welcome news for a group of Democrats who are trying to assemble a cost-cutting agenda but struggling to break through. Their proposed relaxation of the federal gas tax appears to be going nowhere, but the possibility of a party-line spending deal with Manchin through the budget reconciliation process offers Democrats some new hope.

“It is worth continuing to figure out how we work together to really focus on how we lower these costs for families and individuals right now,” said Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), who said she is talking with a group of Democrats on a package that would take some pieces of the Build Back Better bill. “We should pull out those that really make sense.”

Will progressives go along with this?