The confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson will be Biden’s only major win this year, and it’s not even a legislative one. It won’t boost his polls numbers. It won’t help his party in November. We still have high gas prices, high inflation, a border crisis, and a war in Ukraine. The media has already begun blaming the incoming recession on this Russia-Ukraine War. Sorry—the signs were a long time coming—and everyone knows this. So, what about Build Back Better 2.0? It’s dead. Call it a legislative abortion since we all know about the Democrats’ affinity for infanticide. Who was the bearer of bad news for Biden’s domestic agenda? That would be one of our favorite Democrats—Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) (via Axios):
Last year, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) publicly sounded the death knell for President Biden's Build Back Better agenda. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), his fellow holdout, is privately concurring, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: In closed-door conversations, Sinema has told donors a path to revival is unlikely. That's dampened expectations Congress will act on a slimmed-down bill before Memorial Day. It also means any revived BBB legislation faces an arduous route back to the center of the Senate agenda.
No one's reached out to Sinema about the contours of the slimmed-down deal Manchin has discussed, people familiar with the matter tell Axios.
Instead, Sinema's telling donors most of her focus is on the $10 billion COVID-19 relief bill, the so-called China competition legislation and modifications to the Electoral Reform Act.
A Sinema spokesperson declined comment to Axios.
Once again, we’re reminded that Joe Biden has no mandate, hence the 50-50 Senate. And if Sinema isn’t causing issues for Joe Biden, it’s Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who draws the fury of the progressive Left when he probably likes. It’s the perfect foil he needs to show that he’s not part of the current extreme Democratic Party. He won’t get a primary challenger. There are no crazy Democrats in West Virginia, so the man can sit pretty and laugh at all the leftists punching their fists against a stone wall. Sinema, on the other hand, is in danger of a primary challenge, but we’ll see what comes of that.
With Republicans destined to retake the House in November, there seems to be a real chance that the full Build Back Better agenda will never become law.