The latest news emerging from Washington D.C. seem to be a breakdown of ongoing talks between President Joe Biden and Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia who controls a crucial swing vote in the Senate. Some areas of disagreement include the size of the bill, impacts on inflation, and some specific components within the Build Back Better act (BBB).
It was always going to be tough for legislation to pass given that the Senate is split 50-50 with Vice President Kamala Harris having the deadlocked vote. Add to this the Senate's slow nature and 60-vote consensus required for many items. Then, you have a tough political environment for Democrats which have seen President Biden's approval ratings sink to the low 40s. Voters are also blaming Democrats for issues like continued coronavirus restrictions, schools remaining closed, increasing inflation, and an uptick in the crime rate.
Of course, this has only emboldened Republicans and more moderate Democrats like Senator Manchin and Senator Sinema (who some senators jokingly refer to as President Manchin and VP Sinema due to their outsized influence).
During the infrastructure negotiations, progressives were threatening to block the legislation unless moderates would also agree to vote on the BBB plan. This ploy has failed as the infrastructure bill was passed, while the BBB bill isn't yet close enough for a vote. Based on this development, most Congress watchers are convinced that the bill's chances of being passed before Christmas are essentially dead.
According to sources with knowledge of the discussion, the talks are expected to continue over the holidays and into 2022, but there are several areas of disagreement. One of the issues is the child tax credit which Manchin wants to cut out of the bill, while Biden sees it as the centerpiece of the legislation and an important priority.
Another issue is that Manchin doesn't want the bill to exceed $1.75 trillion which means further cuts as the bill's original size keeps getting shaved down. He also disagrees with some of the accounting gimmicks used in the bill such as a one-year tax extension of the child tax credit which obscures its total size.