It’s a fitting end to a year dominated by two Senate Democrats at the
center of pretty much everything in 2021: Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema
have all but put the kibosh on two major proposals their own party was
hoping to pass before the holiday break.

First: Manchin’s talks with President Joe Biden over Build Back Better
hit a brick wall. Earlier this week, Senate Democrats were looking to
the president to bring the stubborn West Virginia Democrat around.
Instead, Burgess Everett, Alex Thompson and Jonathan Lemire report that
their discussions have gone so poorly that they’re “straining their
friendly relationship.”

Second: Realizing the BBB challenges with Manchin, Senate Democrats this
week did an about-face on their topic du jour. Instead of narrowing in
on their $1.7 trillion social spending bill, they started eyeing a
Senate rule change to enable passage of a long-stalled voting rights
bill.

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