With Kyrsten Sinema blocking any changes to the filibuster rules in the Senate and Joe Manchin's refusal to support Build Back Better (BBB), two pillars of the Biden administration's agenda, Welfare reform and climate change, and voting rights protections, are going nowhere. Unless Democrat's change course they are set to loose both chambers this fall. And by 2024, with nothing accomplished, Biden (or whoever heads up the ticket) will loose the White House. That would mean another four years of Trump.
The only possible solution I can see is to wipe the slate clean and bring two completely different bills forward. On voting rights access is secondary to counting, and that needs to be addressed as a top priority. Democrats can vote in ever larger numbers but if Republicans control whose ballots are counted, the Democrats will never win power again. With some completely new legislation focused on amending the Electoral Count Act and with a bit of luck something on impartiality in election administration and oversight, there may be enough Republicans in the Senate to overcome the filibuster.
Pushing BBB is pointless now that Manchin has dug in; since he can't appear to back down the only way out to protect some of the provisions is to start from square one. It must be a smaller package so that Manchin can't complain about over-spending. And Democrats will have to decide on their priorities; climate change or social welfare reform. Again, some of the moderate GOP senators may think that climate change is serious enough to do something about.
Absent this or a miracle, three years from now Trump will shuffle smugly back into the White House.
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