Satisfying Manchin risks losing other Dems

It’s Washington’s enduring question: What does Joe Manchin want?

But increasingly the answer is crystal clear. The conservative West Virginia Democrat wants to dismantle President Joe Biden’s proposed climate change strategies and social services expansion in ways that are simply unacceptable for most in his party.

So the question becomes less about what Manchin wants and more about whether Biden can bring him, the party’s other centrist senators and its progressives to middle ground and salvage his oncesweeping $3.5 trillion proposal from collapse.

As the White House pushes its Democratic allies on Capitol Hill to wrap up slogging negotiations before end-of-themonth deadlines, pressure is mounting on the party to hold its slim majority in Congress together to deliver on Biden’s priorities. He will meet with House lawmakers from both groups again Tuesday at the White House.

“We are at a point where we feel an urgency to move things forward,” Biden press secretary Jen Psaki acknowledged Monday.