Dems face a sobering possibility: Build Back ... never

President Joe Biden’s $1.7 trillion social and climate spending plan is dead as written, rejected by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). The Senate is moving onto a host of other issues that will take up the rest of the winter and possibly some of the spring. And some Democrats concede there’s a small but distinct possibility they could have to shelve the whole endeavor indefinitely.

“Absolutely, there’s the possibility,” said Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), who argued that Democrats can still assemble a productive midterm resume without a massive party-line spending bill.

“If we’re able to get the appropriations bills done, if we’re all able to get the Postal Service done, if we’re able to get some stuff done on toxic exposure [in the military], that would be a pretty good record,” he added.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed in December that the chamber will “vote on a revised version of the House-passed Build Back Better Act — and we will keep voting on it until we get something done.” That’s not the strategy at the moment.

Instead, the Senate is now in a long cooling-off period after the twin failures of “Build Back Better” and a push to change the Senate rules to pass elections bills. Democrats are turning to fixing the Postal Service, sexual misconduct reform, spending bills, a Supreme Court vacancy, the Violence Against Women Act and possibly changing the Electoral Count Act and sanctioning Russia.

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