Senator Joe is worried, so President Joe's big legislation falters

You would have thought that sharing first names and the same political party, Senator Joe Manchin, Democrat of West Virginia, and President Joe Biden would be able to reach an agreement about almost anything. But Senator Joe is out on a limb and professes to be worried about Biden's $2.2 trillion social welfare and climate-change Build Back Better legislative programme because inflation is already rising fast and he thinks it could take off if the Biden project goes through. It's sort of fair enough but the negotiations to get this legislation through Congress has been going on long enough. Everyone in Congress and in the White House is keeping fingers crossed that the massive law will be approved before Christmas. But the omens aren't looking good. It seems incredible to me that such an important piece of legislation that will reshape America's economy and set the example for all other nations in terms of climate-change endeavours is struggling to win the right amount of votes. What exactly does Manchin want to change? Why is he the one to make life so difficult for Biden when he knows that the Republicans are quietly cheering him on. Votes are so tight in Congress it only takes the odd recalcitrant Democrat to screw up the whole process. Poor Biden. He must be desperate to end the year with something solid under his belt. He has got his infrastructure deal through but this is the big one. Build Back Better or Build Back Better But Not Yet.