With Biden?s signature legislation stalled, Democrats stare into political void

Stan Greenberg, the veteran Democratic pollster, stressed that losing the major bill could significantly increase the difficulty for Biden’s party in an already challenging political environment.“It becomes much harder if you’re talking about what Republicans cut off rather than what you’ve delivered,” said Greenberg, one of the few officials POLITICO spoke with who still believes Democrats could pass something — even a slimmed down social spending bill — through Congress in the next few months. “If this thing just goes away, you really do have a very different definition of the election,” he said.White House officials insist they are far from giving up on passing the sweeping climate and social spending package, and say that talks continue between staff and and a wide range of key lawmakers.“Every major economic bill we've passed, like the American Rescue Plan and the bipartisan infrastructure law, has seen ups and downs and required doing the work while tuning out noise,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said. For months, Biden and top White House officials have pointed to economists who argue that Build Back Better would help reduce inflation — not heighten it — as skeptics, including Manchin, have contended.On the other hand, the administration’s accelerated steps to address inflation are bumping up against overwhelming doubts among voters that are surfacing in Democratic polls and focus groups for House and Senate races that the government is best suited to alleviate the price surges.That is leading some in the party to conclude that should Democrats pass a scaled down, targeted version of the climate and spending bill, they may ultimately have Manchin to thank for boiling it down to the most popular elements.