Joe Manchin hardens his line; meanwhile, a document obtained by TNR suggests that Democrats have enigmatic Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema top of mind as the slog continues.

The Democrats are *this close* to a deal—except for all the major portions of the budget bill they still disagree on.

The Arizona senator loves to compare herself to Mr. Straight Talk Express. But there are different ways of bucking one’s party.

The Democrats’ Plan B on taxes isn’t bad. But the whole revenue debate shows that changing the “economic paradigm” is going to take a while.

Not that they had much to begin with. But it’s getting worse.

The party is deadlocked on how to prune down the Biden agenda—in a way that gets them reelected.

How will the Democrats get to a number they can all agree on? The most plausible way is that their president makes them. If he’ll do it.

Polls find huge support for individual pieces of the budget bill, but its cost has overshadowed what it contains.

The Arizona senator wants to cut funding for climate-change policies and opposes a plan to rein in prescription drug prices. She doesn’t deserve the Democratic Party.

Rude politics are inevitable when elected officials, like Kyrsten Sinema, open their doors to corporate elites but not their own constituents.

Her incoherent “stand” against the Democrats’ budget isn’t just hurting her party, it’s hurting her own reelection prospects.

What does it mean to be a moderate in the era of the climate crisis?

The industry’s titanic profits power a perpetual stranglehold over our government with only one goal in mind: raking you clean of every last dime.

Democrats have to prove that the government can deliver for people. If they don’t, authoritarianism wins.

And in doing so, they’re threatening the party’s electoral future.

She loved compromise when it was with Republicans. With Democrats to her left, not so much.

Manchin says $1.5 trillion. Sanders says $3.5. So split the difference, guys. Here’s one way to do it.

Her leverage is the votes she controls in the Progressive Caucus. Their leverage is that they can kill a deal single-handedly. The stakes could not be higher.

The Senate Finance Committee is weighing a carbon tax, which is one tax the Arizona senator might support. But—shocker—she’s sent mixed signals.

After weeks of posturing, the party needs to come home, pass the Biden agenda, and honor its commitments to voters.