WASHINGTON — Nearly a year ago, Sen. Joe Manchin wrote Fed Chair Jerome Powell to raise alarm that the central bank’s policies would overheat the economy, a fixation that made the West Virginia Democrat an outlier in his party.
But with inflation now at a 40-year high, Manchin’s concerns have been vindicated — and gave him ammunition to once again thwart a legislative agenda President Joe Biden and the White House had hoped would lift their party’s prospects ahead of November’s midterm elections.
Manchin privately told Democratic leaders Thursday that he wouldn’t support an economic package that included tax hikes and provisions to fight climate change before an August congressional recess, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s deadline, according to three people familiar with the talks. The move was another blow from the senator against an administration — of his own party — that’s weighed down by Biden’s poor approval ratings and still smarting from Manchin’s torching of the president’s signature Build Back Better plan.
