The Sinema-Manchin split that shaped Dems' deal - POLITICO

After Manchin agreed with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on the party-line tax, health care and energy bill, the West Virginia Democrat found himself bargaining with fellow moderate Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. Both hard-nosed negotiators, the Arizona Democrats’ business-friendly tax-approach clashed sharply with Manchin’s more progressive positions on taxes..

Manchin sought to target the wealthy and ended up agreeing with Schumer to target the so-called carried interest loophole that allows some people to pay lower tax rates on investment income. He also signed off on a corporate minimum tax package that most Democrats believed Sinema supported..

Ultimately, Sinema took a scalpel to the corporate minimum tax and scuttled any changes to carried interest, which Manchin called particularly “painful.” Triangulating between them through all of it: Schumer, whose job was harmonizing the views of the very public Manchin with an often-silent Sinema..

“We argue with each other on issues, but we try to respect each other,” Schumer said of Manchin on Sunday as he chomped on a celebratory meal of leftover pasta cooked by his wife. “Sinema, if she gives you her word, you got it. But she’s not a schmoozer like Manchin.”?

Almost exactly one year after Manchin and Sinema teamed with Republicans to pass a historic infrastructure bill, the two moderates on Sunday cast decisive votes for Democrats’ second piece of the puzzle. It was far smaller than the party’s original $3.5 trillion vision, but larger than the slim health care legislation that lawmakers were considering just two weeks ago. It’s probably the last big party-line bill Democrats will be able to deliver for years, with the House expected to flip to Republicans in the November elections.?

The yearlong drama demonstrated the difficulties Schumer faces every day in running a 50-50 Senate, corralling a caucus that includes 47 other senators with their own ideas plus Sinema and Manchin, two centrist senators with divergent priorities.

Twice in full view on the Senate floor, Manchin animatedly conversed with Sinema about his deal, including pieces of the tax legislation that Sinema felt would stymie economic growth in Arizona.

Two months later, Schumer and Manchin broke bread, and Manchin delivered his negotiating position: He wanted to wait until April before trying again.

But Sinema never agreed to the carried interest provision.

4, Warner joined Manchin on his house boat to talk about the deal Sinema would soon announce on taxes

After getting soaked in a rainstorm, Warner left with a new outfit — wearing a pair of Manchin’s shorts and a T-shirt — and a hope that Manchin, Sinema and Schumer would see eye-to-eye

That had been included in previous versions of the legislation but omitted from the initial draft of the deal with Manchin

“I thought we wouldn’t pass the bill,” Schumer said

Manchin said once he agreed with Schumer the two were “hooked to the hip” at preventing changes to the bill that could jeopardize its passage, which Schumer said was a “linchpin” of the agreement

Sinema had no such deal, and when the legislation came to the floor for amendment votes she’d privately teamed with Thune to reverse the tax change

For Sinema, the moment demonstrated that she’s simply not in lockstep with Manchin — or the rest of her caucus

And for Manchin, the legislation converted his reputation from the guy that stopped Biden’s agenda cold in his tracks to the coal-state senator that not only cut a deal on climate, but helped sell it any way he could

“I’ve never seen a more balanced piece of legislation coming together,” Manchin said