Manchin fans faint hopes for stalled social, climate bill

By ALAN FRAM
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Pivotal Sen. Joe Manchin has floated the broad outlines of a reconfigured social and environment package that aims half its resources at reducing federal deficits. The West Virginia Democrat described his ideas to reporters Wednesday, a day after President Joe Biden suggested refocusing his own more ambitious but stalled plan. Manchin’s opposition doomed Biden’s 10-year, roughly $2 trillion measure in December. On Wednesday he provided no figures or details. But his ideas provided a faint flicker of hope that Democrats might revive some version of Biden’s marquee legislative priority this election year. His proposal would be a major change in Biden’s measure, leaving its fate uncertain.