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Manchin has gotten what he wanted, combined bills under $3T, which surely Budget and GAO will massage into revenue-neutral or revenue-positive, which they obviously could not do with the previous combined $4.7T, which is somewhere between 4-7% of all the liquidity in the free world...Infrastructure is $1.2T, so that's why his number is $1.7T for the other garbage.

The thing is, Mark, Manchin is a long-time victim of the last person he talks to, so whoever got to Manchin, can be ungotten by the next caller.

The most obvious way would be to gaslight, er, belittle the Squat, right now, tonight, into believing that THEY sold out, as the hold-outs on the infrastructure bill to protect their free-for-all $3.5T.

"Hi, Madam Representative Sandy? This is L.N. Smithee from the Columbia Times. We have heard that The Squad has caved into Sen. Machin's demands, that the Senator has gloated out loud to the New York Times how badly he played you and Rep. Tflab and Rep. Omfart. It is rumored that Manchin will be side-by-side with Resident Xiden tomorrow morning to rub the salt in your eyes as they announce selling you out. Do you have any comment?"