Q Sam, are you getting the same reads from Manchin in the weeks before this Surprise?
A Yes, I thought this was a package that was gonna, that was gonna be able to quickly reach the Senate floor, pass the Senate, and move on and pass the House to get to the President's desk, and in part because in addition to being a major investment in climate and clean energy that, that the leaders across the party have been fighting for for a couple of years now, it was going to be anti, it is a package designed to be anti-inflationary, and to confront the energy costs and energy insecurity increasingly facing the American people, Um, and, you know, spurred on throughout the course of the year by this Russia war in Ukraine, by rising gas prices, by inflation that's hit a range of issues throughout the, throughout the economy, but is really primarily driven by the cost of energy, the cost of fossil fuels, in particular gasoline, but also, uh, home heating and electricity. This was a, this is a package designed to confront those costs, to create good jobs, to advance environmental justice, and obviously, yes, to drive down carbon pollution. It, it, it really can be, should be, um, could have been the package that, um, that, that can meet all of those goals. I, you know, I'll just say the, the suite of investments, you know, the, the Build Back Better Act saw its time in the sun last year, and then, and then died at the end of last year, but, To Catherine's point, throughout the c…
AI assessment note: “Yes, I thought this was a package that was gonna, that was gonna be able”