The decision by Mr. Manchin, a conservative-leaning Democrat whose opposition effectively stalled Mr. Biden’s economic package in the evenly divided Senate, dealt a devastating blow to his party’s efforts to enact a broad social security, climate and tax package . In recent months, Democrats had scaled back their ambitions for such a plan to win over Mr. Manchin, hoping he would agree to support even a fraction of the sweeping initiative they once envisioned. His abrupt shift appeared to thwart those ambitions. The change capped weeks of arduous negotiations to hammer out a package that could win Mr. Manchin’s support. It came seven months after West Virginia abruptly pulled out of talks and rejected a much bigger plan. “Political headlines mean nothing to the millions of Americans struggling to afford food and gas as inflation soars to 9.1 percent,” said Sam Runyon, Mr. Manchin’s spokesman. “Senator Manchin believes it is time for leaders to put aside political agendas, reassess and adapt to the economic realities facing the country to avoid taking actions that add fuel to the fire of inflation.” “Senator Manchin did not leave the table,” he added. As of Thursday morning, Democrats remained cautiously optimistic that a deal could be reached, provided they followed through on Mr. Manchin’s repeated calls to tackle the national debt, tax reform and drug prices. The Washington Post earlier reported details of the conversation, which were confirmed by two people briefed on the conversation. Because Democrats hold the Senate with an absolute 50-50 majority, Mr. Manchin was able to effectively veto the domestic policy package, which the party had planned to move under a special fast-track budget process that would have allowed him to override a filibuster and pass with a simple majority. With Democrats bracing for losses in midterm elections this fall, the package could be the party’s last chance to enact major spending and tax legislation while still holding the White House and both houses of Congress. By rejecting any climate and energy provisions, Mr. Manchin appeared to have single-handedly shot down Mr. Biden’s ambitious climate agenda and what would be the largest single federal investment in American history to address the end of climate change. change. His decision came days after a report showed prices rose 9.1% in June, exacerbating existing fears about inflation and rising costs for Americans every day. But while Mr. Manchin has long sounded the alarm about inflation and the national debt, he had also kept open the issue of overhauling the tax code, a position he appeared to have reversed. It surprised Democratic officials who had worked to win Mr. Manchin’s vote. As recently as Friday, Democrats said they had rallied around a plan to use funds from raising taxes on some high-income Americans to expand the solvency of a core Medicare fund. But it was particularly devastating for those who had championed the climate and energy provisions. In calls to various climate activists Thursday night, Mr. Schumer and his staff sounded shocked and said they had believed until a few hours ago that a deal was still possible, said a person who spoke to Mr. Schumer. Without action from Congress, it will be impossible to meet Mr. Biden’s goal of cutting US emissions by about half by the end of this decade. This goal was aimed at keeping the planet to stabilize the climate at about 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming compared to pre-industrial levels. The Earth has already warmed by about 1.1 degrees Celsius, or about 2 degrees Fahrenheit. Lawmakers and activists leading the charge for action to combat climate change expressed their outrage Thursday night. “I’m not going to cover my disappointment here, especially since almost all the climate and energy issues have been resolved,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. “This is our last chance to prevent the most devastating—and costly—effects of climate change. We cannot go back in another decade and prevent hundreds of billions—if not trillions—in economic damage and undo inevitable human death.” “If we can’t go ahead as we’d hoped, we need to salvage as much of this package as possible,” he added. “The expression failure is not an option is overused, but failure is not really an option here.” Leah Stokes, a professor of environmental policy at the University of California, Santa Barbara who has advised congressional Democrats on climate legislation, sobbed Thursday night as she described the months of work she and other activists, scientists and legislative staff had been thrown into the negotiations. “The stakes are so high,” he said. “It’s infuriating that it condemns our own children.” Many were seething with anger at Mr. Manchin. He has been criticized for misleading negotiators while scrapping a package that at one stage would have been enough to cut emissions and also added fossil fuel projects that cut into climate targets. In the final days of the talks, clean energy tax breaks had been cut, and Mr. Manchin was working to include approval for an offshore oil and gas lease and a permit for a fossil fuel project in his state, congressional aides said. . Tiernan Sittenfeld, the senior vice president of government affairs at the League of Conservation Voters, a nonprofit group, said Mr. Manchin had doomed future generations. “There are really no words, at least words fit to be printed in the New York Times, for how horrified and outraged we are,” he said.
