White House staff accused of ignoring Manchin's concerns about spending spree

 Washington Examiner:

White House spending bill pressure campaign on Manchin backfires

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 “It’s not the president. This is staff,” the senator told Hoppy Kercheval on Monday.

“I just got to the wit’s end,” he said, adding that White House staff “drove some things and they put some things out that were absolutely inexcusable. They know what it is, and that’s it.”

Manchin pointed to a statement issued by the White House on Sunday, which he said came in retaliation for a Fox News appearance during which the senator said he could no longer vote for Biden’s social and climate spending agenda. For most of the year, White House and Democratic leadership struggled to reconcile the diverging priorities of the party’s centrist and liberal factions and chart a path forward for Biden’s infrastructure and social spending plans. To break the standstill, the president vowed to secure Manchin’s vote on Build Back Better if left-wing members cleared the way for the bipartisan infrastructure bill to pass.

Negotiations over the bill picked up, but Manchin said there remained obstacles between the parties over provisions in the bill and ways to pay for them.

In her rebuke, Psaki called Manchin’s pullback from negotiations a “sudden and inexplicable reversal in his position and a breach of his commitments to the president and the senator’s colleagues in the House and Senate.” White House officials said the president approved the blistering missive.

Responding to this, Manchin said, “Basically, they retaliated.” He added that “staff-driven” issues hampered progress throughout.

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I suspect they thought they had already compromised by reducing the size of the package, but what they really did is create gimmicks to make the package look like it was paid for when it wasn't.  They were engaged in the politics of fraud.