President Biden acknowledged Thursday his Build Back Better agenda is in jeopardy due to two Senate Democrats: Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Both senators have pushed Biden to slash in half his $3.5 trillion proposal that would be spent over 10 years to vastly expand the safety net and combat the climate crisis. We take an in-depth look at the two lawmakers, starting with Sinema. “Unfortunately, Sinema really reads as a cautionary tale of what happens when political ambition becomes a be-all and end-all,” says Branko Marcetic, Jacobin staff writer, who describes the political evolution of Sinema, who ran in her early career as a socialist and has moved “rightward and rightward every step of the way.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

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