Democrat continues to hold up Biden’s spending plan

Joe Manchin, the moderate Democrat standing in the way of Joe Biden’s signature $3.5tn spending bill, has insisted again that he would not support the package, declaring the price tag too high and White House efforts to speed its passage too hasty. The West Virginia senator, who earlier this month urged the administration to “hit the pause button” on the ambitious measure, is the swing vote in a divided 50-50 chamber. “I cannot support $3.5tn. If I can’t go home and explain [the bill], I can’t vote for it,” he said in a TV interview last weekend.