Roll Call: Odd couple Sanders and Manchin are 630 centuries apart

The Winston Group’s David Winston writes in today’s Roll Call about the divisions between moderate and liberal Democrats and the latest on the $3.5 trillion Build Back Better reconciliation bill.

Washington has perhaps never seen two members of the same party further apart in their economic beliefs and priorities. Yet Sanders and Manchin are tied to each other in fast-moving negotiations with vastly different goals. To provide some context as to how far apart $2 trillion is, think about this analogy.

The next million seconds is about 11 days; the next billion seconds is about 31 years; the next trillion seconds is about 315 centuries. At a rate of a dollar per second, a $2 trillion difference is the equivalent of about 630 centuries.

So, from a spending perspective, Manchin and Sanders, the Senate’s odd couple, are 630 centuries apart. And the House Democratic Caucus has a similar time and space problem. 

Read the full piece here.