Oct. 5, 2021: Biden getting frustrated with Manchin and Sinema

President Joe Biden summoned progressives to a Zoom meeting to deliver a simple message, per a senior White House official:

“He told them that the end point would be about $2 trillion and he wanted their input on what it should look like.”

It was part of a weeklong project by Biden, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to let it gradually sink in that the reconciliation bill will be dramatically scaled back. Nobody we talked to left the roughly 90-minute call with a detailed understanding of what might be cut or how the new top line would be achieved.

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Raghu Manavalan is the host of POLITICO's Playbook.
Jenny Ament is the senior producer for POLITICO Audio. 
Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.