"Biden officials pushed hard to make that program permanent but couldn’t overcome opposition from centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who argued the government’s spending was stoking inflation."

F@#& Joe Manchin!

Capitalists will always view the uplift of their captive labor market as a bad thing. Covid era expansion of government aid was always intended to be life support for a monetarily ensnared working class in order to maintain the exploitation on the other side of the pandemic. Why do you think they are so adamant about the "return to work"? It isnt just the corporate property developers suffering directly from unused realty, but the middle managers suffering from irrelevance of not being able to physically wield power over employees. Keeping workers stuck in a cycle of poverty is how late-stage capitalism operates most efficiently for the ruling class.

It really is crazy that under the COVID relief bills we saw direct payments to citizens, the child tax credits, and no cost healthcare at point of service for ONE disease. And then poof it was gone.

Especially on that last one, I’m surprised I don’t see it wrapped into the Medicare for All movement more often as an example of a dramatic expansion of the government’s role in healthcare for all Americans, however temporary and limited.

title sounds like clickbait. it's so weird to use collapsing, when the real story is the covid era programs are expiring (as OP thankfully points out, thanks OP).

US will always be US...years after we received the meager covid relief funds, a certain group was still complaining about too much free money...

Not collapsing. Being torn right the fuck back down, by conservatives and Republicans who hate Americans and don't care about the well-being and safety of our most vulnerable.

Yet another democrat "we'd love to but..." When will people learn that Manchin switching sides is all part of the play? Lieberman did the same to nerf the ACA. When democrats get a majority, it's always by a small enough margin that you can pay a couple of people off to switch sides. Then with the tiniest of temporary victories, democrats can still claim "this is the greatest mostest bestest amazingest progressivest president in US history" which sounds impressive until you see the reality. It's a baby rattle that distracts the dumbest diehard democrat fans who think democrats actually intend to make progress. Meanwhile the rest just vote democrat because they're not republicans, but we're not stupid enough to think it'll make a difference in this crooked system.