President JOE BIDEN is set to speak with Sen. JOE MANCHIN as early as today in what Hill sources tell us will be a make-or-break moment for passing the Build Back Better Act (BBB) before Christmas.

Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER has been adamant that his chamber will clear the party’s $1.7 trillion social spending package before senators leave for the holidays. Yet everyone knows that won’t happen without the stubborn West Virginia Democrat — and Democrats are looking for some presidential arm-twisting to get him there…

POSSIBLE PROBLEMS FOR MANCHIN: On Friday, the CBO issued a score showing that if programs in the bill were extended for a full decade, as many expect they would eventually be, the cost of the legislation would add about $3 trillion to the deficit. Democratic leaders have been deriding the score as “fake,” noting that their legislation includes sunsets on programs after a couple of years. But Manchin has called such a score the “real” cost of the programs — and it turns out he was the one who asked Republicans to have it commissioned all along.