Senate Republicans will raise their own objections this week as Democrats scramble to address the West Virginia Democrat’s further narrowing of their party-line bill. The GOP is readying arguments before the Senate’s nonpartisan rules arbiter in a bid to eject more items from the ever-slimmer package Democrats once called Build Back Better.

Republican leaders hope trimming the bill even more will leave the majority party with an embarrassingly modest final product to trumpet ahead of the midterm elections, after Manchin nixed climate and tax provisions in the final lap of negotiations. Democrats had bet a comprehensive party-line victory would brighten their grim electoral odds in November, as the House looks increasingly gone and President Joe Biden’s approval ratings sag — but they’re settling for less as the legislation shrinks to prescription drug pricing and Obamacare subsidies…

This week’s wonky faceoff before the Senate parliamentarian is likely to be substantially quicker and less painful for the majority party now that Manchin has sworn off tax hikes, which Republicans were ready to protest as unworkable under the chamber’s rules. But even the central piece that remains after Manchin’s latest ultimatum — policy to lower prescription drug prices — is at risk of dwindling further under the Republican onslaught.