Sen. Joe Manchin came up with a new demand to weaken and delay President Joe Biden’s agenda this week, leaving Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin “stunned” as well as “frustrated and disappointed.” Manchin now insists that the extension of the expanded child tax credit must last for 10 years—but he’s sticking to his $1.75 trillion over 10 years limit on the size of the overall bill. That means that the vast majority of the bill would be the child tax credit, with little left over for a long list of other priorities.

As many times as Manchin has moved the goalposts just as it seemed Biden and Democratic leaders had assuaged his ego enough to move forward, negotiating with this one guy is like negotiating with at least a dozen average mediocre white men all at once. But Biden continues to patiently seek Manchin’s vote, saying in a statement, “It takes time to finalize these agreements, prepare the legislative changes, and finish all the parliamentary and procedural steps needed to enable a Senate vote. We will advance this work together over the days and weeks ahead.”

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Manchin claims that the 10-year time frame is necessary since Congress is likely to extend the child tax credit once it’s passed. This is not how he approaches defense spending, let’s say. Just this week he “applauded” the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act, which gives the military $768 billion for one year. And he’ll do it again next year. But lifting kids out of poverty and giving struggling middle-class families a cushion? That has to be budgeted for 10 years or it’s somehow dishonest. And then universal preschool, elder care, and putting a small down payment on saving the planet from climate catastrophe get the leftover crumbs.

Democrats—as in, the vast majority of them—started with a compromise, seeking a $3.5 trillion bill to set the country back on course, when far more was really needed. After extended negotiation on that in which he demanded a series of cuts and further compromises, Manchin went public with his $1.5 trillion, or at absolute most $1.75 trillion, ceiling for the bill. And then he continued to shift his position constantly, seeming to come to the brink of an agreement only to come out with a new demand. It may have gotten Manchin the attention he’s seeking, but it sure doesn’t make him look honest, or bright, or principled.

Build Back Better won’t be done by the end of the year, which means that the transformative child tax credit expansion is virtually guaranteed to lapse for at least one month, maybe more, causing suffering—including in Manchin’s home state of West Virginia. It becomes incredibly urgent to pass the bill as early in 2022 as possible, because with every month that passes it becomes less likely that anything at all will pass.

“The longer we wait, the harder it gets,” Rep. Suzan DelBene, chair of the conservative-ish New Democratic Coalition, told Paul Waldman and Greg Sargent. DelBene, Definitely Not A Liberal, also told Waldman and Sargent that it was urgent.

”The one thing we hear from folks across all purple districts is they want to see governance work,” she said. “We need to get it done.” What Manchin doesn’t seem to get is that although he demonstrates his power every time he changes his mind, it doesn’t make him look strong. But while he makes himself look indecisive and manipulative, he does accomplish one thing: making Democrats look weak, and hurting the party overall.

Manchin is an unreasonable, dithering egomaniac. But he’s the vote Democrats need, and they need to make it happen as soon as possible in 2022.