Am I the only person that thinks Manchin may have given the Dems the gift of stunning electoral victories in 2022? By our running the upcoming election as a referendum on Build Back Better’s laundry list of wildly supported programs, how can we lose?
Isn’t our best chance of sweeping both House and Senate races—so that we finally have the majorities needed to liberate ourselves from the tyranny of Manchin and Sinema and their ilk—is to empower the voters themselves decide on these irresistible programs?
Imagine allowing diabetics to vote for $35 a month insulin. And parents to vote on extending the Child Tax Credit, not to mention child care subsidies, free pre-school, and paid family leave? And how about the youth vote coming out to make sure climate change initiatives are passed?
And there’s way more that will motivate people to come out to vote KNOWING that a Democratic victory will actually make these programs a reality because the legislation has actually been passed and just needs 2 additional votes in the Senate, (and for the House to remain under Democratic control).
Think of the constituencies for these programs:
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Prescription drug costs dramatically reduced
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Hearing aids covered by Medicare
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Extension of the Affordable Care Act
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Immigration reforms that were stripped from Reconciliation, but could be adopted by the Senate with a Democratic majority
These are not like past campaign promises that never get fulfilled. Build Back Better is almost to the finish line and include all this (and more)— so voters can finally feel like their votes will actually count for something. Like they themselves are running the ball through the goalpost!
And Dems can so easily address the question of how do we pay for all this? We tax the rich who got close to 2 trillion in a Trump Republican tax cut that they sold as trickle down—and which didn’t trickle down, and did not get reinvested in economic expansion, and which came directly out of the budget— in other words: from the taxes paid by the rest of us!
And that tax cut giveaway did not break the bank. So let’s take that money back and use it in the public interest!
All Dems voted against that tax cut for the rich, too, and can proudly prove the correctness of that vote now that there’s data to show they were right. Make the Republicans defend their gift of $2 trillion to the rich every time they raise the cost of BBB.
And here’s the clincher: not a single Republican voted for any of these Biden/Democrat initiatives. The 2022 elections is our chance to finally hold them accountable for their failure to address the needs of working people.
Thank you, Joe Manchin!