U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D. AZ) is so fixated on appealing crossover voters over the Democratic base in Arizona. So this op-ed in Business Insider from actual Trump Supporter, Chea Yeomans and his wife, Tessa, constituents from Duncan, Arizona and member of WorkMoney has a message for Sinema:
We voted for Donald Trump, but no matter who's in office, we need Washington to put aside politics, put working people first, and focus on creating good jobs. This isn't a political issue, it's a quality of life issue. Aside from voting, I'm not that political, but with my family's well-being on the line, I've started taking action to get us out of this hole.
A few weeks ago, my fellow WorkMoney members and I spoke to Senator Sinema's office and urged her to support Joe Biden's American Jobs plan. We desperately need good quality jobs in Greenlee County, across Arizona, and around the country.
Even before the pandemic, good jobs were non-existent in my hometown of Duncan. In 2018, I got a job in Tucson doing construction. I'd stay there during the week and come home on the weekends. It was an incredibly difficult time in my marriage, but we needed the money and I had no choice.
Then in August of 2018, Tessa was in a terrible car accident and broke both her arms. She needed me to be home with her all the time. That's when we came up with the idea for our car-detailing business as a way to stay afloat. The business really took off and we were able to pay our bills and live a good life - nothing fancy, but we could afford an occasional dinner-and-a-movie or a vacation to visit family.
But the one-two punch of the mine closing and the pandemic were a disaster for our customers and for us. We tried looking for work in and around Duncan. We tried to find better jobs in Colorado, but there are few good jobs out there that would help us get back to the life we had even just a few years ago.
My wife and I now have to work four jobs just to try and keep our heads above water. She's going to school full-time and working as a substitute teacher and waiting tables in the evening. She recently lost her restaurant job, but she's looking for another. I've been working on my family's farm and trying to pick up work detailing cars when I can. We work from sun up to sun down everyday and are just barely making it. We don't get days off around here. So many of my friends, family members, and neighbors are in the same boat as us.
The American Jobs Plan is all about creating the good jobs Arizonans need, fixing up our beat-up roads and bridges, upgrading water, electricity, and broadband networks, all things that would help Arizonan families and businesses. It will get money flowing through our economy so small businesses like mine can thrive again.
President Biden is in closed conversation with Sinema on infrastructure:
Biden spoke with the Democrats -- Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin -- in separate meetings, according to a White House official.
The two lawmakers represent a crucial players in Biden's efforts to move his $4 trillion economic agenda. Both have insisted Democrats pursue a bipartisan track on infrastructure talks and
are part of a group of 21 Republicans and Democrats currently in talks with Biden over a plan that includes $579 billion in new spending. Sinema spoke with the bipartisan group after talking with Biden.
White House officials have made clear they're encouraged by the direction of the infrastructure talks thus far, but major differences remain over how to finance the proposal. Biden has rejected indexing the gas tax to inflation and applying user fees to electric vehicles -- two options considered by the group.
"The President thanked each senator for their engagement toward making historic investments in economic growth, middle class jobs, and the clean energy economy, and told them he was encouraged by what has taken shape but that he still has questions about the policy as well as the means for financing the bipartisan group's proposal," the official said.
Biden also discussed voting legislation with Manchin, just one day before the Senate is slated to hold a procedural vote on a sweeping voting rights measure, the official said. Manchin, who opposes the original measure, has floated compromise language and is in talks with Democrats on the issue.
And while Sinema doubles down on her dumb ass argument about preserving the filibuster:
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema stood firmly for the filibuster Monday, saying essentially that Democrats should not take advantage of being in the majority by passing legislation that a future Republican majority could overturn.
The Arizona Democrat wrote an opinion article that was published Monday in The Washington Post, the night before senators are set to vote on whether to debate sweeping voting rights legislation. No Republicans in the evenly divided Senate are expected to support the For the People Act, which would need at least 60 votes to overcome a filibuster. GOP lawmakers have already successfully used the filibuster this year to stop debate over one piece of legislation: establishing a bipartisan Jan. 6 commission.
“It’s no secret that I oppose eliminating the Senate’s 60-vote threshold. I held the same view during three terms in the U.S. House, and said the same after I was elected to the Senate in 2018,” the moderate Democrat wrote. “If anyone expected me to reverse my position because my party now controls the Senate, they should know that my approach to legislating in Congress is the same whether in the minority or majority.”
Steve Benen at MSNBC points out how stupid her argument is:
Now, the Senate Democrat is trying a slightly different tack:
Sinema's office told NBC News her support for the filibuster is "not based on the importance of any particular policy," but rather "based on what is best for our democracy, including the fact that the filibuster helps protect the country from wild swings back and forth between opposing policy poles."
Let's take those one at a time.
First, there's no reason to assume a majority-rule Senate will necessarily produce wild policy swings. Not only is this at odds with what history shows us -- remember, filibuster abuses are a fairly modern phenomenon -- but both parties have recently struggled to put together 50 votes for major partisan priorities, reinforcing the kind of challenges associated with dramatic governing changes. Consider what happened, for example, when Republicans tried to "repeal and replace" the Affordable Care Act in 2017.
Besides, the power should remain in voters' hands. If they elect policymakers who go too far with "wild" policy swings, voters in the next election cycle can elect new officials to do the opposite.
Second, there's Sinema's suggestion that mandatory super-majorities for nearly all legislation is what's "best for our democracy."
Perhaps "democracy" wasn't the best choice of words in this pitch.
Americans can elect one party to lead the White House, the Senate, and the House, with polls showing robust public support for that party's legislative agenda. But thanks to filibuster abuses, that party won't be able to pursue its own governing vision unless some members of the Senate minority agree to let them.
Jon Chait added this morning that in the current Senate, "New laws require 60 votes, but existing programs can be defunded with 51. Judges, who can be appointed with a mere 51 votes, can strike down laws that required 60 to pass."
How in the world is this what's "best for our democracy"?
And Progressive grassroots aren’t giving up on going after Sinema:
The group, Just Democracy, is spending $1.2 million for TV ads and another $200,000 on digital ads in Arizona from June 21 to June 30, said a spokesman for the group, adding the effort will feature two ads on cable news programs, local news and local sports in the state.
In one ad, a narrator says: "Arizona, Kyrsten Sinema is failing us," with footage of her flashing a thumbs-down in March on raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour and standing next to Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, on a recent tour when she defended the 60-vote rule.
"As the GOP tries to silence our voices, she's just standing by, supporting a Jim Crow relic instead," the narrator says, invoking a term some on the left use to describe the filibuster. "You're refusing to stand with us, Sen. Sinema. Why should we stand with you?"
The second ad features activists who say their "right to vote is under attack" and demand that she back up her support for the election overhaul legislation and not allow it to be blocked by the filibuster, which is again referred to as a "Jim Crow relic."
Sinema is a co-sponsor of the "For The People Act," an amended version of which is headed for a Senate vote on Tuesday. It has a path to winning 50 Democrats but has no realistic chance of getting to 60 votes to defeat a Republican-led filibuster.
If you’re an Arizona Kossack, I urge you to keep up the pressure on Sinema to stop supporting the filibuster and save Democracy. Click here to contact Sinema’s office.