Memo
MEMO: Questions Senator Sinema Must Answer to Prove She Puts Arizona Families Above Corporate Donors
DATE: Wednesday, September 29, 2021
TO: Interested Parties
FROM: Kyle Herrig, Accountable.US President
SUBJECT: Questions Senator Sinema Must Answer to Prove She Puts Arizona Families Above Corporate Donors
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) may never get another opportunity to deliver long overdue investments that give everyday families a fighting chance to get ahead amid unimaginable obstacles in recent years. That’s exactly what Congress is about to decide: to pass or sink President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda, which would “create jobs, cut taxes, and lower costs for working families” — fully paid for by asking billion-dollar corporations to finally pay their fair share.
Unfortunately, Sen. Sinema has threatened to “derail” the entire process unless the proposed, middle-class focused, investments are rolled back substantially. It’s no doubt left the majority of Arizona voters who support Biden’s proposals wondering why.
Now comes reports Sinema is holding a ritzy fundraiser with five business lobbying groups, many of whom fiercely oppose the popular Bident plan. In response, Accountable.US has three questions for Sen. Sinema that Arizona’s working families deserve straight answers to:
1.) A recent Accountable.US analysis found Sen. Sinema has taken nearly $1 million from rich industry interests opposing the reconciliation plan. Is the Senator only concerned with serving the interests of her corporate donors, even if it comes at the expense of her constituents?
Among the findings, Sinema took $6,000 from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce PAC — whose leadership boards are packed with corporations that have given her $448,365. The Chamber’s PAC has vowed to do “everything we can” to block Biden’s budget after offering Sinema a “reward” for resisting the President’s agenda earlier this year.
In August alone, Sen. Sinema banked thousands from donors including Raytheon, AES corporation, and New York Life Insurance Co., companies whose CEOs are members of the Business Roundtable. The group has called the reconciliation bill “troubling” and have prepared to make a “significant multifaceted campaign” against the tax increases in the plan.
2.) An Accountable.US report found the expanded Child Tax Credit in Biden’s Build Back Better plan would benefit approximately 92% of Arizonan children – and that at most 6.6% of Arizona households would be affected by the plan to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans. Will Sen. Sinema side with the thousands of children and families in Arizona that would largely benefit from the expansion of the child tax credit?
Sen. Sinema holds a key vote on the reconciliation package that is the vehicle for several of the plan’s major initiatives to boost the economy and lower costs for families — investments that are widely popular in Arizona and nationally. This includes a historic middle class tax cut, in part through extending the Child Tax Credit, which was originally expanded through President Biden’s March 2021 American Rescue Plan.
In the current proposal, the middle-class tax cut will be paid for by asking the wealthiest Americans to pay a fairer share, with no one earning under $400,000 annually facing tax increases.
3.) At least 57% of Arizona voters support Biden’s Build Back Better plan that would provide critical investments in childcare, health care, and climate action while asking big corporations to pay their fair share. Why hasn’t Sen. Sinema pledged her vote for the bill widely supported by her constituents?
Both nationally and in Arizona, voters overwhelmingly support the major provisions of the Build Back Better agenda, including a huge bipartisan majority that support the pay-fors in the budget reconciliation plan. A Hart Research poll found 57% of Arizona voters back the BBB Act after hearing a brief description of it, “including that it would cost $3.5 trillion spread over 10 years.”
Bottom Line: Senator Sinema faces a simple choice: do what Arizona families want and deliver investments that will level the playing field and build an economy that works for everyone, not just millionaires and billion-dollar interests. Or do what her corporate donors want and maintain the broken status quo where corporations pay relatively nothing in taxes while everyone else pays the price.
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