Progress Arizona, which played a role in electing Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) to the U.S. Senate, is once again attacking the moderate Democrat, who won’t budge on her party’s proposed $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill.
“This is our moment to deliver on all of the promises that we made,” Emily Kirkland, executive director of the nonprofit, reportedly said. “She is just absolutely standing in the way of that, without making clear what she wants.”
Democrats are trying to pass a massive infrastructure bill that includes a wishlist of progressive policy proposals including universal pre-K schooling and elder care, along with climate change spending and free community college.
Sinema, a Democrat in a typically-Republican state, has little wiggle room if she hopes to get reelected in 2024. The same goes for Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), another moderate Democrat in a red state.
Moderate Democrats have proposed a $1 trillion bill focusing on more traditional infrastructure items like roads and bridges.
But the progressive wing of the party has threatened to block their legislation and introduce its own, separate bill, setting up a showdown between the two factions of the left-wing party.
Progress Arizona’s displeasure with Sinema began when she and Manchin refused to vote in favor of ending the Senate filibuster, another progressive goal.
“[The filibuster] itself to dysfunction,” Kirkland said. “We should have a system where you send a party to DC, and they are able to enact an agenda.”
“When we elected Democrats to the majority in D.C. in 2020, we voted in favor of the popular legislation on their agenda–and we expect them to deliver. But, Democrats’ promises: protections for voting rights, labor rights, immigration reform, and climate solutions are likely to fail due to an arcane, procedural rule in the Senate,” Progress Arizona’s website says. “Now, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is allowing Republicans to block all of the popular policies that will address the problems we face as a country.”
The website also links to a petition page, asking progressives to sign their name to “[t]ell Sinema that her position on the filibuster is wrong, and as a constituent, you support abolishing the filibuster and passing the For the People Act.”
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Pete D’Abrosca is a contributor at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Kyrsten Sinema” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
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Stay strong Senator!