My wife and I have been watching with growing alarm as the Democrats who represent a majority of the people in Congress and the President drift along, negotiating with themselves, trying to find positions on critical transformative legislation to improve our lives. It is particularly galling that our senior Senator had become part of the problem in moving this agenda along, not part of the solution.
The Daily Star in Tucson is filled every day with letters critical of Senator Sinema’s performance, and occasionally a letter praising what she is doing. Here is a letter we have just sent off to her:
Dear Senator Sinema:
As fervent supporters of your Senate candidacy, we must tell you that we are very disappointed in your conduct and behavior over the past few months. These are serious times. It is not the time for you to be coy with your President, not the time to appear uninformed or ignorant of the issues in major legislation, and certainly not the time to absent yourself from meaningful negotiation on the matters you appear to have a reason to oppose.
The Democratic Party, both on the ground here in Arizona and nationally, did a lot to get you to where you are. It is not the time for you to exhibit bad behavior and willful refusal to get on board. It’s time for you to stop standing in the way and start being part of the solution.
For example, your opposition to allowing Medicare to negotiate prices with Pharma companies directly opposes the interests of senior citizens in your constituency who are now paying inflated prices for their prescription drugs. Allowing Medicare to negotiate will help lower the prescription costs Medicare pays and ultimately save taxpayers money.
Medicare beneficiaries will still be paying their copayments, and I can assure you that big pharma, which seems to be lining your fancy purse with money, will still be doing well.
Big Pharma is always on the lookout for new treatment innovations and knows how to make money. We know that, and you know that. We remember your work back in 2009 and 2010 to get the Affordable Care Act passed and implemented. So we are wondering what has happened to your values since then.
Democratic senators and representatives have a lot to do in a short time. Those of us who sent you to the Senate are waiting for you to be the mature, hard-working, team player legislator you appeared to be — not the silly, incommunicative contrarian we here in Arizona are now watching.
Senator, a great deal is at stake, not just the bipartisan infrastructure bill awaiting House action and the larger Recovery Act now stymied in the Senate. In addition, voter and election protection legislation awaits Senate action. Unfortunately, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has shown by his rhetoric and action that his only priority is to use his power to block any Democratic initiative to get anything done.
This is the time Congress can do great things for the country and our state. We want to be a part of this movement. So we urge you to get back to the Senate, make your peace with the Majority leader Chuck Schumer, vote to eliminate the filibuster, pass the President’s legislation, and DO IT NOW!
Your constituents are watching.
We urge you and all our fellow constituents to make your feelings known to the Senator at this critical moment. You can reach her office at https://www.sinema.senate.gov/contact-kyrsten. Please tell her what you think about her politics and behavior at this critical juncture.
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I agree with Bud Davis. It’s a good letter, very respectful, but it falls on deaf ears. That, of course, does not mean we should forego writing to our whacko Senator.
It is increasingly apparent that Sinema and Manchin are not Democrats, they are openly representing Mitch McConnell’s agenda and their own corporate donors. The so-called negotiations are a sham. Sinema’s got nothing and Manchin’s rhetoric about entitlements and what HE will allow clearly indicate that these saboteurs are aiming for total failure.
McConnell allowed the “bipartisan” infrastructure bill to pass the Senate because it gave credibility to Sinema and Manchin’s reasons for supporting the filibuster. McConnell wants the filibuster in place until the GOP takes back the Senate.
McConnell does not want the reconciliation bill to pass before the 2022 elections and then not pass at all when the GOP takes back the Senate or the House. With Biden’s agenda stalled, his approval is sliding downwards, and McConnell loves that. He wants 2022 to be about the Democrats getting nothing done.
Manchin has always been with the GOP and Sinema has switched sides. They are not useful idiots, as I once thought, they are full blown GOP allies. That makes “negotiations” difficult and very likely impossible. Either one of the saboteurs appears to be willing to help McConnell take down the Biden presidency.
I guess we’ll see, but Bernie Sanders is awfully mad at S&M and Biden doesn’t seem to like them much either. Not a good sign.
Lisa your thinking goes beyond the traditional thinking and is very good. Never underestimate your enemy. McConnell is an enemy in a suit. How about doing a letter to the editor or an op ed on your thinking and the impact on our nation if the scheme succeeds, etc., etc. Sinema and Manchin do not have to be parties to why the manipulation is occurring. They just have to react is the ways that the puppet masker is pulling the strings. McConnell is very smart and unprincipled. Peace! Buzz Davis
Thank you Paul! It is a good letter. But I think falls on deaf ears – sad to say.
Sinema and Manchin prove that we need a citizen recall law at the federal level for legislative, executive and judicial branches.
The present impeachment process in the Constitution works but is not done enough. And citizens have no power in the impeachment process. We are left to begging as all of us who have written Sinema letters have to do.
The concept of throw the bums out at the next election is a good concept. But American is not meeting the looming crises in front of us. Though most people assume the world will go on for ever, this too shall pass, that thinking is not wise today.
The world, the environment and wars do not just sit and wait until a group of politicians have “time” to debate and decide what should be done.
Peace!
Buzz Davis Vets for Peace in Tucson