WHAT'S HAPPENING WITH 2 "BUILD BACK BETTER BILLS?"

If you've had trouble following the latest developments in Congress, you're not alone. Here's an update on President Biden's transformative Build Back Better plan.

The Build Back Better plan is moving forward in two separate bills. The first bill, focused on infrastructure, includes a mix of good things and not-so-good things and passed the Senate in September with the support of Mitch McConnell and 19 other Republicans.

The second bill (The Reconciliation bill) includes a sweeping set of reforms that help everyday Americans and that corporate-backed Republicans hate, including lower drug prices, expanded pre-K, free community college, paid family leave, and raising taxes on the ultra-wealthy.

Last week, there was a big push to pass only the Republican-backed infrastructure bill in the House while leaving the crucial second bill by the wayside. But House progressives refused to go along, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi did not allow a vote on the bill, a key step toward victory.

Now, we're facing a new threat. Joe Manchin is demanding that the bill be cut by more than half, which would almost surely gut some of the most critical parts of the bill.

To succeed in this new phase of the campaign, we must accomplish one key strategic objective: educate voters on what's actually in the bill.

Now, that should be the job of the mainstream media, but instead they've been focused on building false, shock-value narratives about the cost of the bill—$3.5 trillion—without providing any context, making it easy for Joe Manchin, Kyrsten Sinema, and the Republicans to attack it. But failing to invest in education, clean energy, and health care ... in order to preserve tax breaks for Jeff Bezos? That's wildly unpopular—and to win, we need to make sure everyone knows that's really what's at stake.

This plan will be a game changer for Arizona.  

The Please, SHARE THIS INFORMATION and contact Sen. Kyrsten Sinema  and urge her to support the Reconciliation Bill.

Tucson Office Phone: 520-639-7080

Phoenix Phone: 602-598-7327

Washington D.C. Phone: 202-224-4521

Tell Members of Congress: to reject Trump’s infrastructure scam.

During Tuesday night's State of the Union, Trump introduced his #InfrastructureScam - and just like his health care and tax plans it will be another massive giveaway to the rich and powerful that will force cities and states to fight against each other in a "Hunger Games"-esque bid for limited infrastructure funds.

Tell Members of Congress: to reject Trump’s infrastructure scam.

Trump’s plan leaves our communities open to exploitation by private companies. Under the plan, our existing public infrastructure - roads, bridges, hospitals, and even our air traffic control towers - will be sold off to Wall Street for pennies on the dollar, allowing them to install new tolls and fees that jack up prices that many individuals and families simply cannot afford. His plan will be funded by cutting critical social safety net programs used by many low income communities like Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, SNAP, and Federal Housing Assistance - making this a $1.3 trillion tax increase on those that can least afford it. To top it all off, Trump’s plan will gut fair labor laws and life-saving environmental protections.

 Trump’s plan would:3,4

• Gut environmental protections
• Allow Trump cronies to push projects without public input
• Turn public highways into toll roads
• Sell off public property to distant Wall Street hedge fund landlords
• Pad the profits of contractors for projects already underway
• Give billions in tax handouts to Wall Street corporations
• Fuel the construction of more dirty energy pipelines
• Lower worker pay and sabotage worker power
• Produce few new jobs, as companies will just pocket subsidies on projects already underway

Democrats in Congress have better plans that don’t come at the expense of the social safety net and environmental protections. Their “Millions of Jobs” principles will create millions of jobs by repairing crumbling roads, bridges and schools, supporting 21st century clean-energy projects and rebuilding water systems to keep our drinking water safe.¹ To stop Trump’s scam infrastructure plan we need to push Members of Congress to support the bold principles needed to create a just 21st century infrastructure bill.

Tell Members of Congress: to support the “Millions of Jobs” infrastructure principles and reject any plan that cuts the social safety net.

Not only is Trump’s plan a giveaway for billionaire developers and Wall Street but under his plan poorer cities with high Black populations like Flint, MI would have to compete with wealthier cities to get access to limited federal infrastructure funds.² Infrastructure plans like Trump’s are how we get lead in our water, high pollution, crumbling roads, diminishing home values, rats in our schools, and limited access to good jobs.

Trump’s plan will not just rob wealth from low-income communities, but it will rob us of our health too. It will dismantle the few remaining environmental protections in place, like NEPA - the National Environmental Policy Act - which require companies to do comprehensive studies of how their projects will impact things like air and water quality. By gutting NEPA and other environmental laws, it will be a return to the rampant and destructive corporate polluting of our communities like the 1950’s and 60’s. Since Black communities already suffer from disproportionately high air and water pollution, Trump will exacerbate the systemic health crisis of asthma, early childhood development issues, lead poisoning, and life-long heart and brain diseases.

But if enough of us speak out in the coming weeks, we can make sure that Trump’s plan is dead on arrival in Congress by pressing Congress to embrace the “Millions of Jobs” principles.

Tell Members of Congress: to support the “Millions of Jobs” infrastructure principles and reject any plan that cuts the social safety net.

Progressive groups and Democrats in Congress have a better vision for America’s infrastructure - one that invest in the communities that need it most and doesn’t line the pockets of Wall Street. More than 100 members of Congress are supporting the “Millions of Jobs” infrastructure agenda because it focuses on creating long-term, 21st century jobs - not tax breaks for Trump and his billionaire friends.  The “Millions of Jobs” principles include:

• Prioritizing public investment over corporate giveaways and selling off public goods.
• Prioritizing racial and gender equity, environmental justice, and worker protections.
• Protecting wages, expanding Buy American provisions, encouraging project labor agreements, and prioritizing the needs of disadvantaged communities — both urban and rural.
• Ensuring the wealthiest Americans and giant corporations who reap the greatest economic benefit from public goods pay their fair share for key investments.
• Ensuring infrastructure investment does not come at the expense of Social Security and other vital programs.

The “Millions of Jobs” vision offers the solutions we need without cutting the social safety net or gutting environmental and fair labor protections. We need to push every Member of Congress to support this bold alternative.

Tell Members of Congress: Sign on to the “Millions of Jobs” infrastructure principles.

- the Color Of Change team

#MILLIONSOFJOBS

http://www.millionsofjobs.org

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 References:

1. H.Con.Res.63 - Supporting efforts to enact a bold jobs and infrastructure package that benefits all Americans, not just billionaires. https://act.colorofchange.org/go/14819?t=10&akid=9030%2E3510445%2E7VAX93
2. "How Trump's Infrastructure Plan Could Strain America's Cities." The Atlantic, 29 December 2017. https://act.colorofchange.org/go/17220?t=12&akid=9030%2E3510445%2E7VAX93
3. Eric Jaffe, “How Highway Construction Helped Hitler Rise to Power,” CityLab, June 6, 2014.
4. Goodkind, “Trump’s Infrastructure Plan is About Making Money, Not Building Roads and Bridges.”

Sign petition: Demand a public investment in infrastructure that fully funds the needs of U.S. communities

Last night, President Trump called for a $1.5 trillion investment in our country’s infrastructure.

Such an investment would be welcome―creating jobs, boosting productivity and providing vital public services for millions of Americans―if done right.

Unfortunately, Donald Trump’s proposed public-private partnerships would pad the pockets of private investors, not boost wages or bring long-overdue infrastructure projects to underserved communities.

Most public investments in infrastructure―building roads, bridges, transportation systems, water and sewer systems―are funded by federal, state and local governments and their construction and maintenance are overseen by democratically accountable governments. Research shows that public investments accelerate productivity growth, providing the potential for pay increases for working people.

But Donald Trump’s apparent approach to infrastructure investment is to make a token federal commitment, put a heavier burden on already-stretched state governments and invite private developers in to receive subsidies. Worse, the Trump administration has already announced one specific plank of their infrastructure plan: under-funding the Highway Trust Fund by $140 billion over the next decade. The result is likely to be very little boost to actual infrastructure investment, further pressure on state governments and the opportunity for private-sector profiteering.

Demand a public infrastructure commitment that invests in our communities at scale and doesn’t just provide subsidies to private developers.

- Economic Policy Institute

To sign the petition below click here.

To: All Members of Congress

A federal infrastructure plan should prioritize services to the public that are available to all of us as basic rights―such as safe drinking water. Early versions of Donald Trump’s infrastructure plan instead proposed public-private infrastructure partnerships that would provide no efficiency gains, and would open up many avenues of crony capitalism, corruption and rampant inequality of public investments across communities. Recently-leaked plans detailing the Trump approach are little better, kicking responsibility for infrastructure investment to states and providing loan guarantees to private developers. We call on Congress to make a real investment in public infrastructure, not abdicate federal responsibility for financing while handing ownership of these investments to private investors.

Sign Now: Demand a public and accountable investment in infrastructure that fully funds the needs of U.S. communities

 

Throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump had little to say about infrastructure. It wasn’t until the end of the campaign―prodded by his opponent’s $250 billion plan―that Trump offered a no-details boast that he would spend …. $1 trillion on infrastructure.

A serious plan to invest in the nation’s infrastructure would be welcome indeed. Infrastructure investments would create jobs, boost the nation’s productivity growth, and provide vital public services to a wide range of Americans.

But the Trump campaign plan wasn’t just empty, but outright corrupt; offering tax credits to private developers that would have applied to past investments or investments that have already been planned or undertaken. And a recently-leaked plan is little better.

Today―in his first State of the Union address―we can expect President Trump to dedicate a significant portion of the speech to infrastructure, with a plan rumored to be on the horizon. But will it be a real plan, or empty promises?

Sign the petition to Congress demanding a public investment in infrastructure that is accountable to American taxpayers―not one that pads the pockets of private investors.

In his State of the Union address, Donald Trump will likely try and sell his infrastructure plan as a nearly-free investment in our communities, claiming that private developers instead of taxpayers will provide the funding. But we should be extremely wary of claims about free lunches―in the end, it is American households who will pay for this.

By their nature, investments in transportation, water systems, and other vital components of infrastructure will be under-provided by private-sector investors. Take, for example, toll roads that are primarily used by more-affluent communities―padding the pockets of developers―compared to water systems in rural and underserved communities.

The recently leaked Trump plan would kick the responsibility for funding infrastructure to states, or allow private developers to obtain federal loan guarantees in exchange for the privilege of collecting tolls from American taxpayers.

That’s not an investment in the public good. It’s an open invitation for crony capitalism, corruption and rampant inequality of public investments across communities.

Sign the petition telling Congress to reject any infrastructure plan that doesn’t spread benefits widely and which relies overwhelmingly on subsidizing private developers with insufficient oversight to stop profiteering and cronyism.

Infrastructure investment should prioritize services to the public that are available to all of us as basic rights.

Instead of Trump’s empty calls for somebody else to find the money, we need a real investment in our country’s future because, in reality, no bridge is actually free.

- Josh Bivens, Director of Research, Economic Policy Institute