Written By BJ Brunious
Negotiations continue on Capitol Hill with 95% of Democrats on one side and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) on the other. Republicans will certainly be to blame if Americans lose the child tax refund that Democrats delivered in the Summer, but lately Sen. Sinema frequently finds herself in lock step with Republicans, blocking the economic security of everyday Americans.
As President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris continue their efforts to push Congress towards passage of the Build Back Better Agenda, Sinema, the first openly bisexual member of Congress, initially brought no policy wants, needs, or desires to the negotiating table. When asked by journalists to spell out what she wanted to include or remove from President Biden’s plan, she frequently responded that she refused to negotiate the details of the bill in public. While everyday Americans gave major side eye to her response, the mainstream media allowed her to get away with that excuse over and over again. That was until congressional leaders and White House officials called her out, explaining that the former Green Party spokeswoman, wasn’t negotiating the details of the bill behind the scenes either.
Taking newly acquired information and using that knowledge to form a more enlightened policy position is the ethos of all liberals. But Sinema, who called herself a socialist in her younger years, has done a complete 180 right before our eyes. She is shifting to the right and pretending like we all don’t know she was on Ralph Nader’s campaign 20 years ago; and the media let’s her get away with it. So what caused the shift? She won’t say and no one from the main stream media will ask.
That’s bribery!
Kyrsten Sinema, Arizona Republic
When the senator from Arizona initially considered running for office, even her Democratic colleagues said she was “too extreme” for Arizona. As a candidate for Phoenix City Council, a race she lost, she didn’t take any campaign donations and when asked why, she replied, “That’s bribery”.
Sinema is a political flip-flop personified. 90% of her campaign contributions in the last quarter came from outside of Arizona. Her top donors last quarter include CEOs from major American pharmaceutical companies. The CEO of Bristol Myers gave $2,900 while Gilead CEO Daniel O’Day gave $5,000 in one quarter alone. Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks gave $2,900 to her campaign and Merck board member Kenneth Frazier also gave $2,900. $2,900 is the maximum donation allowed under the Federal Election Campaign Act. She hinted last week that she is against provisions in the Build Back Better agenda that would allow prescription drug price negotiation, a policy that would make prescriptions more affordable for everyday working families.
Who does she think she is fooling?
What is more frustrating is the deference she receives from the media elites who are afraid to call out what we all see right before out eyes. They did this with Trump in 2016. We are not falling for it this time.