Long story short: tell your Senators to get the lead out of our drinking water, raise taxes on the rich and on corporations, invest in the care economy, enact paid family/medical leave, let Medicare negotiate drug prices, and expand Medicare. Use the tools in the upper right-hand corner of this page (or, if you're on a cellphone, the bottom of this page) to find your Congressfolk's phone numbers and/or use the email/petition tools in the following paragraphs.
Food and Water Watch helps you tell your Senators to ensure that the Build Back Better Act protects our clean water by funding lead pipe removal. Without clean water, you don't have health care; it's that damn simple. And the other infrastructure bill President Biden signed begins to do the work of getting the lead out of our water, but it doesn't finish that work, and we need the Build Back Better Act to finish that work. Even if Joe Manchin worries about the supposed "deficit" in the CBO's analysis of the Build Back Better Act, a) that deficit could be entirely made up by the IRS enforcement plank the CBO didn't include in its analysis and b) that deficit makes up a smaller percentage of the BBBA than does the deficit the CBO found in his pet "bipartisan" infrastructure bill. They'll say anything, and that's why we stay on them.
Americans for Tax Fairness helps you tell your Senators to raise taxes on the rich and on corporations. And tell them that if they're really serious about that, they'll not only tell Kyrsten Sinema to eat the damn higher tax rates on the rich and on corporations, but they'll also tell the Northeastern Democratic House Reps that repealing the cap on state and local taxes is too big a handout to the rich! And remember that when some rich right-wing jerk says "they'll tax me today, but they'll come for you tomorrow," just remind them that you're already paying your taxes, thank you very much. Everybody can't hire million-dollar lawyers to help them evade their responsibility to their civilization, after all.
The National Women's Law Center helps you tell your Senators to ensure that the Build Back Better Act funds the "care economy," i.e., things like child care and home care. Regardless of what you may have heard, providing subsidies to help working families cover child care is not communism! They sling that word around the way they'd sling their feces around if folks didn't already frown on that. Child care subsidies help families navigate two unfortunate realities: one, that families can't afford to have only one parent working as easily as they could 50 years ago, and two, child care-providing corporations charge an arm and a leg for the service simply because they know people need it (thanks to reality number one). And when the market fails us, as it clearly has in this instance, our government needs to step in and make it right on our behalf. This ain't that damn deep, except to folks who love stoking rage everywhere they go.
Both Moms Rising and Daily Kos help you tell your Senators to include paid family/medical leave in the Build Back Better Act. The House version, passed late last week, puts four weeks of paid family/medical leave back in the bill, and apparently Sen. Manchin has already wondered out loud why they did that. Possibly because we demanded it? They act like they have no idea how this is supposed to work! Of course, they know how it's supposed to work, but they want to make politics like a sporting event, and they want to make us into spectators. But although nobody died and made Joe Manchin the One True Great and Awesome Real American President, he'll win again, unless we keep speaking out in numbers our leaders can't deny. Don't ever worry about being a pest to your Congressfolk. They're supposed to listen.
Drug Prices Are Too High, Daily Kos, Penn PIRG, and More Perfect Union all help you demand that your Senators put Medicare drug price negotiation in the Build Back Better Act. Our House acceeded to the unfortunate "reality" that Kyrsten Sinema and Bob Menendez won't support real Medicare drug price negotiation, and allowed Medicare to cap insulin prices (beginning in 2023!) and negotiate a limited number of drugs in 2025 and a few more in 2028. That's not nothing, but it's not good politics, either -- when eight out of 10 Americans want Medicare to be able to negotiate drug prices, you don't "look good" by delivering half-measures. Hence we go to our Senators, to tell them to do the right thing, again and again and again if need be.
Finally, Daily Kos helps you tell your Senators to expand Medicare services for seniors in the Build Back Better Act. Again Sen. Manchin previously cited Medicare's "solvency" in opposing Medicare coverage of dental, hearing, and vision care for seniors -- this, even though you need more of this care when you're older, not less! Which is something you would think a fellow like the 74-year-old Mr. Manchin would know! Of course, there are thousands of ways to save money for Medicare -- like drug price negotiation, which Mr. Manchin supports, but you can't discount the possibility that he supports it only because he knows it won't pass, with the opposition of Sens. Sinema and Menendez. None of that matters. All that matters is our will -- but only if we express it.
One more thing: don't let "liberal" media scaremongering about inflation deter you from your support for a vigorous Build Back Better Act. Getting the lead out of our water, fighting climate change, and enacting paid family/medical leave will all lower health care costs; helping working parents pay for child care will lower child care costs and fighting climate change will also lower disaster recovery costs. You can't just choose not to build back houses if a hurricane destroys them, after all! And if you're worried about "runaway government spending causing inflation," consider, again, that the Build Back Better Act will be paid for even if we don't get all the revenue-raisers we want, and consider, also that raising taxes on the rich and on corporations and letting Medicare negotiate drug prices all save the taxpayer money. And I dare say folks will care about all of that more than they'll ever care about a number. But we do actually have to do these things for folks to care about them.
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