In just under 15 days, it will be two years since Trump announced the national emergency over COVID-19: 730 days exactly.
Of all the bills Sinema discussed on social media and in press releases, the resolution to end the national emergency wasn’t one of them. The senator appears to support a state of emergency in perpetuity, though she appeared to support the minimum at the start of the pandemic. Back in March 2020, Sinema touted the concept of “15 days to slow the spread” announced by President Donald Trump. Over the past several years, she has supported all other measures to alleviate people’s economic hardships from forced lockdowns — with the exception of supporting an end for the root cause of those hardships.
Yesterday the WH announced “15 Days to Slow The Spread” -Limit gatherings to 10 people -use drive thru/takeout/delivery
These are MINOR steps to slow the spread. It will take much more than this soon.@dougducey Will Arizona do its part? Look at the consequences ⬇️ https://t.co/zaiuuAUUpr
Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-TX-01) attempted to pass a similar resolution that would’ve been effective the previous Christmas. That, too, failed.
It is unlikely that the resolution will pass the Democrat-controlled House. Additionally, despite lifting certain masking regulations and pledging to roll back more COVID-related protocols, the Biden Administration promised that Biden would veto the resolution.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Democratic Senators Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema voted against a resolution to nullify President Joe Biden’s mandate that businesses with 100 or more employees get vaccinated for COVID-19 or implement weekly testing.
The only Democrats to vote for the resolution were Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Jon Tester (D-MT). The resolution was sponsored by Senator Mike Braun (R-IN). As AZ Free News reported, it was based on the Congressional Review Act (CRA), which establishes that the House and Senate together may overturn a federal regulation without presidential approval.
The two senators didn’t address their vote against stopping Biden’s vaccine mandate, one that aligned with a majority of their party. A day after that vote, Sinema said that she encouraged all Arizonans to get vaccinated quickly in a post announcing COVID-19 vaccinations through the Phoenix Veterans Affairs (VA).
“We strongly encourage all veterans — and all eligible Arizonans — to get vaccinated as soon as possible,” wrote Sinema.
AZ Veterans: @PhxVAHealthcare now offers drive-thru COVID-19 and flu vaccinations Monday – Friday, 7:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
We strongly encourage all veterans — and all eligible Arizonans — to get vaccinated as soon as possible.https://t.co/HUmkaLmG20
Around that same time, Sinema posted a similar affirmation of the necessity to vaccinate most, if not all, Arizonans.
“Glad to see the continued progress toward returning to normal. We’re encouraging all eligible Arizonans to get the vaccine for our continued health and economic recovery,” wrote Sinema.
Glad to see the continued progress toward returning to normal. We're encouraging all eligible Arizonans to get the vaccine for our continued health and economic recovery. https://t.co/nKN6bJQtZG
Sinema followed up with an urge to vaccinate as many American youths as possible.
“The sooner young Arizonans get vaccinated, the sooner our schools can fully return to safe and effective in-person learning. We strongly encourage all Arizona families to get vaccinated as soon as vaccines are available,” wrote Sinema.
The sooner young Arizonans get vaccinated, the sooner our schools can fully return to safe and effective in-person learning. We strongly encourage all Arizona families to get vaccinated as soon as vaccines are available: https://t.co/0CL1UNKpOd
Big COVID-19 Pharma hasn’t spent much on Kelly directly, but they have invested in Sinema.
Pfizer spent over $1 million on Democratic congressional candidates and nearly $860,200 on Republican congressional candidates in the 2020 election. They didn’t donate to Kelly’s campaign directly, but they did donate $10,000 to an affiliated PAC, “BOLD,” which donated $3,000 to Kelly. In fact, Pfizer donated $7,500 to Kelly’s Republican opponent Martha McSally. Pfizer did donate $2,500 to Sinema and $5,000 to her PAC, “Getting Stuff Done.”
Pfizer spent under $360,000 on Republican House candidates versus $288,000 on Democratic House candidates, and $190,386 on Republican Senate candidates versus $75,300 on Democratic Senate candidates. The company did spend more on Democratic campaign committees than Republican ones, by around $22,000.
Johnson & Johnson had similar donation patterns: they didn’t donate to Kelly, but they did donate $4,500 to Sinema. They also donated $10,000 to BOLD.
Johnson & Johnson also donated more to Republicans overall in the 2019-2020 election cycle: $160,500 to Republican committees versus $121,000 to Democratic committees, $214,500 to Republican House candidates versus $211,750 to Democratic House candidates, $67,000 to Republican Senate candidates versus $47,500 to Democratic Senate candidates. The same was true when it came to governors’ associations: the Republican Governors Association received $105,000 compared to $55,000 for the Democratic Governors Association.
Committees for the Republican and Democratic committees for the House and Senate all received $30,000. The company gave $10,000 each to the Democratic and Republican Parties of Arizona ahead of the 2020 election.
Moderna stated as recently as June that they don’t plan on endorsing a political action committee (PAC), and that they wouldn’t engage in partisan donorship for candidates.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Democratic voters don’t approve of Senator Kyrsten Sinema as of late, according to a poll conducted earlier this month by OH Predictive Insights (OHPI). A total of 47 percent of Democratic voters reported an unfavorable view of Sinema. Only 42 percent of Democrats liked Sinema. The same poll found that 84 percent of Democrat voters hold a very favorable view of President Joe Biden, despite his low approval ratings nationwide hovering between the mid 30s and the low 40s.
Democratic voters responded to hypothetical alternatives with an overwhelming preference for Democrats other than Sinema. 72 percent indicated that they would prefer a Democrat other than Sinema, if given the choice. 47 percent said they would support either Congressman Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) or Greg Stanton (D-AZ) over Sinema, while only 24 and 25 percent said they would support Sinema, respectively. If Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman were to toss her hat in the ring, 42 percent of Democrats indicated that they’d prefer Hoffman while only 24 percent would prefer Sinema.
OHPI Chief of Research Mike Noble said that though Sinema isn’t up for re-election until 2024, these numbers still don’t bode.
“Sinema’s growing unpopularity with voters from within her own party could prove fatal in 2024 when she will have to ask for Democrats’ support for re-nomination,” said Noble. “While there is still time between now and then, Sinema has ground to make up with her constituents in the next three years.”
These poll numbers come after multiple incidents in which constituents tracked down and harassed Sinema for her work at the Capitol. Early last month, activists filmed Sinema as they followed her into an Arizona State University (ASU) bathroom to demand answers for her delay in voting for the reconciliation bill. Sinema had been teaching her regular class when the activists came to protest.
Sinema rebuked the activists for the disruption, asserting that it wasn’t a legitimate protest. ASU Police Department later recommended that four individuals involved be charged with misdemeanors.
Then at the end of the month, activists disrupted a wedding in Bisbee, Arizona where Sinema was in attendance. One of the protestors filmed the bride coming out of a building, where she thanked protestors for “ruining her wedding” – to which one protestor responded, “You know what? She’s ruining our lives.”
The individual who filmed the interaction also interacted with the bride.
“It’s just my wedding…” said the bride.
“I know,” responded the camerawoman.
“Well, I really wish I could enjoy my wedding without you ruining it,” said the bride.
“I know you do,” repeated the camerawoman.
Later, the mother of the bride appeared, crying, and pleaded with the protestors to move their protest “just for an hour.” The protestors demanded that the mother confront Sinema and “throw her out” out of the wedding.
In an interview with ABC 15 last week, Sinema said she appreciated feedback from constituents.
“I appreciate when folks are willing to tell me they agree with me or they disagree with me. If they want to protest, if they want to offer thanks, all of that is welcome—that’s how I hear feedback from folks in Arizona. And I’m grateful for that feedback,” said Sinema. “I’ll also say that I’ll get up every single day and do what I’ve always done, which is just put Arizona first, put my head down, not get distracted by the noise, and just deliver the results. So I guess my message to folks would be keep telling me what you think. I appreciate it.”
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Democratic Senators Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema will likely support the Biden Administration and Democrats’ $3.5 trillion tax plan, causing Americans to pay more in corporate taxes in Arizona than in China. The bill was derived from President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Plan, and it would be the largest spending bill in American history.
If the bill passes, the federal-state corporate tax rate in Arizona would jump to over 30 percent, while China’s tax rate would be around 25 percent. That’s not including those enterprises in certain industries supported heavily by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which could receive a tax rate as low as 10 to 15 percent. Additionally, the bill would cause capital gains tax in Arizona to rise up over 35 percent, while China’s would ring in around 20 percent. This data was compiled by Americans for Tax Reform.
Back in July, Sinema expressed lack of support for the bill in July over its price tag, but not its content. At that point, Kelly hadn’t made a commitment to the bill either.
“I have also made clear that while I will support beginning this process, I do not support a bill that costs $3.5 trillion,” said Sinema. “And in the coming months, I will work in good faith to develop this legislation with my colleagues and the administration to strengthen Arizona’s economy and help Arizona’s everyday families get ahead.”
However, both Sinema and Kelly voted in favor of the framework for the $3.5 trillion plan last month.
The Biden Administration and Democratic Party’s proposed tax increases would cause the U.S. to have one of the highest capital gains taxes in the world.
Analysts with the Tax Foundation estimated that the impact of this policy would reduce the GDP by about one percent: more than $2 for every $1 in new tax revenue, or about $332 billion of lost output annually. Over the course of a decade, the cumulative GDP would reduce by nearly $1.2 to $1.8 trillion, which they stated would far exceed the amount of revenue the plan would raise in the same amount of time.
All while eliminating an estimated 303,000 full-time jobs. The primary cause for these projected negative changes comes from the proposed corporate tax rate. They estimate that this alone would reduce the GDP by .6 percent and eliminate 107,000 jobs.
As for after-tax incomes, they estimated that individual taxpayers would see an average reduction of $800 each year.
The Tax Foundation’s Senior Policy Analyst, Garrett Watson, assessed that ultimately, low- and middle-income families would feel these repercussions the most.
“The economic harm caused by the tax increases would claw back some of the plan’s expanded tax credits aimed at low- and middle-income families. For those in the bottom 30 percent, it would reduce the average net benefit of the plan per filer from $341 to $233, a 30 percent reduction,” wrote Watson. “Before accounting for economic effects, filers in the middle quintile would see a decrease in average after-tax income of about $38 – mostly due to the corporate tax increases – but that would rise to a $493 drop in average after-tax income every year when including the negative economic effects. The top quintile would see a $1,287 drop in average after-tax income, rising to a $3,861 drop in average after-tax income on a dynamic basis.”
They also noted that these proposed changes would raise a net federal revenue of around $1.1 trillion from next year to 2031, without accounting for dynamic factors like the estimated reduction in economy size. However, that revenue would be reduced by $1 trillion in tax credits. If dynamic factors weren’t excluded, federal revenue would ring in around $804 billion in revenue net of tax credits.
Per a poll released by Navigator Research earlier this week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claimed that an overwhelming majority of Americans supported the Build Back Better Act. The results meted out to 66 percent of Americans, 61 percent of independents, and 39 percent of Republicans.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
On Tuesday, Arizona Senators Kyrsten Sinema, and Mark Kelly voted in favor of a piece of legislation, S.1, which would have grabbed power over elections away from the states. S.1 would have banned requiring photo I.D. to vote, expanded ballot harvesting, and require taxpayers to fund political campaigns.
The duo joined the other Democrats in support of the bill. However, all Republicans voted to filibuster the bill, effectively killing it.
It was Sinema and fellow Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin that preserved the filibuster for just such an occasion.
S. 1 is an unprecedented power grab & a blatant attempt by those who are in power–by the slimmest margin possible–to overhaul & rewrite election laws for all 50 states in one fell swoop. Yesterday, I addressed Democrats’ misnamed “For the People Act” on the #Senate floor. pic.twitter.com/U9KKNPrE20
— Senator Bill Hagerty (@SenatorHagerty) June 22, 2021
S.1 makes election fraud easier to commit & harder to detect by allowing unlimited ballot harvesting, undermining voter ID laws, & making it more difficult to maintain accurate voter lists.
MCCONNELL: The biggest lie being told in American politics has been that the states are involved in a systematic effort to suppress the vote. That’s not happening. As we all know, we had the biggest voter turnout last year since 1900. pic.twitter.com/wrONnJTJpq
— Senate Republican Communications Center (@SRCC) June 22, 2021
Senate Democrats are pushing a false narrative that S.1 is about voting rights. Do not be fooled. This bill is about Dems grabbing for power, forcing taxpayers to finance political campaigns, and making our elections less secure.
— U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (@SenHydeSmith) June 22, 2021
S.1 is a power grab that would effectively nullify state voter ID laws, mandate public funding of political campaigns, and transform the Federal Election Commission into a partisan body empowered to limit free speech. This is a bad bill, which is why I voted no.
The Republican National Committee (RNC) also slammed S1 as an “unprecedented partisan power grab.”
“The Democrats’ S. 1 is an unprecedented partisan power grab that seeks to undermine the sanctity of the ballot by codifying a federal takeover of local elections. The Democrat politicians act seeks to eviscerate widely supported voter ID requirements and use taxpayer dollars to bankroll political campaigns,” GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a release. “Americans understand states should run their own elections — not unelected bureaucrats in Washington, DC. As Democrats continue their assault on election integrity, the Republican Party remains committed to making it easier to vote and harder to cheat.”
