[ [link removed] ]Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for Congress




The media coverage of the infrastructure bill and the ‘reconciliation
bill’ before Congress can be a bit confusing and mystifying. (What does
reconciliation even mean?!). We’re going to catch you up in this email
below.

It’s a longer read, but it’s important to understand this transformative
moment we’re in.

It all began in May when President Biden put forth an ambitious set of
proposals known as the Build Back Better Agenda, designed to help our
country come back stronger from the pandemic. It included approximately $6
trillion worth of investments in pre-k, childcare, climate change,
affordable housing and more.

Republicans immediately pushed back on this historic spending — suggesting
that we should only focus on ‘traditional infrastructure’ spending — and a
small bipartisan group of Senators stripped major priorities from the
President’s plan. Working with the White House, they eventually agreed on
a framework for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill.

But Alexandria and her colleagues spoke out on our need to deliver on the
priorities that voters elected us to fight for, and stipulated that they
would only vote to pass this small-scale infrastructure bill if another
bill that meets the needs of working families and addresses the climate
crisis was passed at the same time. Congressional leaders agreed and
decided to pass these priorities through Congress in a process known as
‘budget reconciliation,’ which only requires a simple majority in the
Senate to pass, rather than the 60 votes normally required.

After much additional back and forth between the Senate and the House,
they agreed to pass a $3.5 trillion reconciliation package along with the
Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill. This would be used to expand Medicare to
cover vision, dental and hearing; make pre-k universal; provide paid
family and medical leave; create a Civilian Climate Corps and fight
climate change, and much more.

This reconciliation package is no more, and no less, than President
Biden's Build Back Better Agenda. It's the promises that we campaigned on
and what the American people voted for — and sent Democrats to the House,
Senate, and White House to deliver.

And, by the way, we're going to pay for it by taxing the very wealthy and
corporations.

Despite the fact that this reconciliation package has incredibly popular
and widely-supported policies, conservative Democrats are still working to
strip down and altogether stop the Build Back Better Agenda in favor of
only passing the smaller Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill that was largely
designed to keep corporate lobbyists happy.

The entire House Progressive Caucus is focused on passing Biden’s full
agenda — that means keeping our promise to hold the line and refusing to
vote on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill until reconciliation passes
first.

We’re essentially saying they get the bill they want, and we get ours —
per the original agreement. Fair, right? But if we vote for the Bipartisan
Infrastructure Bill first — alone — we do not have the assurances
necessary to believe that the Build Back Better Agenda will pass
afterwards, and lower-income, working-class families, and communities of
color will be left behind.

Alexandria is not going to let that happen.

Many of the arguments that are holding things up are concerns about the
price tag. But let’s be clear: This is about so much more than $1.5
trillion vs. $3.5 trillion — it’s about the impact that working people
will feel in their daily lives.

When we talk about topline numbers, there’s a lot hidden in that
discussion. It’s easy for Senators like Joe Manchin to hide behind a
number and simply say “this is too expensive.” It’s harder to vocally
reject popular ideas like universal pre-K, expanding medicare, or the
child tax credit — but the effect is same. It’s like saying, "You can
either feed your child, recover from your c-section, or have childcare so
you can go to work — but I don’t think you should be able to do all
three."

The people deserve to know what substantive programs they’re willing to
gut.

It’s unfortunate that we — as Democrats — have to compromise with
ourselves for an ambitious agenda for working people. Free community
college should be a standard. Climate action in line with science should
be a given. Cutting child poverty in half is a good thing.

These are the things we believe are worth standing up for. It’s time to
think big, do what we were elected to do, and reject the "something is
better than nothing" argument.

We believe there is a path to get this done. And Alexandria will continue
to hold the line.

[ [link removed] ]This is a moment when we need all hands on deck. If you agree with
Alexandria that it's time for our government to prioritize the needs of
working people over keeping billionaires and rich corporations
comfortable, add your name to say you support the policies in the Build
Back Better agenda.

In addition, we encourage you to reach out to your representatives to make
sure they support the Build Back Better Agenda.

Thank you for fighting alongside Alexandria for real change, and we’ll
continue to keep you informed as things progress.

– Team AOC


 

This email was sent to [email protected]. Email is the most important way we keep in touch with people like you, so thank you for reading to the end. Small donors like you keep us going. To contribute via check, please address to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for Congress, PO Box 680080, Corona, NY 11368.



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