Dear John,
BREAKING NEWS: The House of Representatives just passed the Build Back Better Act, which provides universal pre-K, lowers prescription drug costs, expands Medicare, ensures that the ultra-rich pay their fair share of taxes, and more.
Now the bill heads to the Senate, where we will run into two problems: Their names are Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.
For months, Manchin and Sinema, bankrolled by ultra-rich campaign donors who don’t want to pay their fair share of taxes, have obstructed the bill. And now Democratic leaders are once again twisting themselves into knots to appease Manchin and Sinema by offering to cut some of the most wildly popular parts of the bill, like paid family leave and expansion of Medicare to cover dental.
No, no, no, no, NO! It’s time to stop playing nice with Manchin and Sinema.
The team here at Inequality Media Civic Action is launching an emergency communications campaign to turn up the pressure on Manchin and Sinema during the final stretch of this critical policy fight. We’ll call them — and their corporate donors — out through our millions of followers across social media and make sure their own constituents know the truth.
Part of the reason Manchin and Sinema are able to obstruct this popular bill is because for months on end, the corporate media has undermined support for Build Back Better.
Instead of covering what’s actually in the bill, the media has fixated on its cost. (Never mind that when Congress authorizes a $778 billion a year defense budget, or tax cuts for the rich, or corporate subsidies, we don’t hear a peep from for-profit media companies.) So instead of hearing about the huge benefits that average families in America will receive, all we hear are right-wing talking points about the deficit.
This is a huge, huge problem. Americans don’t know what’s in the bill, and we are being flooded with corporate talking points, which could send support for the bill into a tailspin.
The good news is that once people know what’s in the bill, they want to advocate for it — because it will tangibly improve their families’ lives.
That’s where Inequality Media Civic Action comes in. In addition to holding Manchin and Sinema accountable for putting their corporate donors above the needs of working people, we need to shout from the rooftops about all the good that’s in the Build Back Better Act: childcare, bold climate action, universal pre-K, free community college, cheaper prescription drugs, and more.
That’s why my team and I are working overtime to film, test, and deploy proven-effective viral posts and videos to our millions of followers on social media — many of whom are critical swing voters. Our team has years of experience in finding messages that resonate and producing “sticky” content that goes viral and is seen by tens of millions of people across the country. But in order to break through the noise, we’re going to have to really ramp up our budget so we can do more than ever before to get this game-changing bill across the finish line, with all of its programs intact.
Thank you so much for supporting our work at this critical moment,
Robert Reich
Inequality Media Civic Action
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