Kyrsten Sinema

Kyrsten Lea Sinema (born July 12, 1976) is an American politician, independent aligned (formerly of the Democrats), former social worker, and lawyer serving as the senior United States Senator from Arizona. Sinema began her political career in the Arizona Green Party and rose to prominence for her progressive advocacy, supporting causes such as LGBT rights and opposing the war on terror.

Quotes

 * Health care is on the ballot this election. Protections for Arizonans with pre-existing conditions, Medicare improvements and prescription drug costs for seniors, and coronavirus relief all hang in the balance
 * via a twitter 'tweet" (October 25, 2020)


 * I couldn’t agree more
 * re-afirming the statement 'You and I both know this has got to pass,' by  Richard E. Neal  "Sinema’s silence on spending bill vexes many Democrats while she digs in on talks out of public view" (October 23, 2021)


 * A woman’s health care choices should be between her, her family, and her doctor. Overturning Roe v. Wade endangers the health and wellbeing of women in Arizona and across America.
 * Protections in the Senate safeguarding against the erosion of women’s access to health care have been used half-a-dozen times in the past ten years, and are more important now than ever.
 * Throughout my time in Congress, I’ve always supported women’s access to health care, I’m a cosponsor of the Women’s Health Protection Act, and I’ll continue working with anyone to protect women’s ability to make decisions about their futures,
 * Collins, Manchin and other lawmakers react to the Supreme Court draft opinion (Updated: 05/03/2022 03:11 PM EDT)


 * All Arizonans deserve access to clean drinking water. Incredibly proud of Navajo Nation grad student Jaden Redhair for his innovative approach to delivering safe, reliable water to Tribal communities
 * [[twitter] Tweet]] (1:00 PM · Oct 29, 2022)


 * "Having some disagreement is normal. It is real, it is human. And it’s an opportunity for us as mature beings to work through it"
 * on speaking only with one voice


 * "My opinion is that legislation that is crafted together, in a bipartisan way, is the legislation that’s most likely to pass and stand the test of time"
 * Sinema on legislation


 * "I would suggest that the proof of that method is what we’ve been able to deliver"
 * Sinema pointed to the recently signed infrastructure law as validation of her style and approach


 * "I strongly support, and will continue to vote, for legislative responses to address these state laws, including the Freedom to Vote Act, and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, that the Senate is currently considering*
 * on threat on America democracy


 * "Any spending that we do is targeted, so that it's efficient and effective and fiscally responsible"
 * on regards to the reconciliation bill that passed the House


 * Americans are increasingly left behind by national parties' rigid partisanship... [hope to] work proudly with senators in both parties
 * US Senator Kyrsten Sinema says she will leave Democratic Party (By Matt Murphy BBC News Published 2 hours ago)

Quotes about Kyrsten Sinema

 * I don't think we would have gotten that across the finish line without all of her hard work. I think without her it wouldn't have happened, so she deserves a ton of credit for that.
 * Mark Kelly, regarding the bipartisan infrastucture bill passed in the Senate, " What does Kyrsten Sinema want out of spending negotiations? Here's what we know" (October 26, 2021)


 * Three Democrats—Reps. Conor Lamb (Penn.), Jacky Rosen (Nev.), and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.)—voted for the GOP-crafted measure, which would permanently extend the individual tax cuts under the current Republican tax law. According to the an analysis by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center (TPC), the House GOP's measure—which progressive critics have denounced as "Tax Scam 2.0"—would send the vast majority of benefits to the very top.
 * With Nation Transfixed By Kavanaugh Monstrosity, House GOP Votes to Give Rich Another $3 Trillion in Tax Cuts, Jake Johnson, Common Dreams, September 28, 2018


 * Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), the lone Democratic holdout, is now the target of a grassroots campaign by internet advocacy group Fight for the Future, which is crowdfunding a billboard that accuses her of "siding with corporate donors to kill net neutrality." "There's no excuse for not supporting this bill," Evan Greer, deputy director of Fight for the Future, said in a statement. "Voters from across the political spectrum are outraged and overwhelmingly want their elected officials to support real net neutrality protections."   According to Fight for the Future, the Sinema billboard will be displayed at "one of the busiest intersections in Phoenix, Arizona."  "Senator Sinema needs to decide right now whether the corporate donations she's getting from Comcast and AT&T are really worth the cost of being seen as a telecom shill and one of the most corrupt members of her party," Greer said. "We're crowdfunding this billboard so she knows that there's nowhere to hide—she can do the right thing or be sure that the entire internet will know she sold them out."
 * 'Nowhere to Hide': Billboard to Target Kyrsten Sinema as Only Senate Democrat Standing Against Net Neutrality, Jake Johnson, Common Dreams, March 11, 2019
 * The For the People Act would help more Americans retain their voting rights, while the companion John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would restore and strengthen the federal oversight provisions stripped out of the 1965 Voting Rights Act by the 2013 Supreme Court case Shelby County v. Holder. The Brennan Center has advocated the passage of both bills... Both bills have passed in the U.S. House of Representatives, only to have been stalled in the Senate by U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, both Democrats.
 * Chris Winters The Time to Secure Voting Rights Is Now or Never, Chris Winters, YES! Magazine June 9, 2021 by


 * Labor advocates have been fighting for a increase in the minimum wage, with some state and local success (CNBC, 1/2/20), though its prospects at the federal level died when Arizona Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema infamously gave the boost a literal “thumbs down” (New York Times, 3/7/21).
 * Jobs Report Coverage Lacked Context, Worker Perspective, Ari Paul, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), May 15, 2021


 * In its present form, the legislative filibuster gives the minority party significant power by requiring 60 votes to pass—or even debate—most bills. Just a simple-majority vote is required to weaken or abolish the filibuster, but Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) have publicly refused to reform the anti-democratic rule. Those two senators—along with several others in the Democratic caucus—also voted against including a $15 minimum wage bill in the coronavirus relief package that President Joe Biden signed into law in March... "Democracy versus autocracy is the battle of our time," said Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II.
 * 'Which Side Are You On?': Poor People's Campaign Pressures US Senate on Democracy and Justice, Kenny Stancil, Common Dreams, July 12, 2021


 * It’s happening again. On Sunday, Politico reported that Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is opposed to her colleagues’ plan to regulate the price of prescription drugs — and voiced her disagreement at a recent meeting at the White House with President Joe Biden...Lowering drug costs is such a popular idea, though, that opposing it actually puts these members far out on the political fringe. According to a recent Kaiser poll, 88 percent of Americans support it... But there is one constituency that very much backs these holdouts—the pharmaceutical industry, which is already running ads in Sinema’s defense and has given her nearly $400,000 since 2017, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
 * Kyrsten Sinema Is Threatening to Derail Democrats’ Agenda. Again. by Tim Murphy, Mother Jones, September 21, 2021


 * Chief among the impedimentary lawmakers receiving a spitshine on their image is Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. Perhaps the biggest roadblock to a deal, Sinema is portrayed in corporate media as a quirky, party-bucking, principled politician—rather than the reflexive obstructionist she’s proven to be in negotiations (Vanity Fair, 9/30/21).<BR<That lack of purpose in talks with party leaders is paired with her cozying up to big corporate donors. As Sinema has stifled the social spending legislation, she’s reaped the benefits, taking in hundreds of thousands from the financial, insurance and real estate sectors, according to Open Secrets. She held a fundraiser on September 27 (New York Times, 9/27/21) with industry lobbyists opposed to the tax burden they fear would be a byproduct of the bill, and another high-dollar affair on October 2 with her PAC’s major donors (New York Times, 10/1/21).
 * Media Praise ‘Mavericks’ for Blocking Aid to American People, Eoin Higgins, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), October 6, 2021


 * When it comes to reworking Sinema’s image, Axios (10/1/21) has been one of the worst offenders, setting up the senator to readers as someone you might think has left-leaning politics, but doesn’t: Progressives could be forgiven for presuming that Sinema, 45, the first openly bisexual member of Congress, who’s easy to spot in her trademark sleeveless dresses, wry wigs and acrylic glasses, would share their woke politics. They’ve been befuddled, and increasingly enraged, when she behaves more like the late Republican Sen. John McCain, another Arizonan who didn’t mind challenging party orthodoxies. AZCentral: Here's what Democrats need to understand about Sen. Kyrsten Sinema  According to the Arizona Republic‘s Laurie Roberts (9/30/21), “Sinema’s brand is all about being a party unto her own.”
 * Media Praise ‘Mavericks’ for Blocking Aid to American People, Eoin Higgins, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), October 6, 2021


 * Gannett’s Arizona Republic (online as AZCentral), a conservative paper in Sinema’s home state, has argued in favor of the embattled senator even as her refusal to negotiate in real terms about what she wants frustrates Democratic colleagues. In an opinion piece aiming to recast Sinema’s aimless intransigence as evidence of her independence, columnist Laurie Roberts (9/30/21) claimed that by killing Biden’s agenda, Sinema was acting to save it.
 * Media Praise ‘Mavericks’ for Blocking Aid to American People, Eoin Higgins, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), October 6, 2021
 * President Joe Biden and the Democratic Congress are facing a crisis as the popular domestic agenda they ran on in the 2020 elections is held hostage by two corporate Democratic senators: fossil-fuel consigliere Joe Manchin and payday-lender favorite Kyrsten Sinema... Real fiscal insanity is what Congress does year after year, taking most of its discretionary spending off the table and handing it over to the Pentagon before even considering the country’s urgent domestic needs.
 * Medea Benjamin in Congress Fights Over Childcare But Not the Military, Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J.S. Davies, Fair Observer (7 October 2021)


 * A crowd of insurrectionists just chased Senator Sinema into a bathroom at ASU screaming at her while she hid in a stall. No @CapitolPolice in sight for the female Senator.
 * 3 October 2021 by Jack Posobiec


 * Apparently... she decided that if you can only barely beat them, you’d damn well better join them. Sinema quickly joined other Democrats who’d followed the Citizens United path to the flashing neon lights of big money, joining the so-called “Problem Solvers” caucus that owes its existence in part to the Wall Street-funded front group “No Labels.”  Quietly and without fanfare, she began voting with Republicans and the corporate- and billionaire-owned Democrats, supporting efforts to deregulate big banks, “reform” Social Security and Medicare, and make it harder to for government to protect regular investors or even buyers of used cars from being ripped off.. Political networks run by rightwing billionaires and the US Chamber of Commerce showered her with support... She’d proved herself as a “made woman,” just like the old mafiosi documented by RFK in the 1960s, willing to do whatever it takes, compromise whatever principles she espoused, to get into and stay in the good graces of the large and well-funded rightwing syndicates...  So it should surprise precisely nobody that Sinema is parroting the Chamber’s and the billionaire network’s line that President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better plan is too generous in helping and protecting average Americans and too punitive in taxing the morbidly rich. After all, once you’re in, you leave at your own considerable peril, even when 70 percent of your state’s voters want the bill to pass.
 * Krysten Sinema is the Epitome of Political Corruption, Thom Hartmann, CounterPunch, October 14, 2021


 * And this is a genuine crisis for America because if President Biden is frustrated in his attempt to pass his Build Back Better legislation (that is overwhelmingly supported by Americans across the political spectrum) — all because business groups, giant corporations and rightwing billionaires are asserting ownership over their two “made” senators — there’s a very good chance that today’s cynicism and political violence is just a preview of the rest of the decade. But this isn’t as much a story about Sinema as it is about today’s larger political dysfunction for which she’s become, along with Joe Manchin, a poster child. Increasingly, because of the Supreme Court’s betrayal of American values, it’s become impossible for people like the younger Sinema to rise from social worker to the United States Senate without big money behind them.... While the naked corruption of Sinema and Joe Manchin is a source of outrage for Democrats across America, what’s far more important is that it reveals how deep the rot of money in American politics has gone, thanks entirely to a corrupted Supreme Court.
 * Krysten Sinema is the Epitome of Political Corruption, Thom Hartmann, CounterPunch, October 14, 2021


 * For weeks, conservative Democrats in Congress have prevented the passage of the Build Back Better Act and the Freedom to Vote Act. Congressmember Ilhan Omar of Minnesota has been a vocal critic of Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who have stalled the bills and forced President Biden to radically scale back the price tag of his agenda. “All Democrats are essentially on board,” Omar says, “except for these two, who are essentially doing the bidding of Big Pharma, Big Oil and Wall Street.” ... Manchin and Sinema have also forced President Biden to radically scale back the Build Back Better Act, which began as a proposed $3.5 trillion spending bill over 10 years to vastly expand the social safety net and combat the climate crisis. Biden has reportedly lowered the topline price tag on the package to $1.75 trillion — half the original bill.
 * Ilhan Omar Blasts Manchin & Sinema for Siding with Big Pharma, Big Oil & Wall Street in Budget Talks, Democracy Now! October 21, 2021


 * Five members of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s (D-Ariz.) Veterans Advisory Council resigned this week over her opposition to multiple aspects of Democrats’ sweeping social spending bill. In a letter released Thursday, the veterans hammered Sinema over her refusal to fully support President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda as well as her opposition to abolishing the filibuster, the 60-vote threshold for most legislation in the Senate that has consistently thwarted Democrats’ legislative priorities. “You have become one of the principal obstacles to progress, answering to big donors rather than your own people. We shouldn’t have to buy representation from you, and your failure to stand by your people and see their urgent needs is alarming,” the five wrote in the letter, which was released by Common Defense.
 * Sinema advisers resign, calling her an obstacle to progress, Tal Axelrod, The Hill, October 21, 2012


 * While Biden repeatedly vowed to address the climate crisis, his climate agenda was dealt a major setback back in Washington, D.C., when Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia criticized the slimmed-down $1.75 trillion Build Back Plan to address the climate crisis and to expand the nation’s social safety net. The plan will only pass the Senate if Manchin and Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema come around to support it.
 * Amy Goodman in,  “Manchin’s Latest Hissy Fit” Threatens to Curb Biden Agenda at U.N. Climate Summit, Democracy Now! (2 November 2021)


 * "She's siding with the legacy of Bull Connor and George Wallace instead of the legacy of my father and all those who fought to make real our democracy"
 * Martin Luther King III on how History will remember Sinema "unkindly"


 * Manchin and Sinema are effectively acting like 21st Century-style "Dixiecrats" of the '50s ad '60s, segregationist Democrats such as James Eastland, Robert Byrd (Manchin's mentor) and George Wallace. The Dixiecrats' were committed to racial segregation and white supremacy...The question is whether faced with the potential defeat of historic civil rights legislation due to their opposition to filibuster reform, are Sinema and Manchin willing to go down in history as the Strom Thurmonds, George Wallaces, and yes, Robert Byrds of the 21st century, who stood in the classroom doors to block integration and for years filibustered civil rights laws. Will they want to face headlines like "Two Democratic Dissenters Manchin and Sinema Join Republicans in Blocking Filibuster Reform That Would Allow Majority Passage of Civil Rights Laws." Are Sinema and Manchin willing to face the outrage of the grassroots activists who helped get them elected and who are ready to cash in their chips and mobilize a mass movement to get these two Senators to change their positions? Sinema may be particularly susceptible to grassroots pressure, since her narrow win was powered in large part by organizing from unions and Latino activists. And if Sinema flips, would Manchin be willing to be the lone Democrat allowing Republicans to block historic civil rights legislation? Sinema's and Manchin's decisions may well determine whether America remains a democracy or whether it's indefinitely distorted by minority rule.
 * Miles Mogulescu, Article in CommonDreams (2/19/2021)