How I would help Arizona as president
‘We’ll work as hard for those who don’t support us as those who do,’ Joe Biden writes. ‘That’s the job of a president — the duty to care for everyone.’
Right now, far too many of Arizonans’ lives have been turned upside down.
More than 220,000 have been infected with COVID-19. Nearly 6,000 have died, missing from our lives forever. There are at least 234,000 fewer jobs in Arizona as a result of this pandemic, and nearly one in five small businesses have shuttered.
Cruelest of all, it didn’t have to be this way. I met Silvana Salcido Esparza, an awardwinning chef, last week in Phoenix. She told me that her restaurant, Barrio Café, is hanging on by a thread. To keep her 10 employees on payroll, she had to cancel her own health insurance, even though she suffers from a terminal illness. If her employees go under, Silvana said, she would “go under with them.”
Arizonans deserve leaders who feel the same way. Who care about their families the same way. Who understand what they’re going through.
It’s been more than two months since emergency funding for struggling small businesses like Barrio Café dried up, and President Trump has failed to get them the aid they desperately need.
At the same time, the Trump administration is trying to strike down the entire Affordable Care Act in the U.S. Supreme Court. If successful, Trump will strip health insurance protections from 2.8 million Arizonans with pre-existing conditions — possibly including COVID-19 survivors who experience longterm side effects like lung scarring. Arizonans with pre-existing conditions could see your insurance company jack up your premiums or deny you coverage.
This is deadly serious: President Trump is trying to take your health care away during a pandemic.
The bottom line is, we can’t trust this president to protect Arizona families and businesses from the pandemic he bungled.
On the day before we crossed the threshold of 200,000 American deaths, Trump held a rally and claimed that the virus “affects virtually nobody.”
Who exactly was he talking about when he said that? Seniors, who have been unable to hug their grandkids for months? Latinos, who have been struck by this pandemic at a disproportionately high rate?
When President Trump was asked about the fact that 1,000 Americans are dying from COVID-19 every day, he said, “it is what it is.” It is what it is because he is who he is.
The sad truth is that President Trump only sees the world from Park Avenue. He thinks Wall Street built this country. It’s why he let big corporations jump to the front of line to get recovery aid, while small businesses like Silvana’s are fighting to stay afloat.
I see the world very differently — I see it from where I grew up in Scranton, Penn. I know that working people built this country, and I measure our economic success by what families actually need.
An independent analysis put out by Moody’s Analytics projects that my economic plan will create far more jobs and lead to $1 trillion more in economic growth than what the president has proposed.
My plan starts with listening to the scientists and getting the novel coronavirus under control. We will make testing free, quick and available. We’ll make treatment free, too. And as soon as we have a safe and effective vaccine, we will ensure every American can get it without having to pay a dime.
But Sen. Kamala Harris and I aren’t just going to reverse the damage done by President Trump. Our plan is going to build our economy back better than before. I will not raise taxes on anyone who makes less than $400,000 a year. Period.
I will make big corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share. And, with the help of that revenue, we’ll not only protect Social Security and Medicare, we’ll create millions of good paying jobs in manufacturing, technology and clean energy — because we need to make sure our future is Made in America.
We’ll also give folks a hard-earned raise by passing a $15 federal minimum wage. And we’ll ease the burden of the major costs in your life — lowering the cost of health care, expanding access to child care and making education more affordable.
This election is about so much more than policies. The soul of America is on the ballot.
Kamala and I will work every day to bind up our wounds and bring this country back together. We will govern as American leaders. –
It’s why I’m proud to have the endorsement of Cindy McCain. Cindy, like all of us, knows that the presidency is about character. And she knows that her late husband, John, like my late son, Beau, was not a “sucker” or a “loser,” as this president has called our men and women in uniform.
John was a hero. My son was a hero. All those who have served this nation — and especially all those who have given their lives in service to this nation — are heroes.”
After all that America has been through, we cannot allow ourselves to go on being so divided.
We have the ultimate power in our hands: the power to vote. Early voting in Arizona has already begun. Whether you are voting early by mail, drop box, in person or on Election Day, vote as soon as you can.
Because Silvana was right: If one of us goes under, we all go under. But the opposite is true as well: When we rise, we rise together.