Democrats make Life better in NM Congressional District 2!

​Three major laws, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the American Rescue Plan, links.  passed during President Biden’s first two years in office, make game-changing investments in our community, tackle the pressing challenges that New Mexicans face, and build economic prosperity for all.  

The Inflation Reduction Act and the American Rescue Plan affect New Mexicans everywhere; choose a topic from the list below and learn how. The Infrastructure Law is already supporting projects in your county - click a dot on the map below to find out more. 
(Note: haven't yet include ARP, wasn't sure whether to combine with IRA or make a separate block)

Inflation Reduction Act

FAMILIES

See how you can save money. See your county’s average household benefits. Use a calculator.

 New ACA subsidies: 10,000 more New Mexicans can pay their health care bills, which will reduce their debt, and help them avoid bankruptcies and evictions.

SENIORS

• Peace of mind: out-of-pocket drug costs capped; insulin costs capped at $35/month and vaccines are free
• Drug companies finally have to negotiate the price of some drugs, can’t raise prices faster than inflation

RURAL COMMUNITIES

• The electrical grid will be made resilient
• Funding for climate-smart agriculture and debt relief for farmers
• Rural electrical co-ops can tap into renewable energy projects
• Tribes: expanded broadband, guaranteed loans, money to mitigate drought, projects like fish hatcheries

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BUSINESSES

• Tax credits to improve energy efficiency, install solar power and buy clean trucks and vans for commercial fleets
• Businesses can “stack” tax credits, e.g., on top of a 30% tax credit, a developer can earn more credits by paying his employees the prevailing wage, employing apprentices, or using U.S.-made steel and aluminum.
• $15 billion will be invested in new and existing businesses in New Mexico that will generate and store clean power by 2030.
• 8,000 small businesses and self-employed adults now qualify for lower premiums through the Affordable Care Act in New Mexico.
• Tax credits for fossil fuel companies; also here.

TAXPAYERS

• If you make less than $400,000 a year, your taxes will not go up because of the Inflation Reduction Act
• Corporations that make over $1 billion a year, will have to pay a 15% minimum tax; the richest 1% must pay what they owe
• The IRS can serve you better!
• The U.S. deficit will be reduced by $300 billion​

all of us

• Investments in a Clean Energy Economy and Climate Action
• Trees in Neighborhoods, forest protection and wildfire mitigation.
• Jobs, 9 million of them

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Democrats vs. Republicans

JOBS & THE ECONOMY

What Are Democrats Doing?
Since 1933, the six presidents who presided over the fastest job growth have all been Democrats.  The average income of Americans would be more than double its current level if the economy had somehow grown at the Democratic rate for all of the past nine decades. 

Why? Two possible reasons:
Democrats heed economic and historical lessons about what policies actually strengthen the economy; Republicans cling to theories like the magical power of tax cuts and deregulation. 

Democratic-leaning groups (like labor unions and civil-rights organizations) favor policies that lift broad-based economic growth; Republican-leaning groups (like the wealthy) favor policies that mostly shift income toward themselves.

See informative charts and analyses here: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/02/opinion/sunday/democrats-economy.html

What Are Republicans Doing?
Over the last four decades, Republican presidents have run up larger deficits than Democrats. Republicans cling to theories like the magical power of tax cuts and deregulation. 

Republican-leaning groups (like the wealthy) favor policies that mostly shift income toward themselves, so Republican economic policy since 1980 has revolved around a single policy: large tax cuts tilted toward the affluent. The evidence now overwhelmingly suggests that recent tax cuts have had only a modest effect on the economy. G.D.P. grew at virtually the same rate after the 2017 Trump tax cut as before it. 

​The American economy has performed much better under Democratic administrations than Republican ones, over both the last few decades and the last century

See informative charts and analyses here:  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/02/opinion/sunday/democrats-economy.html

HEALTH CARE

​What Democrats Are Doing:
Democrats are the party that passed Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act and have been fighting to secure universal health care for the American people for generations. 

Since Biden became president, fewer Americans are uninsured than ever before. Healthcare.gov signups for insurance hit an all-time record in 2022. Four out of five people who sign up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act  can find health care coverage for $10 a month or less  because President Biden extended lower rates through the Inflation Reduction Act.  With new ACA subsidies, 10,000 more New Mexicans can pay their health care bills, which will reduce their debt, and help them avoid bankruptcies and evictions.

What Republicans Are Doing:
Millions of Americans would lose health care coverage, benefits and protections under congressional Republicans’ plans. 
Congressional Republicans have proposed:

• gradually increasing the Medicare eligibility age to 67 and the Social Security eligibility age to 70
• transforming Medicare benefits into a voucher where seniors would get a fixed amount of money to purchase a private health plan which would mean out-of-pocket costs for seniors would rise by hundreds of thousands of dollars
• repealing the prescription drug and health care provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act which would mean 5 to 7 million Medicare beneficiaries would see higher costs if Medicare cannot negotiate the price of drugs
• removing the $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket pharmacy expenses for Medicare recipients 
• repealing assistance to Americans to purchase health insurance. This would drive premiums higher and jeopardize the progress the Biden Administration has made in driving the uninsured rate to a historic low. 

MEDCARE & SOCIAL SECURITY

What Democrats Are Doing:
Democrats believe a dignified retirement is central to the American Dream, and its foundation is built on two long-standing institutions charged with realizing that dream: Medicare and Social Security. These two institutions represent an unbreakable commitment to American workers, and for decades Democrats have fought to defend that commitment.

• Peace of mind: out-of-pocket drug costs capped; insulin costs capped at $35/month and vaccines are free
• Drug companies finally have to negotiate the price of some drugs, can’t raise prices faster than inflation

President Biden proposes to boost average benefits across the board while putting Social Security on a long-term path to solvency by raising taxes on those who can easily afford it, who earn more than $400,000 a year.

President Biden also proposes to raise benefits for vulnerable beneficiaries—including widows and widowers, low-wage workers, and long duration beneficiaries who may have exhausted all other assets. 

See also https://democrats.org/where-we-stand/the-issues/retirement-security/

and https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/biden-promise-tracker/promise/1586/expand-and-increase-social-security-benefits/
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What Republicans Are Doing:
Since 1980, Republicans, including Paul Ryan and Ron DeSantis, have tried to make deep cuts to Social Security and Medicare every time they thought there might be a political window of opportunity. President George W. Bush tried to privatize Social Security. Here are some more recent examples:

• Senator Mike Lee said: “One thing that you probably haven’t ever heard from a politician: it will be my objective to phase out Social Security. To pull it up by the roots, and get rid of it.”
• In November, John Thune, the number two Senate Republican in leadership, declared that Social Security and Medicare benefits should be slashed.
• Florida Senator Rick Scott is championing a plan to put Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security on the chopping block every five years, which would put the health and economic security of 63 million Medicare beneficiaries, 69 million Medicaid beneficiaries and 65 million Social Security beneficiaries at risk. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin goes even further, proposing sunsetting these laws every year.
• The Republican Study Committee – which includes a majority of House Republicans – released a formal budget that, according to Politico, included “raising the eligibility ages for Social Security, along with withholding payments for individuals who retire early or had a certain income, and privatized funding for Social Security to lower income taxes.”
• And in 2015, most House Republicans, including Speaker McCarthy, Rep. Scalise, and a host of others in current leadership, voted to raise the retirement age to 70, which would cut Social Security benefits for tens of millions of seniors who paid into the system for years.

See more here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/02/09/fact-sheet-congressional-republicans-many-proposals-to-cut-social-security-and-medicare-and-increase-prescription-drug-prices-and-health-care-premiums/

and https://time.com/6254832/republicans-sunset-social-security-medicare/

And https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/13/opinion/columnists/republicans-medicare-social-security.html
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DEMOCRACY

What Democrats are Doing:
​Our government and our elections are supposed to reflect the interests of the American people, not only the wealthiest few and the biggest corporations. Democrats fight to restore and protect Americans’ fundamental right to vote, reform the broken campaign finance system, strictly enforce ethics laws and improve transparency across the federal government in order to rebuild trust with the American people. 

See more:
https://democrats.org/where-we-stand/party-platform/restoring-and-strengthening-our-democracy/


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What Republicans Are Doing:
The GOP is full of politicians who don’t accept the 2020 election results and have not condemned the attempted insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. Despite undemocratic representation in the Senate (California’s 39 million people and Wyoming’s 581,000 people both get two senators), Senate Republicans oppose reforming the filibuster that skews representation even more towards minority rule. In the last Congress, Republicans blocked two voting rights bills. In 2021, red state after red state enacted new voter suppression laws. Republicans pose a threat to our freedoms and a threat to democracy. 

See https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/12/yes-republicans-still-pose-a-threat-to-democracy.html
and
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/19/senate-vote-on-voting-rights-bills-filibuster-rules-change.html

and https://www.democracydocket.com/analysis/checking-in-with-the-major-voter-suppression-laws/

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ENVIRONMENT & PUBLIC LANDS

What Democrats Are Doing:
​Democrats are committed to curbing the effects of climate change, protecting America’s natural resources and ensuring the quality of our air, water, and land for current and future generations. Democrats believe public lands are owned by the public; they value wildlife and habitat conservation and promote land use by sportsmen, for outdoor recreation and for renewable energy. 
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What Republicans Are Doing:
Republicans did not present a platform in 2020 but the 2016 platform emphasized the market over environment protection and called for sweeping land transfers from public to private ownership.

​President Trump reversed the U.S. bipartisan record of protection and conservation of public lands by systematically undermining, degrading and attacking the laws that protect our public lands, the agencies that manage them and the resources these places safeguard for the American people. His administration opened up public lands to exploitation, removing, when they could, regulations for energy development on federal lands, particularly for oil and gas.   

See https://www.britannica.com/explore/savingearth/democrats-and-the-gop-are-miles-apart-on-public-lands

and 
https://www.britannica.com/explore/savingearth/democrats-and-the-gop-are-miles-apart-on-public-lands

and 
https://e360.yale.edu/features/on-u-s-public-lands-can-biden-undo-what-trump-has-wrought

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CONGRESSIONAL PRIORITIES

What Democrats Are Doing:
With an incredibly slim majority, Democrats in the first two years of President Biden’s term passed: 

• a stimulus package that helped boost the economy and helped America’s families (the American Rescue Act).
  
  
• an Infrastructure bill that will provide jobs while repairing America’s roads and bridges, building and repairing water infrastructure and cybersecurity, providing affordable, high speed Internet, upgrading the power grid, and more.
  
  
• the CHIPS Act which will revitalize high-tech domestic manufacturing, create good-paying American jobs, strengthen American supply chains, and accelerate the industries of the future. The bill has already spurred an historic recovery in manufacturing.
  
  
• The PACT Act which will address toxic exposures that have poisoned veterans and provide them with the health care and benefits they have earned and deserve. 
  
  
• The Inflation Reduction Act which marked the most significant action Congress has taken on clean energy and climate change in the nation’s history. The bill lowers household costs across health coverage, prescription drugs, home energy, and electric vehicles and invests in neighborhoods, farmers, forests and wildfire prevention. Every single Republican voted against it. 

See https://www.dpc.senate.gov/dpcdoc.cfm?doc_name=sr-110-2-25

and
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-inflation-reduction-act-will-save-families-thousands-of-dollars/

and
https://democrats.org/news/reminder-every-single-republican-voted-against-lowering-costs-for-americans-3/


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What Republicans Are Doing:
Although a majority of Americans (58%) want this Republican-majority House of Representatives to prioritize lowering costs like groceries and gas, Republicans have proposed a national 30% sales tax on everything from groceries to gasoline. During their campaigns, Republicans talked about the border crisis and inflation but have done nothing to address either. Instead, they are running a three-ring circus of investigations, something only 14% of Americans say they want. 

See https://twitter.com/NavigatorSurvey/status/1613561386520436736/photo/1

and
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2023/2/11/23594706/house-republicans-investigations-biden-mccarthy-jordan

and
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/one-republican-tax-plan-democrats-cant-wait-oppose-rcna66693

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