Charles Booker, candidate for the Democratic nomination for Senate, sent a letter to President Biden urging action on the Build Back Better bill, and calling out Mitch McConnell for statements in McConnell's recent letter to Biden.
Here is the text of the letter Booker sent:
The Honorable Joseph R. Biden
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500-0005
Dear President Biden:
I humbly write to you in response to a letter Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell sent to you last week. Leader McConnell’s statements are hypocritical and do nothing to help solve a crisis of leadership that he not only created, but continues to benefit from while the people of Kentucky suffer. Amid this debate happening in Washington, I urge you and our Senate leaders to end the filibuster and take up the Build Back Better Agenda in full, seizing this opportunity now to pass it.
As we both well know, the debt limit is not something that should be used as a political football, and as Majority Leader Schumer correctly pointed out last week, a bipartisan, long-term solution to the debt limit is necessary. Thanks to Leader Schumer’s leadership, the political games and brinkmanship Leader McConnell played around the debt limit were defeated.
Leader McConnell’s actions, however, I take issue with. His underhanded tactics failed last week, and in response he lashed out instead of working towards any solution at all.
As a Kentuckian, I’m furious. As a public servant, I’m sickened. I have spent much of my life representing the very Kentuckians Leader McConnell claims to, and I can tell you first hand that this man does not speak for us. He continues to make decisions that hurt Kentuckians without a single ounce of regret or regard for our lives.
We need investment today – not tomorrow, not next year, not years down the road. With over 30 years in DC, what does Kentucky have to show for Leader McConnell’s leadership? We’re a state of poor, sick, overworked and underpaid people that have made him rich in his career, and when we are asking for a little relief — an ounce of support — he says the price is too high. Instead, he goes on partisan rants in Washington, D.C. with little care about the daily struggles we are dealing with at home. We need quality healthcare for all, we need reliable broadband, we need clean and drinkable water, we need roads and bridges that we do not have to fear will collapse any day.
Putting forth a bold budget to fund critical services may not mean much to Leader McConnell, but these funds are life and death for so many folks here. What’s worse is the truth — we have the money to fund these programs — and Leader McConnell knows this, preferring instead to give tax breaks to corporate interests and companies like Amazon.
In truth, I’m ashamed to share a home state with Leader McConnell. He’s clearly forgotten the people of Kentucky, willing to sell us out on the national stage for cheap political points. He couldn’t walk a mile in our shoes, let alone understand what it is like to live every day in fear of going hungry, dying without healthcare, traveling broken and dangerous roads, or going homeless because you can’t make ends meet.
I call upon you to continue pushing to end the Senate filibuster, passing the Build Back Better agenda in the full $3.5 trillion amount, and advocating for a bold, transformative future that the nation and Kentucky deserve.
Respectfully,
Charles Booker
Former Kentucky State Representative and candidate for U.S. Senate
cc: Majority Leader Chuck Schumer
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell
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