'Chaos agent' Kyrsten Sinema slammed for threatening Biden’s 'entire agenda'

When now-Sen. Kyrsten Sinema was competing with Republican Martha McSally in Arizona's 2018 U.S. Senate race, she ran as a centrist — criticizing parts of then-President Donald Trump's MAGA agenda yet praising a famous Arizona conservative: the late Sen. John McCain. Sinema is still decidedly centrist in her views, and some of her critics argue that she is unnecessarily dogmatic in her centrism — especially when it comes to the Build Back Better Act of 2021. Such dogma is the target of a biting editorial published by New Jersey's NJ.com website on October 24.

In the piece, NJ.com's editorial board attacks Sinema for hurting Biden's economic plans, saying, "Kyrsten Sinema won her U.S. Senate seat largely by blaming an incumbent for supporting 'huge tax breaks for the wealthy and large corporations,' and vowing to help a Democratic majority roll back the Trump tax cuts, 83% of which benefit the top 1%. Yet now, she has rejected any tax hike on corporations or high earners to pay for President Biden's 'Build Back Better' package, and that alone could tank the entire agenda."

Sinema and another centrist Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, have made it clear that they believe the Build Back Better Act's $3.5 trillion price tag is much too high, and President Joe Biden obviously realizes that parts of it will need to be cut in order to get Sinema and Manchin to vote for it."

NJ.com's editorial board observes, "The massive legislative package — and with it, the $1 trillion infrastructure bill — cannot pass without the votes of the inscrutable Arizonan and fellow holdout Sen. Joe Manchin, and nobody is sure how the pay-fors will be worked out. But one difference worth noting is this: Manchin has explicit, articulated objections to the bill, works to moderate it, and supports repealing the Trump tax cuts. Sinema won't allow Biden to raise the top income tax rate from 37% to 39.6 and the corporate rate from 21% to 28, and she won't say why adding debt is better than making the wealthy pay their fair share."

NJ.com's editorial board points out that a new term has been coined by lawmakers on Capitol Hill: Sinema Verité.

"Along the way," the editorial board writes, "she seems to relish her role as chaos agent, and since returning from a recent fundraiser in Paris, the White House has slashed the bill to pieces almost daily, trying to get her on board…. She reportedly killed the provision to lower prescription drug prices…. She demanded that they whack $100 billion off the bill's climate programs…. They have a new term for it in Washington: Sinema Verité. It's bringing the house down, and not in a good way."

NJ.com published, with its editorial, a recent segment from MSNBC's Chris Hayes criticizing Sinema for butchering the Build Back Better Act. Watch the video below:

Chris Hayes To Kyrsten Sinema: What Are You Doing Here?www.youtube.com