August 20, 2021
Dear Members of Congress,
Independent Women’s Voice, the leading national women’s organization dedicated to expanding support for common sense public policies among women, independents, millennials, and Gen Z, urges you to reject the latest so-called infrastructure packages. These proposals will move our country decisively towards socialism, changing our economy, and our society, for the worse.
Among other things, this proposed legislation spends trillions of dollars to establish non-infrastructure partisan initiatives such as:
- Subsidized government daycare which parents say is their least preferred child care option
- Taxpayer-funded free college, a windfall for colleges which have raised tuition and cost well above inflation for decades
- Government-mandated paid leave that will sweep away workers’ existing paid leave packages and result in fewer economic opportunities for women
- Universal Pre-K so our 3-and 4-year olds will be in the same politicized and divisive education system as K-12 students
- Amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants without addressing the ongoing crisis at the border
- Radical environmental regulations that do nothing to address climate change
The proposed $3.5 trillion “human infrastructure” plan is especially likely to harm minority communities and those with lower incomes. Inflation, including soaring food prices, is already skyrocketing, with spikes not seen since the Great Recession of 2008. This new package will only accelerate inflation in our country and hurt our most vulnerable populations.
The result of the current pace of inflation is that Americans’ earnings are getting wiped out and low and minimum-wage workers are poorer than they have been in decades. Inflation is essentially a tax on everyone that disproportionately hurts poor people. Lower-income families spend a greater share of their budget than wealthier families on everyday goods and services like food, housing, and health care. Sadly, spending $3.5 trillion will only make matters worse by creating a cycle of dependency and further increasing the rate of inflation.
We strongly urge all lawmakers to oppose this so-called infrastructure package. Public policies should support the most economically vulnerable in our society by striving to incentivize work and allowing Americans to thrive.
Respectfully,
Hadley Heath Manning
Director of Policy
Independent Women’s Voice