Top business group launches six-figure ad buy in Arizona urging Sinema to oppose tax increases

A coalition of top business groups is launching a six-figure ad buy in Arizona to urge Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) to “keep fighting for her state’s Main Street and small businesses” by opposing tax increases.

America’s Job Creators for a Strong Recovery, which is comprised of nearly 40 leading trade associations that represent individual and family-owned businesses and corporations, launched its campaign on Tuesday with an ad that urges Sinema to maintain her opposition toward tax hikes proposed by the Biden administration to fund its spending package.

The ad blitz comes as lawmakers on Capitol Hill are closing in on a hard-fought agreement on what should be in Democrats’ multitrillion-dollar reconciliation package and how to pay for it. 

It also comes after Sinema’s office released a statement last week saying she is opposed to “simply raising tax rates will not in any way address the challenge of tax avoidance or improve economic competitiveness.”

Lawmakers were pushing for the Senate-passed bipartisan infrastructure bill to be passed at the end of last month, but progressives refused to hold a vote unless it was accompanied by the larger reconciliation package.

That legislation, however, has been held up in the Senate due to an internal Democratic debate regarding the price tag and other components of the package. Specifically, moderates like Sinema and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) have taken issue with the initial $3.5 trillion top-line number on the legislation, contending that it is too high.

Recent reports have said that the final framework for the social spending package will likely hover around $2 trillion.

Members of the party are now hashing out the details for how to fund the party’s social spending package, which is central to President Biden’s legislative agenda and includes key investments in health and child care, along with other initiatives.

Top Democrats on Sunday said they are eyeing a tax on billionaires to help bankroll the investments, but questions are now swirling regarding whether Sinema will support such a move.

The ad from America’s Job Creators for a Strong Recovery, which name-checks Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), encourages Sinema to hold firm in her opposition to tax hikes, while also sounding the alarm about the spending bill potentially increasing inflation.

“Inflation is surging and working families are hurting. But Bernie Sanders and Nancy Pelosi want to pass a multitrillion-dollar spending bill that will slam the brakes on America’s economic recovery,” the ad says.

“Their reckless plan would impose higher inflation costs on middle class families, and job-killing tax hikes on America’s main street and small businesses. Fortunately, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is saying no to excessive spending and tax hikes. Tell Senator Sinema to keep fighting for job creators and American workers,” the ad continues.

Eric Hoplin, the CEO of the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors, which is a member of ​​America’s Job Creators for a Strong Recovery, said the tax increases being proposed by Democratic lawmakers in Washington will hurt middle-class families by imposing higher inflation costs.

“Many Arizona Main Street and small businesses were hammered by the COVID-19 pandemic and are just beginning to recover, but now President Biden, Nancy Pelosi and others in Washington want to hammer them further with a massive tax hike that will kill jobs and impose even higher inflation costs on middle-class families,” Hoplin said in a statement.

“Fortunately, Senator Kyrsten Sinema is continuing the proud tradition of independent leadership and bucking the enormous political pressure of DC insiders, and is instead fighting for Arizona’s small and Main Street businesses,” he added.

America’s Job Creators for a Strong Recovery launched in May as a coalition dedicated to opposing tax hikes on corporations and other companies.

The business associations joined together to form the group to oppose Biden’s “record tax-and-spend proposals,” which it claims will hamper economic recovery rather than help it, and “counteract the economic benefits of smart infrastructure spending.”