“We must lift from the bottom with this Build Back Better Plan, so that everybody can rise!” -Rev. Dr. @liztheo, co-chair of the #PoorPeopleCampaign
“We hope that the Biden administration does not cower to the whims of a couple of senators!” @liztheo#PoorPeoplesCampaign
The real question is not “how much does a bold Build Back Better Plan cost?” but how much does it cost in lives and hurt NOT to Build Back Better? #PoorPeoplesCampaign
We’re talking about the Gross Domestic Product when we should be talking about the Great Development Possibilities of millions of men, women, and children who will be directly impacted by these policies.
Pam Garrison, a tri-chair of the @WestVirginiaPPC and lifelong low-wage worker, speaking directly to her representative @Sen_JoeManchin, “This is not about a handout, it’s about a hand up! ... Do your job! Take care of the people, not the corporations.” #PoorPeoplesCampaign
Pam Garrison is right to pushback on Sen. Manchin’s language about “entitlement,” because healthcare, housing, etc. are human rights, not “entitlements.”
Faith Lee, a gig worker and DoorDash driver from Silver Spring, MD: “Stop playing with people’s lives! We need all the provisions of the Build Back Better plan.” #PoorPeoplesCampaign
“Inaction from Congress today means that women such as myself, who are low-wage workers, who will care about our people? When are they going to help us? Help us, don’t hurt us!” -Faith Lee @Maryland_PPC
Marcela Ramirez, a produce packer from Philadelphia, PA: “I am one of the millions of ‘essential’ workers in this country. We are the ones who produce so much wealth in this nation. ... I imagine a world where I don’t have to kill myself to pay my bills.” #PoorPeoplesCampaign
“It is not enough to have jobs. We need those jobs to be well-paid. ... Our lawmakers will say there is not enough money, but there is always money for wars.” -Marcela Ramirez @PennsylvaniaPPC#PoorPeoplesCampaign#BuildBackBetter
“We know that @VP Kamala Harris has the power to include the citizenship clause in the reconciliation bill, and it needs to happen! ... Enough with promises, we need deeds, not words.” -Marcela Ramirez @PennsylvaniaPPC#PoorPeoplesCampaign
Emilee Johnson of Pearl, Mississippi, a low-wage worker and advocate for victims of human trafficking: “Do the right thing! ... We need laws changed on a federal level. ... I deserve a fair chance.” #PoorPeoplesCampaign
Adriel Downing of Lexington, KY, a game-day employee at the University of Kentucky: “I work one day a week for 13 hours. That’s how I provide for my son. ... Please help us!” #PoorPeoplesCampaign#BuildBackBetter
How much does it cost NOT to fund economic justice? How much does it cost to continue poverty and low wealth? How much does it cost in lives, in justice, in well-being? These are the questions. Economic justice and voting rights, all go together.
Katrina Corbell, a low-wage worker on disability from New York: “Congress needs to stop playing with our lives! ... This legislation is about me, it is about US.” #PoorPeoplesCampaign#BuildBackBetter
Kaylen Marie Barker of WV, a low-wage worker: “West Virginia is the land of no opportunity. I have to rob Peter to pay Paul every time a bill comes due. ... The time has run out for people in my state. It’s time for Congress to act!” #PoorPeoplesCampaign#BuildBackBetter
Joan Steede of Phoenix, a home care worker: “There are people dying in their beds right now, while Congress members are going on vacation. ... I demand that Congress back a bill that took so much time, just do your job!” #PoorPeoplesCampaign#BuildBackBetter
Economist Shailly Gupta Barnes, policy director for @UniteThePoor, is spelling out the real numbers: “What happens in these households impacts the entire economy!” #PoorPeoplesCampaign#BuildBackBetter
Just to bring us back to where we were before the pandemic would’ve cost $10 trillion, according to @EconomicPolicy. So this legislation is already a compromise! #BuildBackBetter
Phyllis Bennis from @IPS_DC: “It is a crime that there are still 140 million poor and low-income people in the richest country in the history of the world. ... Too much money is going to the wrong places—to the military and ultra-billionaires.” #PoorPeoplesCampaign
53 cents of every discretionary federal budget dollar goes to war, and another 10 cents goes to the militarization of our borders and police. —@PhyllisBennis@IPS_DC
Sister Richelle Friedman, policy director for the Coalition on Human Needs, speaking from James 2: “Faith without works is dead. ... The child tax credit is reducing child poverty. It must be extended and made permanent. We know what’s at stake!” #BuildBackBetter
“The moral fabric of our nation is determined by how well it provides for the poor in its midst. ... We can afford to do better.” —Sister Richelle Friedman, policy director for the Coalition on Human Needs #PoorPeoplesCampaign#BuildBackBetter
.@RabbiSuskin setting the record straight: The sin of Sodom was its mistreatment of the poor (Ezekiel 16:49-50). “We are here with the voices of Americans crying out for Congress to act!” #PoorPeoplesCampaign#BuildBackBetter
Rev. Dr. @liztheo announcing the #PoorPeoplesCampaign delegation is about to deliver more than 100,000 signatures to offices of Congress members.
Rev. @robtstephens: “The shortest distance between two people is a story.” People from across the country have come together today, and we are all together! #ForwardTogether#NotOneStepBack
America has often chosen wrong and had to pay for it later. This week, over 71 million people chose to return Donald Trump to the White House.
Whether they were right to do so will be determined by whether the anger and vitriol he spewed towards his fellow Americans defines how he will treat them as president.
We have to wonder how much damage he must inflict before even his own supporters feel the hurt so bad they start to question, “what did we do?”
In the Bible, Joshua says, “Choose ye this day...” Howard Zinn said, “You can’t be neutral on a moving train.”
Right now, we face a choice.
I joined 1,000 clergy to endorse VP Harris in our personal capacity. I hope other faith leaders will do the same. cnn.com/2024/10/27/pol…
My full statement:
In my role as both a bishop of the church and a leader of a non partisan movement, I maintain a position of not endorsing any candidate for public office. But as the law allows, I reserve the right in my private capacity to endorse candidates openly.
This has become a moment when I feel compelled to exercise that right, and I hope others will too. I sense a call to speak as a private citizen about my own personal struggle to live faithfully in the present political moment.
Dems, we love your use of “weird” to describe Trump & Vance. But when there are 140 million poor & low wage ppl struggling to make it in this country, it’s also weird to not speak to them.
Yes, it’s weird for Trump & Vance to call policies that would reduce poverty “communism.” But it’s also weird for Dems to not say “poor” if they want poor people to support their agenda.
When 800 ppl are dying from poverty in the richest nation in the history of the world, it’s weird to not make a big deal about it.
It’s weird to have a Zoom call for every group except the 1/3 of the electorate that’s poor.
For years, we’ve been fed a pernicious myth that poverty is only an issue for Black people. This myth not only demeans Black people – with racist images of Black mothers on welfare dominating the imaginations of so many Americans – but also obscures the poverty of tens of millions of white people.
When you frame it as being poor people are Black, other folks are working, what you're doing is dismissing millions of poor and low-wage white people.
This form of mythology is designed to keep Black and white people from working together who really are allies and unified when it comes to the experience of poverty in this country.
In a unified act of solidarity, @GovBillLee joined governors of the former slaveholding states Texas, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Alabama to make a joint statement this week against the @UAW's efforts to unionize autoworkers in the South.
Calling the union a “special interest,” the governors claimed that unions threaten not only good jobs, but also the “values we live by.”
As a preacher from the South, I am tired of politicians trying to co-opt faith with talk about “values” when they do not have the facts to back up their claims.
The truth is that workers are building power in the South and politicians who’ve made immoral partnerships with corporate interests are feeling the heat.
It’s past time for all God’s people to stand up for living wages and union rights.
We're in North Carolina with the @NC_PPC for the final tour stop on the Moral March to the Polls Tour. We are calling on state governments to enact a #ThirdReconstruction agenda, that’s not about left versus right politics, but about what’s right versus what’s wrong.
@NC_PPC In North Carolina, there are 3.5 million poor and low-wealth eligible voters. If we mobilize and organize together, we have the power to change voting outcomes in every election in our state.
@NC_PPC We cannot be silent while politicians prioritize corporate interests over the needs of the poor. From Asheville to Charlotte and Wilmington to Raleigh, we must demand change and fight for a North Carolina and a country that works for all.