Liberal senators and outside lobbyists are smoking over the Senate’s apparent failure to move a COVID-19 relief package with a provision that raises the federal minimum wage to $ 15 an hour.
An adverse decision by the Senate MP means Democrats cannot move the $ 15 minimum through special budget rules designed to dodge the filibuster.
This leads to calls to annul or dismiss the parliamentarian or to get rid of the filibuster, which basically requires legislation to get 60 votes to go through the Senate.
His. Bernie Sanders
Bernie Sanders: “Money: Senators push for changes as the House approaches the vote on the bill.9T | Warren offers a bill to create wealth taxes Sanders promises to force the vote on wages minimum No. 2 The Senate Democrat shoots the MP over the MORE minimum wage (I-Vt.), The Senate’s top advocate of a minimum wage of $ 15 an hour, on Monday asked Democratic colleagues to “ignore” the parliamentarian’s resolution and vowed to force a vote on the issue. during his week.
“My personal view is that the idea of having a member of the Senate, a high-ranking staff member, decide whether or not 30 million Americans receive a pay rise is not sensible,” he said. “We have to make that decision, not an unelected staff member, so my view is that we should ignore the rulings, the MP’s decision.”
The problem for Sanders and other Liberals is that it doesn’t look like Democrats have even 50 votes in their caucus to approve the $ 15 minimum wage or end the filibuster using the so-called nuclear option.
His. Joe Manchin
Joseph (Joe) Manchin: Senate Democrats negotiating changes to coronavirus bill Murkowski says no decision after Tanden Ocasio-Cortez meeting: Wage is only “socialist” with those of the “dystopian capitalist nightmare ” MONTH (DW.Va.) opposes the $ 15 minimum wage, though it supports the increase to $ 11 per hour and indexation to inflation. Without their vote, Democrats don’t even have 50 votes in the Senate.
When it comes to the filibuster, both Manchin and Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) Are opposed to ending it.
Manchin on Monday showed growing frustration with questions about his position.
Asked if he could change his mind about the filibuster at some point, he turned and shouted at reporters, “Never!”
“Jesus Christ! What do you never understand?” He muttered.
The Liberals seem to want to increase pressure on Manchin, Sinema and their own leaders to take some kind of action, given the party’s control over the House, Senate and White House.
They want to force a vote on the $ 15 minimum wage, daring Manchin to oppose it.
And they are asking Democrats to overturn Senate MP Elizabeth MacDonough, who last week determined that the COVID-19 relief package cannot pass with a simple majority vote under special budget rules if it includes a provision to raise the minimum wage to $ 15 in 2025.
Whip of the Senate majority Dick Durbin
FBI Director Dick Durbin is preparing a combative hearing on the No. 2 attack on Democrats: The Senate Democrat shoots a MP who bounces the minimum wage. The Senate is reflecting on changes to a 9 trillion coronavirus bill. MONTH (D-Ill.) And Biden’s White House backtracked on the idea of dominating MacDonough on Monday.
“I do not think this will work. I hope we think very seriously about treating the minimum wage in a different place, ”said Durbin.
The White House press secretary reiterated separately the White House chief of staff Ron Klain
Ron Klain: Hill’s Morning Report, Presented by Facebook, Trump Mocks 2024 Fiscal Year, GOP Says Ron Klain Tugs Biden Ropes Democrats Struggle to Redeem Rise in Minimum Wage MOREthe dismissal of a vote to annul the parliamentarian.
The battle for the minimum wage put the focus on Democratic divisions on Monday.
Nearly two dozen House progressives called on Biden and Vice President Harris to overturn the parliamentarian’s ruling, which would require the support of the 50 Senate Democrats plus Vice President Harris’ tiebreaker vote.
“Eighty-one million people voted to elect you on a platform that demanded a minimum wage of $ 15,” progressive lawmakers wrote in a letter to Biden and Harris.
“We urge you to keep that promise and ask the President of the Senate to refute the advice of the Senate MP … and maintain the minimum wage provision of $ 15 in the American Rescue Plan,” they wrote.
His. Elizabeth Warren
Elizabeth Warren: Money: Senators push for change as the House approaches the vote on the bill.9T | Warren offers bill to create wealth taxes Sanders promises to force vote on minimum wage Warren’s wealth tax would cost 100 million richest Americans MORE (D-Mass.), Another influential progressive who campaigned hard for the presidency in 2020, said Monday he supports a vote to overturn the parliamentarian, but said the biggest problem is the Senate filibuster rule, which requires legislation to pass with 60 votes if faced with procedural objections.
“If we got rid of the filibuster, we shouldn’t keep trying to force the camel through the eye of the needle. Instead, we would do what most Americans want us to do, and in this particular case, that means raising the minimum wage, ”Warren added.
Outside groups are increasingly irritated by what they see as party impotence.
“The Democratic Party should do everything in its power to do that. It’s an exclusive promise, ”said Joseph Geervarghese, executive director of Our Revolution, a political action group that emerged from Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign.
“It should be completely ahead,” he said, adding that a vote should be on the table to overturn or replace the parliamentarian. “If there’s a will, there’s a way to do it.”
Geervarghese said that if Democrats give up the urge to get a $ 15-an-hour salary, “they do so at their own risk.”
“What you see is that the progressive wing of the Democratic Party is uniting around signaling that this is critical,” he said, adding
Brian Fallon, the executive director of Demand Justice, another progressive advocacy group, is also urging Senate Democrats to overturn the parliamentarian.
“Cancel the parliamentarian or end the filibuster. The Senate process is not an excuse for not getting results, “he tweeted.
“If it’s the considered position of Democrats just take what they can get now in a major COVID relief package and settle for the MP’s decision on minimum wage, okay, but for me that means they have to ‘be willing to follow it, ultimately, and get rid of the filibuster to pass the minimum wage and a lot of other things,’ he said.
It’s unclear how Democrats can get the $ 15 minimum wage at the Biden table without any dramatic change.
Republicans who have offered support to raise the federal minimum wage have supported smaller increases over longer periods of time.
Without protection from budget rules, Democrats need the support of ten Senate Republicans to pass minimum wage legislation with the 60 votes needed to overcome an obstacle.