Democrats face new Republican objections to the Biden government’s COVID-19 aid package, a crazy reality that has sounded the alarm bells among progressive people who fear hardship issues could be left on the cutting edge.
While President Joe Biden has long had a working capacity to inspire duality, some on the left wing of the party have warned that they do not want to spend too much time trying to negotiate with the IDP, citing dual control in the House and the Senate and its importance in providing rapid monetary relief to Americans during the pandemic.
“Democrats just need to plow forward,” Larry Cohen, chairman of Our Revolution, told a grassroots network that sen. Supported Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) presidential bid. ‘It’s great when [Sen. Marco] Rubio (R-FL) and others who have made noises show that we can build a broader coalition on critical issues, but that cannot wait. ”
‘People want to vote against it? Okay, they are on the record, ”he jokes.
Only a few days after Biden’s first term, progressives fear that an urgent coronavirus bill with adequate Republican support will have to be approved, that Democrats will have to compromise on key economic issues, such as raising the federal minimum wage. On Friday, Biden signed an executive order granting federal workers a $ 15-hour guarantee, but extending the figure to the broader workforce would have to pass through Congress.
While electing him as president, Biden indicated that it was “a long time ago” to adopt a uniform minimum wage of $ 15. His position shifted in line with other Democrats formally advocating the baseline after Sanders’ campaign in 2015.
During the earliest days of his government, the president included the wage increase as part of his $ 1.1 billion stimulus plan, a move the Democrats celebrated as a way to help workers in addition to the additional $ 1,400 proposed relief test. Unlike the one-time check, activists on the left view raising the minimum wage as part of complying with a long-term commitment to economic justice.
However, Republicans in Congress this week began expressing more dissatisfaction with Biden’s overall proposed package, which would eventually require 60 votes in the Senate to succeed and could be a time-consuming endeavor.
“Republicans have no incentive to work together,” said Joe Dinkin, director of the national campaign at the Working Families Party. “Democrats should not waste a second or give the Trump party and billionaires and seditionists a single concession to try to give relief and recovery to every American.”
One of the top officials of the GOP, the minority whip John Thune (R-SD), indicated earlier this week that he does not believe that the proposal will succeed in its current form, thus giving permission for other Republican members to skepticism follows and advocates conservative change. . Susan Collins (R-ME) apparently followed suit, wonder aloud why the highest figure would be needed after Republicans had already passed an emergency relief package while President Donald Trump was in office.
As GOP resistance now becomes increasingly apparent, some on the left fear that moderate Democrats may be tempted to compromise at the expense of the progressive issues they have been pursuing for years. Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich called Biden competed for Republican support a “waste of time, energy and credibility” and predicted that “he will get nothing.”
With the expectation of a still tense atmosphere in Washington that is unlikely to change drastically in the coming weeks, pro-workers activists like Reich are urging Democrats to continue with the budget reconciliation, which will enable them to pass the bill without the support of the opposing party, using Vice President Kamala Harris as a critical tiebreaker.
‘No rules are violated. It’s a legitimate, legitimate process, “said Randy Bryce, a leading Wisconsin trade unionist who launched a lengthy bid against former Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) in 2018. Let’s get the votes but we can and show who’s for helping American workers and who’s against it. Let’s get a written document. ”
Bryce, endorsed by Sanders, shared a similar tone as the populist senator who argued that Democrats should use other means at their disposal if Republicans do not follow their lead over something they believe should be fundamentally bipartisan.
“The Senate’s threshold of 60 votes to pass important legislation has become an excuse for nullity,” Sanders wrote in a CNN report earlier this week in which he explained the method of budget reconciliation. “But let’s be clear: we have the tools to overcome these procedural barriers.”
He also warned that if the Democrats took a more modest approach to the matter, they could have serious consequences in just two years. With a smaller-than-expected majority in the House, the loss of just a few seats could cost the party control of the lower chamber and cast doubt on the prospect of advancing a progressive agenda.
“Look at the next election repeating in 2010,” Cohen said, referring to Democrats losing the House early in the Obama administration. “This is what Democrats should be afraid of.”