Liberal senators and outside pressure groups are haunted by the Senate’s apparent failure to move a COVID-19 aid package with a provision that raises the federal minimum wage to $ 15 an hour.
A negative decision by the Senate MP means that the Democrats will not be able to move the minimum of $ 15 using special budget rules intended to bypass the filibuster.
This leads to calls to subdue or fire the Member of Parliament, or to get rid of the filibuster, which essentially requires legislation to ensure 60 votes to go through the Senate.
Sen. Bernie Sanders
Bernie Sanders On The Money: Senators Advocate for Change as House Votes on Bill on .9T | Warren presents bill to create wealth tax. Sanders promises to raise the minimum wage no. 2 to enforce. Senate Democrat shoots down the dominant parliamentarian on minimum wage (I-Vt.), The Senate’s leading proponent of a minimum wage of $ 15 per hour, on Monday called on Democratic colleagues to “ignore” the parliamentarian’s ruling and promised to week would force a vote on the issue.
“My personal opinion is that the idea that we have a Senate staff, a high-ranking staff member, who decides whether 30 million Americans get a salary increase or not, does not make sense,” he said. “We have to make the decision, not a staff member who has not been selected. That is why I think we should ignore the decisions, the decision of the Member of Parliament. ‘
The problem for Sanders and other liberals is that Democrats do not seem to have even the 50 votes in their caucus to pass the $ 15 minimum wage or end the filibuster with the so-called core option.
Sen. Joe Manchin
Joseph (Joe) Manchin Senate Democrats Negotiate Amendments to Coronavirus Bill Murkowski Says No Decision After Teeth Meets with Ocasio-Cortez: Pay Only ‘Socialists’ to Those in ‘Dystopian Capitalist Nightmare’ MORE (DW.Va.) is at the minimum wage of $ 15, although he does support it to increase it to $ 11 per hour and index it to inflation. Without his vote, Democrats would not even have 50 votes in the Senate.
As for the filibuster, both Manchin and Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) Are opposed to doing so.
Manchin on Monday indicated increasing frustration with questions about his position.
Asked if he could change the filibuster at some point, he turned around and shouted at reporters, “Never!”
“Jesus Christ! What do you never understand? He grumbled.
Liberals apparently want to increase the pressure on Manchin, Cinema and their own leaders to take some action given the party’s control of the House, Senate and White House.
They want to force a vote on the minimum wage of $ 15 and Manchin dares to oppose it.
And they are asking Democrats to overthrow Senator Elizabeth MacDonough, who last week ruled that the COVID-19 relief package could not pass by a simple majority vote under special budget rules if it included a provision on the minimum wage to increase to $ 15 by 2025. .
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin
Dick Durbin Director of the FBI for belligerent trial over mob attack no. 2 Senate Democrats shoot dominant MP down on minimum wage Senate invents changes to 9 billion coronavirus bill MORE (D-Ill.) And the Biden White House both pushed back against the idea of ignoring MacDonough on Monday.
“I do not think it will work. I hope we are thinking very seriously about dealing with the minimum wage elsewhere, ”said Durbin.
The White House Press Secretary repeated the White House staff separately Ron Klain
Ron Klain The Hill’s Morning Report – Presented by Facebook – Trump teases on 2024 run GOP says Ron Klain pulls Biden strings Democrats scramble to save the minimum wage increase MOREdismissal of a vote to dominate the Member of Parliament.
The struggle for the minimum wage put a spotlight on Democratic divisions on Monday.
Nearly two dozen House members have called on Biden and Vice President Harris to block the parliamentarian’s decision, something that would require the support of all 50 Senate Democrats, plus Vice President Harris’ casting vote.
“Eighty-one million people are voting to vote for you on a platform that demands a minimum wage of $ 15,” the progressive lawmakers wrote in a letter to Biden and Harris.
“We urge you to fulfill this promise and call on the Senate President to reject the Senate’s advice … and maintain the $ 15 minimum wage provision in the U.S. Rescue Plan, they wrote.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren
Elizabeth Warren On The Money: Senators Advocate for Changes As House Closes Bill on .9T | Warren proposes bill to create wealth tax. Sanders promises to impose the minimum wage. Warren’s wealth tax would cost 100 richest Americans billion (D-Mass.), Another influential progressive who campaigned hard for president in 2020, said on Monday she supported a vote to dominate the MP, but said the bigger problem was the Senate subsidiary rule , which requires legislation to pass by 60 votes if it faces procedural objections.
‘If we were to get rid of the filibuster, we would not have to try to force the camel through the eye of the needle. “Instead, we would do what the majority of Americans want us to do, and in this particular case, it raises the minimum wage,” Warren added.
Outside groups are increasingly irritated by what they see as the impotence of the party.
‘The Democratic Party, they must do everything in their power to achieve this. It’s a signature promise, ”said Joseph Geervarghese, executive director of Our Revolution, a political action group that emerged from Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign.
“It must be complete,” he said, adding that a vote to dominate or replace the MP should be on the table. “If there is a will, there is a way to do it.”
Geervarghese said if the Democrats drop the price for a wage of $ 15 an hour, “they do it at their own risk.”
“What you see is the progressive wing of the Democratic Party put together to indicate this is critical,” he said.
Brian Fallon, the executive director of Demand Justice, another progressive advocacy group, is also appealing to Senate Democrats to dominate the MP.
‘Dominate the MP or end the filibuster. “Senate process is not an excuse for failing to get results,” he tweeted.
‘If it’s the Democrats’ considered position to take just what they can get now on a big COVID relief package and be content with the MP’s ruling on minimum wage, okay, but to me that means they are willing should be to follow it, eventually, and get rid of the filibuster to pass the minimum wage and a bunch of other things, ‘he said.
It’s unclear how Democrats can get the minimum wage of $ 15 to Biden’s desk without any dramatic change.
Republicans who offered support for raising the federal minimum wage supported smaller increases over longer periods.
Without protection from the budget rules, Democrats need the support of ten Senate Republicans to pass minimum wage legislation with the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster.