Liberal senators and external pressure groups are extolling the Senate’s apparent failure to pass a COVID-19 relief package with a clause that raises the federal minimum wage to $ 15 an hour.
An adverse decision by the Senate congressman means that Democrats cannot move a minimum of $ 15 using special budget rules designed to circumvent the obstruction.
This is leading to requests to annul or dismiss the congressman, or to get rid of the obstruction, which essentially requires legislation to guarantee 60 votes to pass the Senate.
Sen. Bernie Sanders
Bernie SandersOn The Money: Senators push for change as the House approaches the vote on the .9T relief bill | Warren offers bill to create tax on wealth Sanders promises to force vote on minimum wage No. 2 Democratic senator overturns parliamentary decision on minimum wage MORE (I-Vt.), The Senate’s main defender of a $ 15 hourly minimum wage, on Monday asked Democratic colleagues to “ignore” the parliamentarian’s decision and promised that he would force a vote on the matter during the week.
“My personal opinion is that the idea that we have a Senate official, a high ranking official, deciding whether 30 million Americans will receive a salary increase or not, does not make sense,” he said. “We have to make this decision, not an official who was not elected, so my opinion is that we should ignore the decisions, the parliamentarian’s decision.”
The problem for Sanders and other liberals is that Democrats don’t even seem to have the 50 votes in their caucus to pass the $ 15 minimum wage or end obstruction using the so-called nuclear option.
Sen. Joe Manchin
Joseph (Joe) ManchinSenate Democrats negotiating changes to the coronavirus bill Murkowski says no decision after Tanden’s meeting with Ocasio-Cortez: save only ‘socialist’ for those in ‘dystopian capitalist nightmare’ MORE (DW.Va.) opposes the $ 15 minimum wage, although it supports its increase to $ 11 an hour, indexing it to inflation. Without your vote, Democrats don’t even have 50 votes in the Senate.
When it comes to obstruction, both Manchin and Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) Are opposed to ending it.
Manchin on Monday signaled growing frustration with questions about his position.
Asked if he could change his mind about the obstruction at some point, he turned and shouted at the reporters: “Never!”
“Jesus Christ! What do you never understand about?” He mumbled.
Liberals seem to want to increase the pressure on Manchin, Sinema and their own leaders to take some action, given the party’s control over the House, the Senate and the White House.
They want to force a vote on the $ 15 minimum wage, challenging Manchin to oppose him.
And they are asking Democrats to override Senate congresswoman Elizabeth MacDonough, who last week ruled that the COVID-19 relief package cannot be approved by a simple majority under special budget rules if it includes a provision to raise wages. minimum for $ 15 by 2025.
Majority whip in the Senate Dick Durbin
Dick Durbin FBI Director Scheduled for Combative Hearing on Mafia Attack No. 2 Democratic Senate overturns congressman over minimum wage Senate ponders changes to 0.9 trillion coronavirus bill MORE (D-Ill.) And the Biden White House opposed the idea of nullifying MacDonough on Monday.
“I don’t think this is going to work. I hope that we will think very seriously about how to deal with the minimum wage in a different location, ”said Durbin.
The White House press secretary separately reiterated the White House chief of staff Ron Klain
Ron Klain’s Morning ReportThe Hill – Presented by Facebook – Trump teases GOP in 2024 says Ron Klain pulling on Biden strings Democrats struggle to rescue minimum wage increase MOREdismissal of a vote to annul the parliamentarian.
The battle for the minimum wage put the spotlight on Democratic divisions on Monday.
Nearly two dozen progressives in the House have asked Biden and Vice President Harris to overturn the congressman’s decision, something that would require the support of all 50 Senate Democrats plus Vice President Harris’ tiebreaker vote.
“Eighty-one million people voted to elect him on a platform that asked for 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 Senate President to refute the Senate congressman’s advice … and keep the $ 15 minimum wage provision in the American Rescue Plan,” they wrote.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren
Elizabeth WarrenOn The Money: Senators push for change as the House approaches the vote on the .9T relief bill | Warren offers bill to create tax on wealth Sanders promises to force the minimum wage vote. Warren’s fortune tax would cost 100 billion wealthier Americans (D-Mass.), Another influential progressive who ran a strong campaign for president in 2020, said on Monday that he supports a vote to override the congressman, but said the biggest problem is the Senate obstruction rule, which requires that the legislation be passed with 60 votes if procedural objections are faced.
“If we wanted to get rid of the obstructor, we wouldn’t have to 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 specific case, raise the minimum wage, ”added Warren.
External groups are increasingly irritated by what they consider to be impotence on the part of the party.
“The Democratic Party must do everything in its power to achieve this. It’s a signature promise, ”said Joseph Geervarghese, executive director of Our Revolution, a political action group that grew out of Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign.
“Everything must be done ahead,” he said, adding that a vote to annul the parliamentarian or replace her must be under discussion. “If there is a will, there is a way to do that.”
Geervarghese said that if Democrats abandon pressure for a $ 15 hourly wage, “they will do so at their own risk.”
“What you are seeing is the progressive wing of the Democratic Party coming together around signaling that this is extremely important,” he said, adding
Brian Fallon, the executive director of Demand Justice, another progressive defense group, is also asking Senate Democrats to override the congressman.
“Reject the parliamentarian or end the obstruction. The Senate process is no excuse for failure to get results, ”he tweeted.
“If it’s the Democrats’ considered position simply to take what they can get now in a big relief package from COVID and conform to the legislator’s decision on the minimum wage, fine, but for me that means they have to be willing to go ahead, anyway, and get rid of the obstruction to pass the minimum wage and a lot of other things, ”he said.
It is unclear how Democrats can bring the $ 15 minimum wage to Biden’s table without any dramatic changes.
Republicans who offered support for raising the federal minimum wage supported smaller increases over longer periods.
Without protection against budget rules, Democrats need the support of 10 Senate Republicans to pass minimum wage legislation with the 60 votes needed to overcome an obstruction.