“These are good productive conversations, frankly, between [Sanders] and [White House Chief of Staff] Ron Klain, ”said Faiz Shakir, a political adviser to Sanders. From raising the wage floor to Amazon’s union efforts, “the relationship has generally been one of respect,” added Shakir. “We feel an open door where, if we have something that can be a good policy and policy for them, we will raise it up and they will entertain you in a serious way”.
The state of the Bernie-Biden relationship remains strong, even under stressful circumstances. With Democrats battling labor rights and wage policy, the two stepped back, applauded each other and drafted carefully formulated statements to project peace and the aura of collaboration. It is, in part, an acknowledgment that each side needs the other to succeed. It is also motivated by the desire to avoid the problems of the past.
The Vermont independent spent much of Obama’s years as a progressive critic of the Democratic Party and its agenda, even when he cast critical votes to approve these policies. Reputation catapulted him onto the national scene, although he returned to bite him in the party’s presidential primaries and, ultimately, it was not enough to give him the nomination. Colleagues say Sanders, who chairs the Budget Committee, is now demonstrating that he can operate constructively in the Senate and with a Democrat in the White House.
“Bernie has been a movement maker for a long time, and the unfair criticism of him is that he didn’t know how to operate within Congress itself so effectively,” said Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii). “He put an end to the idea that he is just an outside player.”
Biden never made this criticism personally. But he was certainly aware of Sanders’ story, having to work in the Senate to vote on some of the Obama-era deals that Sanders punished. Fearing a redux, he worked hard to ensure that Sanders felt and was included – from joining forces during the general election to drafting the Democratic platform and placing former Sanders officials across the government.
The relationship between the two benefited from a shared political identity – each man bases his political appeal around an emphasis on so-called working-class issues. They also had a closer working partnership than Sanders did with 2016’s primary rival, Hillary Clinton.
“There is a partnership there and Biden also recognizes the value of this, the value of being pushed,” said Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA. “I was able to see up close and personal the alignment between President Biden and Bernie Sanders in the unity task force and, frankly, the work platform was almost completely aligned.”
Biden’s pledge to make $ 15 an hour a reality during the campaign was seen by progressives as a bridge to his party wing and a movement that distinguished him from the previous Democratic candidate.
This promise of minimum wage, and the subsequent fight for it, is now the first real test of whether all that manicure worked. When Sanders and his colleagues in the Senate promoted a proposal to penalize megacorporations that did not pay their workers $ 15 an hour, the White House gave them space. On Monday, Sanders said he would offer another amendment to raise the salary to $ 15 an hour in an attempt – although condemned – to effectively bypass the congressman when the Senate starts moving the relief bill through reconciliation. The White House, once again, has been warned.
But the warning soon may not be enough. Biden’s commitment to approve the main priorities of Democratic politics with narrow majorities – such as the $ 15 salary increase, voting rights protections and immigration reform – and his resistance to abolishing legislative obstruction it may well put you on a collision course with Sanders and other liberals in Congress.
While many lawmakers who spoke to POLITICO said they believed Biden was firmly committed to these ideas, some Democrats admitted that they were disappointed that the president had cast doubt on the fate of the minimum wage weeks before the parliamentarian’s decision that the increase could not be included in the Covid relief bill. While some Democrats said Biden had zero impact on the non-partisan rules arbitrator’s decision, two Democratic aides said their comments casting doubt on the survival of the pay rise created a “permit structure” for the MP to decide against including the US increase $ 15 an hour.
“There is a role for the Biden government to go to the mat for a minimum wage of $ 15 and any measures that increase the minimum wage,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) Said in an interview. “Because that will reflect on the White House and the White House’s ability to fulfill anything if we lose the majority in the Senate in two years, if we lose the majority in the House in two years.”
Jayapal said Biden’s statements were “confusing”. With the expectation that a clean salary of US $ 15 will hardly be in the final package, the congresswoman wants the president to “promise that she will undergo an obstruction reform because I don’t see how there would be 60 votes for that. ”
The White House has given no indication that it is willing to go that route. The senator told POLITICO on Monday that Democrats should not only “ignore” the parliamentarian’s decision, but “act as quickly as possible to end the obstruction”.
Despite his relentless pressure for an increase in the minimum wage, Sanders has so far limited his criticisms of Biden to his foreign policy, not to his domestic actions. For months, the senator supported the Amazon warehouse workers’ effort to organize in Alabama and recently cut digital ads calling for union membership. On Monday, Sanders thanked Biden for speaking out at the problem in a tweet.
But how long that goodwill lasts depends on the battles to come, progressives said. Sanders is working hard to find a way to get a pay raise as close to $ 15 an hour as possible in the aid package, said a Senate aide. But if this month’s Covid relief project does not include an increase in the minimum wage, it will lead to questions about when that increase might occur and could damage Biden’s relationship with the left.
Progressive lawmakers and activists do not see a pay rise happening without removing the obstruction, which sets a 60-vote limit to pass most legislation in the Senate.
A struggle for obstructionism seems practically “inevitable,” said Schatz. Although it appears that the $ 15 salary increase is far from being approved anytime soon, he said the battle helped the public understand the inner workings of the Senate.
“Democratic reforms benefit from the fact that people understand how these mysterious rules are hurting them in their lives,” said Schatz. “Not just as some kind of abstract process complaint, but real harm to ordinary people who are trying to do this economically.”
Marianne LeVine contributed reporting.