Funny how noone was talking about the advisory opinion of the Senate Parliamentarian when the Republicans were in charge, as they passed whatever they wanted when they had enough votes. If the Democrats actually wanted to see an increase in the minimum wage, the Vice-President could overrule the Parliamentarian so if the Dems do not include the 15 dollar minimum wage back in the Covid relief package, understand that it is because the Dems do not want to raise the minimum wage, not because they can't. Aside from Bernie Sanders and Justice Democrats I do not believe the Democrats when they say they want to raise the minimum wage until they actually demonstrate that to me.

Democrats: "You wanted a higher minimum wage? Sorry, can't do. But here's an airstrike in Syria instead."

It's Kamala Harris' decision and hers alone to override the parliamentarian's ADVISORY opinion on $15 minimum wage or not. If she doesn't you know the administration's not serious about workers' rights. $15 minimum wage is the bare minimum in terms of left-wing policies. If they can't even fight when they're able to fight they don't get to claim to be standing for progressive change or whatever. 'Neo-liberal corporate hacks' fits these people better.

They only have 48 votes at most for a $15 minimum wage if the parliamentarian was disregarded. So it’s pointless to disregard without enough votes to override with Manchin and Sinema in opposition. Putting it into COVID relief isn’t the only way to get it passed if it comes to that, it can be a rider to another bill that doesn’t have to meet reconciliation rules.

I just pointed out what they can do, what they are allowed to do under the existing set of rules. If they do not do this, they are not fighting hard enough for things they supposedly support. They are hiding behind the parliamentarian because their corporate donors don't want a wage increase and so this is a convenient excuse but one which does not work because everyone knows Kamala Harris can overrule that opinion IF she wants to. I don't know what's in their hearts but I can see what their actions are and those definitely paint a very clear picture as to who these people are.

Making it a separate bill not only makes it easier for some members of Congress to vote against it, with the filibuster still intact you'd need 60+ votes to get it passed and you have Dems who will not get rid of the filibuster under any circumstances and since you won't get Republican votes for a $15 minimum wage, you'll need to get it done through reconciliation and that process allows Kamala Harris to ignore the parliamentarian and the only reason she's not doing that is because she does not actively want to fight for this. People don't want to have a separate proposal that caters to corporations, Republicans and corporate Democrats. So keeping it in the relief bill is the best option for it to pass and if the Dems don't manage to get this done, they'll have lots of problems in the mid-term elections.

Whoever told you the VP can unilaterality decide what becomes law lied to you. This is right up there with 'Why doesn't VP Mike Pence unilaterally steal the election for Trump during certification on January 6?' Neither could do that, the entire Senate needs to vote on whether it happens or not.

The House version of the bill has the minimum wage hike. The Democrats voted that through. You can stop blaming all Democrats when it's like 2 people that are actually holding out.

Do you know how the minimum wage was passed 14 years ago? It was a rider to a war funding bill, not using reconciliation. There's other opportunities ahead if need be with other must-pass types of bills. But the same issue of Manchin and Sinema being against the minimum wage could still apply unless they change their minds.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Tr ... _Act,_2007

MagnarTheGreat wrote: ↑

March 3rd, 2021, 9:03 am

Whoever told you the VP can unilaterality decide what becomes law lied to you. This is right up there with 'Why doesn't VP Mike Pence unilaterally steal the election for Trump during certification on January 6?' Neither could do that, the entire Senate needs to vote on whether it happens or not.

The House version of the bill has the minimum wage hike. The Democrats voted that through. You can stop blaming all Democrats when it's like 2 people that are actually holding out.

Do you know how the minimum wage was passed 14 years ago? It was a rider to a war funding bill, not using reconciliation. There's other opportunities ahead if need be with other must-pass types of bills. But the same issue of Manchin and Sinema being against the minimum wage could still apply unless they change their minds.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Tr ... _Act,_2007

I don't think the VP can unilaterally decide what becomes law but as I understandi it, as Senate Presiding Officer, Kamala Harris is final decider and can ignore the advisory opinion of the parliamentarian (a December 2020 Congressional Research Center report seems to indicate this too by the way). Why do you think people like AOC and almost two dozen house Dems are asking Kamala Harris to ignore said advisory opinion?
https://www.dailyposter.com/p/house-dem ... is-advance
https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/RL/RL30862
Why don't you read up on this stuff before you compare me to Republicans?

By the way, I don't blame all Democrats: only those who don't use the power they have and who don't use the opportunities they are given to push for the policies they tell you during campaign season that they support. My beef is not with the House Dems who passed the House version of the bill (which included the $15 minimum wage). My issue is with those Dems in the Senate who are using the parliamentarian as a lame excuse to shirk their responsibilities as representatives of the American people.
I am not asking Kamala Harris to do something she is not allowed to do under US law so there's a big difference between Republicans asking Mike Pence to steal the election for Trump. See, what I'm doing here is not cheering for a 'team'. It's called holding politicians' feet to the fire and asking them to fight for the policies they told me they would fight for. You should try it sometimes. The first step is not rationalising the bad decisions and even worse excuses by the politicians you are trying to hold accountable.

Here's what the current VP should do: overrule the (I'll say this again) ADVISORY opinion that is non-binding and then go to Vest Virginia and Arizona and let the voters know that their Senators are standing in the way of a $15 minimum wage. My guess is she won't do any of those things because as a centre-right Dem that policy is just not that important to her. Honestly, the Biden administration fought more to get Neera Tanden confirmed than they are trying to get Americans the minimum wage increase.

As for the stimulus check eligibility, the Senate will narrow it under a deal between Biden and the moderate Democrats: singles under $75K will get the full 1400 dollar but this zeroes out at $80K instead of $100K and couples under $150K will get the full amount but it zeroes out at $160K instead of $200K: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congre ... s-n1259463.
This means fewer people will get checks than under Trump but many of those people that get checks will get more money this time around and to be fair, some Democrats argued against this because they foresaw a lot of people getting angry because they might not have expected to be excluded this time around when they were included previously. Also, the $400 dollar/week federal unemployment insurance will be extended until August but not until September 2021.

I mean, overall, this is not a winning strategy for 2022.

Do not tell me the Democratic Party wants an increase in the minimum wage when they just voted to kill that possibility in a situation where they had all the institutional power to get it passed. Now here are the 8 Dem Senators that unite with Republicans to make sure you don't get higher wages:
- Jon Tester
- Joe Machin
- Jeanne Shaheen
- Maggie Hassan
- Angus King (an Independent who caucuses with Democrats)
- Kyrsten Sinema
- Tom Carper
- Chris Coons

The Dems could have gotten rid of the filibuster but chose not to because it's hard having to try and convince Machin and Sinema I guess, they could have ignored the parliamentarian's advice and chose not to because it's hard exercising your power as Senate Presiding Officer I guess. At best there are individual Democrats who support an increase in the minimum wage but the Party as a whole simply doesn't and anyone who tells you otherwise does not know what they are talking about. If the Party did want this, they would have fought harder and would have used the power at their disposal.

It just shows the votes to fight the parliamentarian don’t exist. They also removed some other spending the parliamentarian objected to, it wasn’t just included the wage in the COVID bill.

Biden backs new war powers vote in Congress, White House says

“President Joe Biden intends to work with Congress to repeal the war authorizations that have underpinned U.S. military operations across the globe for the past two decades and negotiate a new one that reins in the open-ended nature of America’s foreign wars, the White House said Friday.”

Sounds like a decent start to me.