It was not surprising that the Bernie Sanders attempt to put the $15.00 Minimum Wage Increase into the Senate version of the American Rescue Plan failed.
All the Republicans were going to vote against it and Democrats Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin were on the record saying they would not support it.
What is surprising is six other members of the Democratic Caucus voted with all the Republicans, Sinema, and Manchin against raising the minimum wage to $15.00 an hour.
These members included:
- Maggie Hassan
- Jeanne Shaheen
- Chris Coons
- Angus King
- Jon Tester.
In the immortal words of Desi Arnaz, these Democrats have "a lot of explaining to do."
This is very disappointing.
Democrats made compromises on the number of people getting cash payments, how some state and local aid would be allocated, and the weekly amount and duration of unemployment insurance.
Democrats should have been able to huddle together on a compromise minimum wage provision, overrule the Senate Parliamentarian, and include it in the American Rescue Plan. They should not pretend compromise was not possible. At the very least, they should have come out with a plan on moving forward with separate legislation on passing a minimum wage increase.
This is gross political malpractice and poor governing on their part.
The people that rely on the minimum wage need a raise.
They can not live on $7.25 an hour.
The 58 Senators that voted against this amendment should try living on $7.25 an hour for a month and see if they can cope.
The time for a minimum wage increase is now and Democrats should attempt again to include a version of it in either the coming infrastructure legislation (which will probably go through the reconciliation process,) an add on to a bill Republicans favor like the Defense one, or a separate bill that is combined with tax credits/cuts that will peel off ten Republicans in the Senate.
If a minimum wage increase does not pass in this Congressional Session, Democratic and Progressive Activists should run ads against every person that votes against it, even if some of them are Democrats.
The time for punting on this issue is over. Get to work people.
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