Democrats gotta fight for their right to not be in poverty. Photo: J Scott Applewhite/AP/Shutterstock An overwhelming majority of congressional Democrats would like to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 by 2025. Every Senate Republican — and at least two Senate Democrats — do not want to do that. Until Thursday night, however, the pro-$15 majority thought they had a means of getting the policy past the “pro-poverty wages” caucus.
Senator Bernie Sanders had hoped to convince the parliamentarian that the minimum wage’s impact on the federal budget is non-incidental. After all, increasing workers’ wages reduces spending on poverty programs — and who’s to say that the democratic socialist’s primary motivation for supporting a minimum-wage hike isn’t to cut spending on food stamps?
One route is to simply neutralize the parliamentarian, whose role is technically advisory. Ultimate authority on Senate rules lies with the vice-president. If Kamala Harris overruled the parliamentarian, the $15 minimum wage would remain in the bill. Technically, 60 senators could vote to overturn Harris’s overturning of the parliamentarian.
In 2017, congressional Republicans wanted to repeal the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate, which imposes a tax penalty on Americans who refuse to purchase health insurance. Initially, the parliamentarian blocked their attempt to repeal the mandate through reconciliation, as the measure was an act of deregulation, not a tax cut. Republicans responded to this by formally preserving the individual mandate in their bill, but setting its tax penalty at $0.
Some Senate progressives are currently preparing policies along these lines. Bernie Sanders is reportedly writing a provision that would strip tax deductions from large corporations that pay their workers less than $15 an hour. Ron Wyden has proposed something similar: a 5 percent penalty on the total payroll of corporations that pay their workers less than “a certain amount.
Wealthy Rich politicians refused $15 pay rise. Let’s play: they receive $$$$$$ First thing they do is buy 🚘🩰🥃🥂🍾🍷🥩🦪🎭💍🛥🏝🏘🏢🧖🏾♀️💅🏻 $15 more means 🔑🔓 🏠🍽🍎🔥💊📚🛌
Good
Spineless demoCANS who show their true colors
Way number 1-10: don't use Citizens United dark money to crush grassroots Senate challengers with backbone. Ways number 11-20: don't let dscc SenSchumer off the hook. They are the authors of this sellout, not their star recruits shiny Sinema and Manchin
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