Minimum Rage

The effort to include a $15-an-hour minimum wage in President Biden's COVID relief bill backfired when the Senate parliamentarian said no to including it in a bill going through reconciliation to avoid a filibuster.  There have been calls from progressives in the House  - the House - for the Senate parliamentarian to be fired.

It may be a blessing in disguise that the minimum wage increase has to be excised from the Senate's version of the COVID bill, because there are some serious questions as how the increase to $15 an hour would be implemented in some of the poorer states as opposed to states that can afford and need a high minimum wage, such as New York, New Jersey or California.  President Biden now has the ability to pass this COVID relief bill - which has tons of money for state and municipal aid - without threatened positron from Democratic senators who have a problem with the minimum wage increase as proposed, like Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and he has a chance to negotiate an increase charge between the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour and $15 and hour that can pass and even get Republican support.

Progressives won't be satisfied, of course, and I have this advise to offer to the Squad:  Take a chill pill, accept half a loaf, and save your minimum-wage fight for another day.  And when the 2022 midterms come around, maybe it would be a really good idea to persuade voters of the value of your ideas rather than beat people over the head with them.  Because that's how Democrats lost seats in the House in 2020.

And as for the realities of the 50-50 Senate that necessitates a lot of compromise . . . I've said it before and I'll say it again: The names of the Democratic Senate candidates who couldn't defeat vulnerable Republican incumbents in 2020 will forever be dammed for this situation.