Some Democrat senators briefly leave the reservation and the left is outraged
The situation was a vote on the minimum wage hike to $15, but for some people the issue was not primarily the hike itself but the process by which it was being voted on. It was attached to the so-called COVID relief bill, something it is not really related to, in order to allow it to be passed by a simple majority via the reconciliation process that is available for budget bills. The Senate parliamentarian had already said such an attachment should not be allowed, but most Democrats could not care less about that sort of nicety.
Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema voted “no,” and the latter has clearly explained that her vote was not against the minimum wage but against the process. She voted “no” with a dramatic flair, and this riled the left nearly as much as her vote itself. They’re not used to any Democrats acting in so mavericky a fashion, although they love it when Republicans do it. In addition, the criticism from the left that you can see at that link indicates they are ignoring the process argument and acting as though Sinema just hates poor people – but, then again, since the left believes the ends justifies the means, process arguments mean nothing to them except on the occasions they can use them against Republicans.
All of the Republicans in the Senate voted against the bill. That’s interesting, because there are often a few defections, but this time the defections were all on the Democrat side, because Manchin and Sinima were not alone. Here’s the list:
Sen. Tom Carper (DE)
Sen. Chris Coons (DE)
Sen. Maggie Hassan (NH)
Sen. Angus King (I-ME)
Sen. Joe Manchin (WV)
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (NH)
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (AZ)
Sen. Jon Tester (MT)
I’m rather surprised that both of New Hampshire’s senators voted “no.” They are usually good party hacks, who during campaign years present themselves as moderate in order to appeal to voters, but who just about always toe the party line even in votes on something quite extreme. Here’s what Hassan said through spokespeople:
Both senators have called for raising the federal minimum wage to $12, but said it should be done in a separate bill.
Shaheen’s office said Friday that the senator supports raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, but with “safeguards” in place for small businesses and restaurants that have been particularly hard-hit by the pandemic. In her interview with WMUR, Shaheen also expressed concerns about local nursing homes already struggling to employ people “because of the wage scale.”
So it seems to be a combination of regard for the process and objection to some aspects of the thing itself – and my reading is that the latter is far more important to both senators than the former, because New Hampshire is still rather fiscally conservative and they feel such a vote would be unpopular. I assume that in the end they will vote for it in a separate bill, however, if it comes to that. That’s what they do.
Stripped of the minimum wage addition, the COVID relief bill has passed the Senate along strict party lines – which means with a very narrow majority, since it’s technically considered a budget bill that can be passed by a simple majority. No Democrat defectors there, where it would count. McConnell characterized the bill this way:
The Senate has never spent $2 trillion in a more haphazard way. [Democrats’] top priority wasn’t pandemic relief. It was their Washington wish list.
He’s not wrong.
Those are the two on whom all decent people MUST rely to show some spine.
And in this case they have.
For them, their gangster party has gone a step too far.
Good for them and for their courageous decency.
(Maybe some others—including some Republicans even?!— will take it to heart….)
The nation has, for now, dodged a bullet and is grateful. (We know this to be true simply because the Democrats are, for the most part, absolutely livid.)
Hope that they can keep it up.
MT is dark red, so Tester may have stuck his finger up to see which way the wind is blowing. He has barely won his last two races, and that is due in part to the libertarian spoiler winning it for him. He’ll try to campaign as Mr. Cornpone again, saying many of the bills were too extreme for him, even though he votes with dems most of the time and when it really counts.
If you read Democrats enough, you find they believe their side is all-too-squishy and it is Republicans who have the iron-fisted, fascist discipline to vote always as a bloc.
Which doesn’t mean both sides are equally deluded.
I see now that my comment above is nonsensical, as I thought (not reading carefully) that they actually voted against the entire bill.
Well, screw ’em.
How can anyone even pretend a “working wage” in Manhattan has any association with a working wage in Topeka? Every one of the Representatives and Senators voting for this know that makes absolutely no sense, yet the show must go on, I suppose.
huxley,
I hear often from my super-Democrat friends that the Republicans do everything in lockstep and the Dems are too squishy. They also sincerely believe the media leans Conservative.
McConnell set the precedent for this with his own “relief” omnibus spending bills…no surprise slippery slope continues to slide. He promised to restore regular order when he became Majority Leader. Had he kept that promise we wouldn’t be here today with him as Minority Leader.
What no aid for the nations that hate us like the last one.
No aid for pet projects like the last one.
No aid for gender study in Pakastan.
etc etc etc
There has to be some in the fine print somewhere.
there’s 850 billion dollars for left wing organizations, and a billion dollar tax on the gig (self employed) was she the one that forgot to vote for the final bill?
}}} Are the Woke a False Flag Operation of White Supremacists?
}}} https://coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2021/02/are-the-woke-a-false-flag-operation-of-white-supremacists.html
That deals specifically with the Oregon “Racist Math” idiocy, but it presents a more widespread question of real possible validity…
One often wonders if the entirety of the Left’s positions aren’t really pushed by white supremacists.
The whole of their positions seems to be designed to make sure that black people remain helpless wards of the government.
The Z Man likes to make the point that many of the most strident woke thought leaders live in the whitest towns and cities of the USA. Funny that. If you look at what they *do* instead of what they say and prescribe for others, they really *are* in a strange way White Nationalists.
Topic comes up again in his latest weekly podcast:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6WUNJmLQ5U
Identity politics does not admit to the possibility of individual conscience.
“White Nationalists”
Er, well, White Globalists more likely.
File under: Let them eat Our Humility….
Whether by intent or just by effect, they’re white supremacists. If it’s only by effect, well… when the effects of what you do are evil, maybe you ought to look at what you do, no matter what your intent might have been.
I’m seeing more commenters wake up to the mirror-image descriptions that Right and Left have for each other. Some of them are ready for that next step, which is to see that neither of them is actually true, but most of them are still believe the Right are the good guys and somehow just better people.
Neither sides’ politicians are stupid people who don’t understand the consequences of what they do. Both sides politicians understand perfectly well the theater of what they wish to be perceived as doing.
Where was the Senate parliamentarian on Obamacare? How does this unelected person all of sudden have so much power and the Dems throw up their hands?
It’s because it’s theater guys. There are Dem constituencies who want a $15 minimum wage, and powerful and connected Dem clients who don’t want it. The Dems need to appear to have tried to do something.
Mirror image here is Republicans and the wall, or Republicans and Obamacare repeal. When they let one man, or a handful of “defectors”, or a parliamentarian put a stop to something and all throw up their hands, it’s theater.
And now we don’t have to assume that one side is good and smart and principled and the other is bad and dumb and in lockstep.
We can appreciate our fellow humans for what they are, as human like us, and our lizard overlords for what they are, which is people who have their hands on the spigots of tax money and make their living by directing it to their friends–and to do that they all need to work together while pretending they don’t.
First step to changing things is to see them as they are, and not as presented to you by people who have an interest in making you believe in the presentation. Until you see the real problem you cannot change things.
She voted “no” with a dramatic flair, and this riled the left nearly as much as her vote itself.
Let’s think about this for a minute. Why would she do this?
Is she stupid?
Does she not know she’s on TV?
Or is ril[ing] the left and getting all the attention directed to her the whole point of the exercise?
Doesn’t that make way more sense? And if so, what assumptions might we, the audience for this little drama, need to change about how Congress works?
Isn’t this little stunt the mirror image of McCain’s “no” on Obamacare, and aren’t the justifications the same?
In the end, McCain stood dramatically before the Senate chair. He turned his thumb down.
Frederick,
“It’s because it’s theater guys.”
Might as well drop the mic there. Anyone who doesn’t get it is not paying attention. It’s us against them. It always has been. The Founders tried to keep the “them” from growing, but over they years the “them” found ways to get to the spigot and control its flow.
There is a peaceful way back, but I can’t imagine we’ll get there. I hope we do, but it’s hard to imagine reason succeeding in today’s (or tomorrow’s) climate. Maybe it’s time for another country to show us the way? Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Taiwan, Hong Kong?
Um no, not exactly “mirror image”, not by any means.
As for theater, no doubt; but “not all theater is created equal”, etc.
(Besides, I’d prefer to use the term, “rhetoric”.)
“It always has been.”
Except that there was a time when the Democrats loved their country.
No longer.
(Unless by “love” they mean “destroy”.)
In any event, it seems that the dynamic of obtaining and keeping absolute power has been radicalized, along with the use of language meant to disguise that attempt (to gain absolute power) while demonizing anyone (e.g., “Deplorables”) and anything (e.g., “the Law) that might succeed in blocking you from obtaining absolute power and/or who doesn’t agree with you.
Frederick:
Actually, I don’t think you’re correct in this particular case for Sinema, for 2 reasons. The first is that, when I actually looked at the gesture on the video, it was quite mild. I wouldn’t even have noticed much of anything. The second is that so far Sinema has been something of an actual maverick regarding the filibuster. So far it’s only been verbal rebellion, and if in the end she votes to ax the filibuster than her verbal rebellion will have been theater. But it remains to be seen.