Pirate's Cove

But, then, it’s nothing new for hardcore Leftist to lose their minds when they don’t get their way, much like a 2 year old losing their minds of really dumb things

Liberals on fire over failure on $15 minimum wage

“Why is my child crying”

Liberal senators and outside pressure groups are steaming over the Senate’s seeming failure to move a COVID-19 relief package with a provision hiking the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour.

An adverse decision from the Senate parliamentarian means Democrats can’t move the $15 minimum using special budgetary rules meant to sidestep the filibuster.

That is leading to calls to overrule or fire the parliamentarian, or to get rid of the filibuster, which essentially requires legislation to secure 60 votes to proceed through the Senate.

Don’t like the rules? Fire the person who explains them and try and install someone who’ll ignore the rules. If they get rid of the filibuster they should remember that they won’t have control of the Senate forever, and you know they’ll caterwaul when the GOP runs roughshod over the minority party. If the minimum wage going to $15 is so popular, why not pass a separate bill? Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema have both stated they won’t vote for it in what is supposed to be a COVID relief bill, so even nuking the filibuster would leave Dems a few votes short of passage, but, they would be open to doing it separately.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the Senate’s leading proponent of a $15-an-hour minimum wage, on Monday called on Democratic colleagues to “ignore” the parliamentarian’s ruling and pledged he would force a vote on the issue his week.

“My personal view is that the idea that we have a Senate staffer, a high-ranking staffer, deciding whether 30 million Americans get a pay raise or not is non-sensical,” he said. “We have got to make that decision, not a staffer who’s unelected, so my own view is that we should ignore the rulings, the decision of the parliamentarian.”

So, don’t listen to the person who understand the rules. This brings to mind the old saying about the US being a nation of Law, not of Men. But, go ahead and attempt to pass it. If you manage via reconciliation there will be lots of lawsuits filed immediately, and no one will get COVID relief.

Nearly two dozen House progressives called on Biden and Vice President Harris to overturn the parliamentarian’s ruling, something that would require the support of all 50 Senate Democrats plus Vice President Harris’s tie-breaking vote.

“Eighty-one million people cast their ballots to elect you on a platform that called for a $15 minimum wage,” the progressive lawmakers wrote in a letter to Biden and Harris.

“We urge you to keep that promise and call on the Presiding Officer of the Senate to refute the Senate Parliamentarian’s advice … and maintain the $15 minimum wage provision in the American Rescue Plan,” they wrote.

Again, if it’s so darned popular, why do the Democrats have to play this game of sticking it in what’s supposed to be about COVID relief?

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), another influential progressive who ran a strong campaign for president in 2020, said Monday she supports a vote to overrule the parliamentarian but said the bigger problem is the Senate’s filibuster rule, which requires that legislation pass with 60 votes if it faces procedural objections.

“If we would get rid of the filibuster, then we wouldn’t have to keep trying to force the camel through the eye of the needle. Instead, we would do what the majority of Americans want us to do, and in this particular case, that’s raise the minimum wage,” Warren added.

Joe Manchin won’t vote to get rid of it, and, there are those quiet Democrats out there who may not, either, knowing that what’s good for the goose is good for the gander, and there’s an old saying about coming back to bite one in the ass.

Brian Fallon, the executive director of Demand Justice, another progressive advocacy group, is also urging Senate Democrats to overrule the parliamentarian.

“Overrule the parliamentarian or end the filibuster. Senate process is not an excuse for failure to get results,” he tweeted.

The people screaming about following the rules in our Democracy!!!!! are the same ones saying to ditch the rules for convenience.

Meanwhile, since we’re talking supposed COVID relief

California poised for $19 billion surplus, despite COVID-19 lockdowns

By the end of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic eviscerated roughly 1.6 million jobs in California and slashed the value of business properties by more than 30%. Despite it all, California managed to collect $10.5 billion more in taxes than predicted, putting the state on track for a $19 billion surplus to spend by the end of the fiscal year on July 1.

It’s so much money that, for just the second time ever, the state is projected to trigger a state law requiring the government to send refunds to taxpayers.

This doesn’t even get into the notion of how much California might have saved from government outlays being a lot lower with people on furlough, from not having to use much electricity and water at many state government buildings, etc. So, why is it necessary to have the huge slush fund for state and local governments in the COVID bill? Money states and cities do not actually need?