Working Together…To Get My Way
Bernie Sanders put together a large media email distribution list during his two runs for the presidency, and he still uses it to get his point across on various optics. The Sanders team cranked out a news release Monday afternoon, responding to a non-partisan Congressional Budget Office assessment on the economic impact of an increase in the minimum wage to $15 per hour.
Obviously, he’s in favor of the increase…and the release notes that he is chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, again listed as an Independent instead of a Democrat.
But it’s the initial quote attributed to him, in the second paragraph of the news release, that shows how true the phrase “elections have consequences” is.
“Let’s be clear. We are never going to get 10 Republicans to increase the minimum wage through ‘regular order.’ The only way to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour now is to pass it with 51 votes through budget reconciliation.”
So there it is, as clearly as it can be stated…forget even trying to pass a minimum wage bill that would stand on its own. It’s full steam ahead on bending the rules to fit the desires of the majority…and in the case of the Senate, not even the majority.
He goes on to complain about the CBO’s numbers being wrong…disputing in particular the conclusion that raising the minimum wage would increase the deficit by $54 billion. But then uses that as a sword, noting that since the increase would have a direct and substantial impact on the federal budget, they can raise the minimum wage using reconciliation.
The idea of that rule, though, was that you could use reconciliation it it was a positive impact on the budget, not one with a huge deficit impact…but hey, the rule only says “impact” and that’s good enough for Bernie, who closes by saying that he looks forward “to end the crisis of starvation wages in America.”
The idea of that rule, though, was that you could use reconciliation it it was a positive impact on the budget, not one with a huge deficit impact…but hey, the rule only says “impact” and that’s good enough for Bernie, who closes by saying that he looks forward “to end the crisis of starvation wages in America.”
Yes, elections indeed have consequences.
