Ted Rall for April 16, 2021

Poor Ted. Must be awfully hard to need  perfection in this manifestly imperfect world.

All the GQPers are for a $15 minimum wage. They would vote for it in a minute. Right Ted?

The point remains, the current Federal minimum wage is really a cruel joke. And many of us are the punchline.

Minimum-wage workers won’t see a raise as part of federal coronavirus relief efforts, as moderate Democrats joined all Republicans to shoot down Senator Bernie Sanders’ amendment to include increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour in the Senate COVID relief package. The 42-58 vote laid out a deep divide within the Democratic caucus on the issue, raising questions on its path forward — but Democratic lawmakers who favor the move say the fight is far from over.

“If any senator believes this is the last time they will cast a vote on whether or not to give a raise to 32 million Americans, they are sorely mistaken,” Sanders said in a statement. “We’re going to keep bringing it up, and we’re going to get it done because it is what the American people demand and need.”Sanders offered the amendment after Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled that a $15 minimum wage hike cannot be included in the Senate COVID relief package under the budget reconciliation process. In that process, legislation can advance with a simple majority instead of 60 votes, but the legislation has to follow strict budgetary rules. “I think the parliamentarian was dead wrong,” said Sanders, speaking on the Senate floor Friday morning. “But more importantly, it is an absurd process that we allow an unelected staffer, somebody who works for the Senate, not elected by anybody, to make a decision as to whether 30 million Americans get a pay raise or not.” The amendment had a difficult path to getting adopted after moderate Senate Democrats Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona signaled their opposition to raising the minimum wage to $15. Democratic Senators Jon Tester of Montana, Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, and Tom Carper and Chris Coons of Delaware, along with Sinema and Manchin, joined Republicans against the motion. CBS News March 5, 2021. Not one mention of Biden there. Continued:

Even if the impossible happens and the wage is risen to $15/hour, the sad thing is that it will likely be done in increments over the span of years as it is being done in FL so that the wage will be $15 by 2026 when the living wage will likely be $18 or 20 an hour and more in many urban areas. Its the right thing to do but has to done faster and have a COLA (cost of living adjustment) added. Also beware of loopholes in any legislation as politicians love to hide stuff in the small print.

The only ones really holding up the long overdue minimum wage increase are the Republican Politicians.

What days of yore are you talking about?

Contradicting yourself much, Theodore? Lying awake at night is much more than a passing thought.

Biden does have to prioritize his agenda, a dreadfully complicaTED process. Especially for a US president that has to restore democracy in our own American government.

Biden is like the maintenance man who has to clean up the hotel room after the Who left town.

Were I to ever sit down with Ted, I believe we would find much that we agree about. Where we would differ, however, is that I lived through the 60s when people like Ted (and yes, my idealistic younger self) refused to support Hubert Humphrey because he was not as anti-Vietnam War as Eugene McCarthy. What happened? We got Richard Nixon and a prolonged war. Had Humphrey been elected he would have updated and strengthened the New Deal, almost certainly ended the war before 1975, and probably started us on the road to a single payer health system. In 1972 leftist (for the time) antiwar Senator George McGovern was nominated over more moderate progressive candidates like Humphrey and Edmund Muskie. We know today how that worked out.

Yes, there are things we all (including President Biden) would like to see enacted immediately, but life doesn’t always work like that. Note that we are still waiting for the Equal Rights Amendment to pass some fifty years after both houses of Congress approved it.

I dunno, I think Darrin Bell out-ralled Ted…………………I mean this one is going after Biden, but he went to the public option.

He IS thinking about $15/hour; ‘Cancun’ Cruz is thinking it should be safe to go back to Cancun.Most of us think he should stay there.

Obviously Frederick Theodore Rall, the THIRD hasn’t ever worked in a fast food joint. There is no break room, and you’re lucky if they let you take a break.

The Senate is profoundly undemocratic. All Republicans, 1 “independent” (not Sanders), and 7 Democrats voted to remove the $15 minimum wage from the bill being considered. The House, due to gerrymandering, is also a distortion, but not as bad as the Senate; their version squeaked through with the $15, but the Senate was the steadfast wall against something a huge majority of people want. And Biden is OK with that.

No doubt the minimum wage will go up to $15 someday. By then, in today’s dollars, it’ll be worth 72.5 cents.

Some day, Mr. Rall, you should take a course in US politics so you will better understand the legislative process. Then you would understand why Mr. Biden is unable to merely wave a wand and establish a higher minimum wage.

Sorry, but fast food jobs are an entry level job. If you want a higher income either figure out what you need to do to move up the ladder where you are at, or get training for a good skilled labor job. If your young and physically qualified you can also enter the military and pay into the Forever GI Bill and when discharged get a hard science degree that will qualify you for a good job, best bet in the medical field.

I hate to say this, Ted, but I would tweet this if I weren’t looking for a job!!

Haven’t you heard? The Dems that voted down the $15 bill are now working with GOP for an $11 bill. Note the Senator from AZ (Sinema) is proposing a bill that sets the minimum wage lower than what is in her state ($13). Yeah, it’s not even the Twilight Zone or Wonderland style irony.

yet again, progressives show they believe the President can pass a statute all by himself.

He would like $15, but he can’t do it by fiat. Talk to the other Joe, Manchin.

when they get z z 15 an hour by that time they ll be bitchin when 25 will be a living wage

Cancun Cruz is holding out for 43 NP (new pesos)/hour. Of course, that’s only good in Cancun, and is about what a waiter makes at the Sheraton Cancun.