That minimum wage promise, and the subsequent fight for it, is now the first real test of whether all that relationship manicuring worked. When Sanders and his Senate colleagues pushed a proposal to penalize mega-corporations who didn’t pay $15 an hour to its workers, the White House gave them space. On Monday, Sanders said he would offer another amendment to raise the wage to $15 an hour in an attempt — however doomed — to effectively bypass the parliamentarian as the Senate begins moving the relief bill through reconciliation. The White House, once again, was given a heads up.
But the heads up may soon not be enough. Biden’s commitment to pass major Democratic policy priorities with narrow majorities — like the $15 wage hike, voting rights protections and immigration reform — and his resistance to abolishing the legislative filibuster may very well put him on a collision course with Sanders and other liberals in Congress.
Though many lawmakers who spoke to POLITICO said they believe Biden is firmly committed to those ideas, some Democrats admitted they were disappointed the president had cast doubt on the minimum wage’s fate in the weeks before the parliamentarian’s ruling that the hike could not be included in the Covid relief bill. While some Democrats said Biden had zero impact on the decision by the nonpartisan rules referee, two Democratic aides said his comments casting doubt on the wage hike’s survival created a “permission structure” for the parliamentarian to rule against including the $15 an hour increase.
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