Biden Blasted for Picking A Fight in Syria, Letting Minimum Wage Slide at Home

By Staff, Agencies

US President Joe Biden shied away from fighting the Senate for a minimum wage hike, but launched missiles at Syria.

The Democrats’ proposed $15 national minimum wage increase cannot be included in Biden's $1.9 trillion Covid-19 stimulus bill, Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled on Thursday. MacDonough, a Democrat who serves as a referee of sorts in the upper house, declared that the bill does not fall under budget rules, and as such cannot be passed with a simple majority, unlike the rest of the stimulus package.

Biden could, through Vice President Kamala Harris, overrule the parliamentarian. However, he has opted not to. “President Biden is disappointed in this outcome,” Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters afterwards, claiming thay “he respects the parliamentarian's decision and the Senate's process.”

The decision angered progressives, for whom a $15 minimum wage has been a long-time policy goal. When Biden ordered an airstrike on Syria later on Thursday evening, these progressives fumed at the Democratic president’s priorities.

“So, @JoeBiden bombs Syria and kills the minimum wage hike, confirming every fear progressives had,” pundit Cenk Uygur tweeted. “The establishment is back! And it absolutely sucks.”

Aside from the minimum wage debate, Biden has angered progressives by capping stimulus checks at $1,400 instead of the $2,000 he promised on the campaign trail, and by reneging on his promise to push the Covid-19 relief act through Congress the moment he took office.

Progressive Senator Bernie Sanders, who ran for the White House promising a $15 minimum wage and now chairs the Senate Budget Committee, said that he is undeterred by the parliamentarian’s ruling, and will continue trying to force the wage hike into Biden’s Covid-19 bill.

“In the coming days, I will be working with my colleagues in the Senate to move forward with an amendment to take tax deductions away from large, profitable corporations that don't pay workers at least $15 an hour and to provide small businesses with the incentives they need to raise wages,” he said in a statement.