Can’t do much if the majority rule is blocking all of that.
He should be getting in front of a camera every day and saying “here’s what we’re trying to do. Here’s why it helps you/society. And here are the assholes standing in the way”. And if those assholes are Democrats, kick them out of the party and support a better candidate to run against them.
Yes! This is what strong leadership looks like. We haven’t seen it from POTUS in far too long.
It wouldn’t matter. It wouldn’t get coverage in half the media in the country. And most people don’t even watch the media, anyway. It’ll be bullshit stories and anti-liberal memes as per usual.
Easy solution to this constant nagging problem would be ending the filibuster.
When did he try and congress blocked it?
March 2021
You can stop promising things you don’t have control over.
But can make empty promises
Don’t make promises you can’t keep. Especially, if people will take you up on these promises.
I’m very confused. The president can’t know the composition of Congress during the campaign because all of the Reps are on the same ballot as the president. Are you saying prospective candidates should always say “If I’m elected and we have the house and Senate I will…” to cover their asses? I think most people understand those ramifications.
I think “most” people do NOT understand those ramifications. Maybe 33% of the population does, 33% think and want the president to be a dictator, and 34% don’t pay attention to anything at all.
Failure to pay attention in civics class cannot possibly be the fault of a presidential candidate.
Also, presidents and presidential candidates do a ton of campaigning for both their own candidacy as well as for down ballot candidates in an effort to achieve these things. They’re only advertising their intentions and priorities. That’s your it has worked since the beginning of American democracy
Yeah but making promises abojt things you’ll do as President, that you can’t do as President, is the fault of a Presidential candidate.
Sure, OP is demonstrating that quite clearly, although as usual the goal is just to bash Biden (as if Trump would do any of this).
Derp, what’s a legislative branch?
Not to cover their asses, but to push more people to vote not just for them, but for their party all down the ticket.
A simple modifier like “I’ll push for…” would have covered his ass a lot.
Yeah that’s a great idea.
I think, this may make for an interesting art-statement, adding a page long disclaimer to everything a candidate says. I don’t think it will work out well, on the other hand
Yeah, I’m sure there was no way to either pressure Sinema and/or replace the parlementarian when Congress had the chance to do this.
The $15 minimum failed in the senate 42-58, 40 Dem + 2 Inde voted yay, in March 2021
AFAIK, nothing passed the house for sub-minimum wages
Ensuring everyone has strong benefits might be difficult when they’re barely holding Republicans back from stripping Medicare and Social Security. They’re at least holding the line.
How many democrats in the senate?
I’m not American just trying to understand if any voted no or it was all republicans.
47 at the moment but there’s 2 independents (Bernie Sanders and Angus King) that caucus with the Dems, and 2 more that are “aligned” with the Dems (Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin). So currently 51ish.
But at the time of that vote it was 50ish but Manchin and Sinema were officially part of the party then. If a vote is a tie, the VP (Kamala Harris) gets to vote. So it needed 50 votes to pass.
Here’s an article on the eight Dems that voted against it: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/541860-the-eight-democrats-who-voted-no-on-15-minimum-wage/
Note that Manchin and Sinema voted against it and have left the party since then. This is largely because of them voting against this and similar legislation created a general disdain for them within the party. They won’t be back after the next election.
All 50 republicans voted against it.
And people vote for Republicans? Are they retarded?
Yes. The GOP only survives because of poor education.
It really is sad to see the same crowd talking about how great things were back then, and suck now, when they’ve spent the last four decades voting in the people who have spent the same time diminishing public education’s effectiveness. My parents are some of those voters…
And then they blame it on the Democratic president, so…yes.
They’re just doing what fox “news” is telling them to do. They can’t think for themselves.
Oh Jesus. Jon Tester’s campaign texted me yesterday asking for money. I dont even know how I got added to his list but knowing he voted against raising the minimum wage makes me infuriated he would text someone outside his district for help.
B-but it’s the Democrat’s fault!
Says the people who
a) Are secretly Republicans trying to act like insecure Democrats
b) Try to find any reason to blame Biden, even if it’s adjacent blame
c) All the above
Thank you.
Remember to vote blue no matter who!
It’s a choice between the 42/50 party or the 0/50 party.
That’s how Sinema got elected…
Sure but is that how she got through the primary? And did we get a worse outcome than if her Republican opponent won?
Just to be clear, NOT trying to defend or paint her in a good light.
And she’s out of the Democratic party now.
The seat belongs to the individual on the ballot, it doesn’t belong to the party. That means someone holding a seat can go against their party which is generally good as it prevents the party from having too much power. But the downside is when you get a lunatic in a seat and all you can do is get rid of them in the next election.
Which is what’s happening. Sinema was going to be challenged in the primary and likely to lose. She decided to go independent, but last I heard, after seeing her polling numbers she’s dropped out completely.
As I said elsewhere, the Democratic Party is the 42/50 party while the GOP is the 0/50 party. You probably shouldn’t vote for a party no matter who’s elected, but even if you took this naive approach, the Dems might potentially become a 50/57 party. The GOP will always be the 0/50 party.
Ideally you’d check the platforms of every candidate at the primary stage through to the general and vote accordingly. If most people did that the Dems could be a 50/50 party.
But most people aren’t that involved politically. Blue no matter know, while isn’t ideal, is still better than voting GOP or not voting at all.
Since 2022 Democrats have 47 , Independent have 4, Republicans have 49
In 2020 Democrats had obtained the majority with 48 and 2 Independent caucusing together, against 50 Republicans. Since it was 50:50 the Vice President had to be the tie breaker for selecting the majority leader.
8 D voted nay along with 50 R, but if you don’t see how it failing was the result of the R party then you’d be a damn fool.
Thanks.
40 Dem + 2 Inde voted yay
Did they throw their hands in the air, too?
No, he was performing software updates and forgot to change windows.
Come on Party people. Throw your hands in the air.
It was truly an ungay moment as the legislature failed to pass by 9 votes.
They knew it would fail long before it went to vote. Much of what goes before any part of the legislative branch of government for a vote is purely performative.
If you know R will vote it down and you think D might possibly maybe vote it down unless enough of them defect at the last moment, then it’s still a very clear choice in favor of D. Plus, Manchin and Sinema got forced out of the party and Sinema’s chance at reelection is all but completely gone.
We can call their bluff or we can just take the beating without trying to fix anything.
We can call their bluff or we can just take the beating without trying to fix anything.
The end result is the same, though, because, in this particular matter, both sides are similar enough in their collective hatred of the poor that a law like this won’t get passed. It doesn’t matter if you get rid of Manchin and Sinema. It only got 40 D votes. Manchin and Sinema might bump that up to 42. Or the people who replace them might vote the same way they did on this, because there is a core ideological opposition that exists across party lines to actually helping the working class.
LMAO with this “both sides bad” idiot
Oh, it’s not that both sides are bad. It’s that there’s two sides, and the powers that be are all on the same one, and we’re all on the other, and we just happen to have “some people *ahem*” too dim to realize it.
So your solution is to give Republican’s majority? Sounds to me like you’re on the wrong side, mate.
So you’re solution is to give Republican’s majority? Sounds to me like you’re on the wrong side, mate.
First of all, it’s “your solution,” not “you’re solution.” Learn to spell. Second of all, I am not telling anyone to “not vote” for Democrats. I’m saying that the argument that if Democrats are given control over both the legislative and executive branches of government that it’ll result in positive legislation getting passed is simply untrue. The only real reason you can give for electing Democrats is to prevent Republicans from getting elected, because Republicans will actively pass legislation. Horrible, comically evil legislation. As such, presenting the choice as between “good” and “bad” political forces is simply wrong. The choice can only be honestly presented as between “neutral, fundamentally ineffectual” and “absolutely heinous” political forces. Optimism in the Democrats is ludicrous and comes across as disingenuous at best and deluded at worst. If you want to court leftist voters, the only real talking point you have is that it’s not a vote for the Democrats, but one against Republicans. Because that’s at least nominally true. Both parties want to preserve the political status quo of the country. Republicans just want to do it while hurting minorities, and Democrats don’t care as much about that. Minor distinction, but that’s the most we can get.
Healthcare shouldn’t be a benefit. It should be a fucking right!
It is in most of the civilised world
Bernie ran against this clown with exactly that promise.
He may be way, way, WAY better than Trump, but I do think he’s an asshole.
It will never happen if we keep giving Republicans power in Congress and the Executive.
The term benefit by definition means an advantage when compared to the ‘norm’. In places where healthcare is socialised, you don’t really have ‘benefits’ associated with your job. “Ensuring everyone has good benefits” is just socialising with extra steps.
Good luck passing that through the current American political system. He might as well promise UBI lol, what a crock.
This is why POTUS elections are less important than congressional elections. They make the laws and they hold the checkbook. But fewer and fewer seem to understand that. And assume that the POTUS can just dictate those types of policy at their whim.
You want domestic change? You want free healthcare? Cheap education? Better infrastructure? A better judicial system?
Then vote for the people running for the institutions that can actually can make those things happen, and that ain’t supposed to be the POTUS. But evidently many, (majority?), of people can be all that arsed to bother much about the ‘Downstream’ elections.
Exactly.
The executive branch is only one part of a bigger system. Local, county, and state elections probably have a bigger impact on your lives than the presidential ones.
I live in a deep red state so my vote for President will hardly ever matter but I’ll be damned if I don’t vote against the archaic amendments that get proposed.
This is the fight that matters.
Not this time though. The supreme court really matters.
Too bad we can’t vote on who’s allowed to occupy that bench.
Remember - Every judge nominated by a president has to be approved by the Senate. Again, it’s Congress that holds the final say in things domestic. They can block anyone they disapprove of.
One single sitting conservative supreme court justice was appointed by a Republican president who won the popular vote.
There are six of them.
Looks like it would be a good idea to reelecte him and give him a Democratic senate and house in 2024
It looked that way long before this toot.
and give him a Democratic senate and house in 2024
He had that in 2020 and it still didn’t pass.
There’s always some obstacle that prevents the Democrats from delivering what they promise.
Barely. Manchin and Sinema kept torpedoing just about any legislation that would have been actually beneficial. Though with this specific topic it appears that eight Democrats voted against it, which is still far fewer than the number of Republicans that voted against it.
That’s not to say I’m some Democrat apologist or shill, I have so many problems with the party, but for issues like these it seems like they are the lesser of two evils and if their majority margins could increase it would likely have an effect on issues like these.
and if their majority margins could increase it would likely have an effect on issues like these.
If their majority margins increased, they’d find new excuses to not pass it.
The trend would suggest otherwise, but only one way to find out. Let’s get a higher majority in there to prove me wrong!
When Obama had the supermajority for a brief time in 2008 (70ish days IIRC) we got the ACA. It was watered down a little but but it still helps a lot of people.
Yarp, and if memory serves it was watered down because he and the Dems were attempting to engage with the Republicans in good faith and after the Dems made the concessions the Republicans asked for they still voted against it.
He had that in 2020 and it still didn’t pass.
… except he didn’t have that in 2020… which is why it didn’t pass… what lmfao?
He did. Democrats controlled both the House and the Senate in 2020.
The bill failed to pass because a bunch of Democrats voted against it.
From the first paragraph of https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_elections :
Despite losing seats in the House of Representatives, Democrats retained control of the House and gained control of the Senate. As a result, the Democrats obtained a government trifecta, the first time since the elections in 2008 that the party gained unified control of Congress and the presidency.
… And two independents torpedoed it because they ran as Democrats despite being from essentially Republican areas with one being a giant lying sack of mega shit know as Sinema.
If you didn’t pass legislation, then you didn’t control the government. This is not a hard concept to understand. It’s one of the very few black and white ones since there is only a binary outcome lol.
And two independents torpedoed it
As well as eight other Democrats who voted against it.
Yep, what great control we had right?
There’s always some obstacle that prevents the Democrats from delivering what they promise.
I mean, it’s just so weird, isn’t it? Like how it keeps happening every. single. time. Oh well, maybe if we try getting the Dems a majority, plus the Presidency, one more time we’ll get a different result. That’s a totally sane course of action, right?
vote for trump. get what you deserve.
I’m not gonna waste my time reading a screenshot of someone else’s conversation like it’s an actual argument.
convenient. also I guess reading is hard for some folks.
I read enough to recognize a bullshit strawman argument. At least don’t be so lazy you’re unwilling to type it out yourself.
shut up and vote for trump already
We voted Democrat hard enough but voting Democrat didn’t work because we didn’t vote hard enough.
I’m sure gerrymandering has nothing to do with it…
No, I just didn’t vote hard enough. I really tried, too.
Bernie was not amused!
deleted by creator
If only Dark Brandon was real.
that sub-minimum wage really hurts right about now
This will be unpopular:
Before or at the same time as we fix sub-minimum wage, we need to also address the disability benefits cliff. I personally know multiple disabled people that limit how much they are working so that they don’t hit the cutoff where all the benefits disappear, not tail off. Generally these people enjoy their work and are capable of working more, but if they earn a dollar too much, they are screwed, loosing access to a number of subsidies and medical care.
My little brother dealt with that on his SSI and it is total bullshit. He couldn’t work past like 15 or 20 hours a week or they’d take all of his benefits away. They need to either make them tail off slowly or move that cliff back to like $200k/yr.
Why would that be unpopular
For some reason there’s a lot of hate for disabled poeple. It’s like poeple view them as a ugly drain on society. I had a guy tell me to my face disabled poeple should be dead. Source: husband is disabled.
The fuck type of people are you talking to? I guarantee you there are way more people who want to help the disabled that kill them. Not saying this didn’t happen, but holy shit that’s crazy.
Economically it’s cheaper to help the disabled than to ignore them. It’s just makes 0 sense to force them into a situation where they’re not taken care of until they create a massive medical bill.
Oh yeah I know it’s cheaper to help the disabled, but y’know 'murica. As for who said that too me, it was a coworker.
Your coworker is a shitty person.
Also the fact they aren’t allowed to save up money. I think it’s like $2k saved up and they get cut off. That’s not even enough for first last and security deposit if they wanted to try and move to a better situation.
I recently read an article describing how when disabled people have too much in their savings accounts or try to pay off outstanding debts, they are ordered to repay years worth of benefits. We can fix this! Peer-reviewed study after per-reviewed study (in theory and practice) has shown it costs less to just do the right things and look after each other (whether we think it’s deserved/earned/insert other term here) or not. We can fix it. It’s a matter of rolling up our sleeves and consistently apply pressure in proper spaces.
Direct action, mutual aid in the meantime. For everyone.
Before or at the same time as we fix sub-minimum wage, we need to also address the disability benefits cliff.
Agreed, especially the bolded part. There’s absolutely no reason we can’t do both.
It is positively evil in my opinion to implement helping laws with cutoffs like this.
Any time we make a scenario where more work equals less results for people, that’s a violation of their right to a navigable environment.
Nature doesn’t create scenarios like that. So our brains didn’t evolve for it. Only well-meaning fools make scenarios like that, trying to “help”.
Better a person never be picked up at all, than to be picked up and dropped.
I can’t live on $15/hr. I’m barely scraping by at $18. Minimum wage now needs to be closer to $25-30/hr.
$15/hr was the demand over a decade ago. The buying power of the dollar has maybe halved since then. When it’s finally achieved, it’ll be paraded around as an accomplishment by politicians who waited until it became too little too late and corporations will use it as an excuse to jack up prices even further.
I’m 38. Make 29/hr. I’m fortunate enough to own my home, well rather renting from my bank for the next 16 years. Anyways, I’m barley getting by as well. Between my car payment and the mortgage it’s nearly impossible to get by as a single income household. I can’t even imagine how bad it would be if I had kids.
It’s to the point where I’d consider dating someone just to cut the bills in half.
Lol… not seriously, but definitely maybe
You should consider it. If I didn’t have a girlfriend, I would be homeless cause nothing is affordable at $18/hr when you’re alone.
Don’t get me wrong my guy, I’m trying. Dating apps are tge worst. I go through cycles of meeting someone on apps, dating them for a year then they dip out. I’m not so niave to understand that I need to work on myself so I can eventually be a good partner to someone, and I’m doing just that. Therapy yoga meditation etc. However, unfortunately I fear the only way to meet a genuine partner is to meet them while emerging myself in my interests and meeting someone while doing so. However it’s tough out here
Not trying to sound conceded but I’m handsome and have no problem finding dates, but I’m tired of one nighters. I know the issue of me not being able to settle down with someone lies within me. I’m working on it and hopefully I’ll rope in my forever partner someday soon
Dating apps are garbage. Never had success with them. They’re designed to keep you on the platform for as long as possible, so if you find someone you’re obviously not going to continue using it. You’ll never find love on a dating app.
The only way to go is organically. Like you implied, you need to go out and meet people. One thing that works for me is to always put on a smile in public, even if you’re miserable (I know I am). It’s makes you more approachable. In my last two relationships I didn’t even have to do anything because women asked me out. That’s how I met my current lover, and we’ve been living together for 4 years now. But for what it’s worth, I’m attractive too. A solid 8.5.
Poly lifestyles are gonna get more common, since soon you’ll need three incomes just to survive!
I saw a meme recently about being polyamorous just because of the financial benefits of having multiple incomes. I’m already poly, but I can see some monogamous poeople considering poly relationships because of money issues.
It’s terrible that it happens that way sometimes but there’s some truth to that meme.
Lol yup. Tbh I tried poly and it didn’t end well cause I’m a jealous birch
It’s very weird to want strong benefits from your employer and not simply as a separate thing. Maybe that’s not what he meant but the way it’s listed is vague.
Systems like that are very hard to change for some reason, so it can be impossible for one politician to rewrite the whole system. It’s a lot easier to modify the system slightly so people can get closer to the bare minimum when total reform is off the table.
The reason is money.
The reason is limited time and attention
Yeah Obamacare was just a tiny baby step towards universal healthcare and people are still upset over it.
Fuck Obamacare! I get my health insurance through the ACA for free cause I lost my job in the coal mine when a big rock crushed my leg! These taxes going to welfare queens are ruining the country! Trump!
Free insurance through the ACA? All I remember is it making insurance mandatory.
I love the mixed levels of irony here. On the one hand, it’s been 4 years, so it looks like a failure. At the same time, $15 just isn’t enough. What a joke. Also at the same time, if he could actually push hard on raising the minimum wage now, he could probably drum up some votes in the election.
It’s cool that all of those facts are at play in this one little statement.
Unfortunately, even if there was a dem majority all around, I don’t think we’d get a sufficient boost to minimum wage. $15 on the federal level would definitely help, but the only realistic way to get what we’re due is unionizing and starting co-ops. Luckily, that’s become more popular lately.
It isn’t enough in some areas, and arguably too much in others. There’s just too much diversity to have a reasonable minimum wage.
I say:
- abolish the minimum wage
- require tips to not be considered compensation at the employer level (employee reports, employer isn’t aware)
- create a Negative Income Tax or Universal Basic Income that varies by region based on local standards of living (my preference is to convert Social Security into such a system)
- bust up monopolies that kill small businesses
Crappy wages are a symptom that can’t really be solved by increasing a minimum wage.
Unfortunately when Democrats reach across the aisle, they are giving Bobert handjobs in a Beetlejuice showing.
I’ll promise anything you want as long as you vote for me!
If you vote for him AND dem senate and house.
Except some of those Dems are actually Republicans in disguise.
I want a pink fluffy unicorn.
Biden: End the tipped minimum wage.
Tipping also disappears.
Servers: Not like this!
Servers everywhere in non tipping countries: y’all still do tips?
People will put change into a jar at the front of a cafe if they want, usually a dollar or so. Sometimes the money is for a charity run and not even for the cafe. At a fine dining restaurant yes you’d probably tip for great service.
At a bar for instance you wouldn’t tip. That would be strange.
Servers here: Lol that’s all you make over there?
Don’t threaten me with a good time.
As someone who works for tips in catering, I’d quit the moment tips stopped coming in. $15/hr minimum wage made sense in 2019, today my family would be fucking homeless even with my wife working full time, and I live in a fairly low CoL city. I’d literally be better off not working because daycare costs almost the same amount that I would make.
Meanwhile I’d have to deal with the stress of 5 assholes every day who think it’s ok to order $500 worth of food a piece with 2 hours of notice. No thanks.
The restaurant industry would come to a grinding halt.
Maybe I don’t know… maybe restaurants can charge actual cost for food and labour and pay people their worth… but nah, just pass on the cost to the consumers by blind charity.
Exactly, charge me what you need to to pay your employees what they’re worth.
Shit, I’d take paying them enough to go back to the way it was before anything less than 20% was taking food out of the server’s mouth. 0% fuck you I’m never coming back. ~5% substandard. 10-12% acceptable. 15-20% excellent.
Then you’d cry that your food is so expensive and your service sucks since the wait staff would be cut in half, or the restaurant will just go out of business and you’re left eating at a chain restaurant that serves you microwaved meals.
Why would people cry that the food is so expensive when it costs the same as after tipping?
Tipping is a horrible experience for everyone besides the restaurant owner
You’re wrong. Tipping is great for the server. If your server sucks, you don’t tip as much. If you don’t tip, your server isn’t making nearly as much therefore isn’t going to give a shit, and there will be less servers because of payroll so your experience is going to be shit.
You would have to pay your servers at a bare minimum 20 an hour more than they get now to keep any of them and most would leave with that. Average time sitting and eating is an hour. Your food is now going to cost you at least 20 bucks more. Profit margins don’t care about your feelings and either do shareholders. You weren’t going to tip 20 bucks on 50 dollar meal were you?
My wife was a bartender at a corner bar and cleared 2500 to 3 grand per weekend. I was a part time waiter and made more than my buddy that was a full time union electrician. Make that shit hourly and it won’t be worth putting up with the Karen’s and Ken’s.
It’s a terrible experience. You made a bunch of common mental gymnastics that are somehow supposed to justify why the patron deciding the salary of the restaurant’s employee is better than the restaurant being responsible for pay and quality of their employees, we’ve all heard it before and it’s nonsense.
But hey, if you are suggesting it we can agree to advocate for not tipping at all if patrons don’t think it is deserved.
Why would I cry when I’m already expected to pay 20% on top??
Your food will cost more than 20% more, there will be less waitstaff, and the waitstaff that is there won’t give a shit because they’re hourly and making a fraction of what they did with tips.
The more nonsense that people like you say the closer it makes me to abstaining from tipping so I’m not contributing to such an ass backwards system people bend themselves over backwards to defend
Then pay waitstaff more. They should not need to rely on generosity of big tippers… just make everyone pay the true cost of prepared food.
you don’t seem to have considered that your profession exists in every other country, and in your nation’s peers, your peers in the same profession are less miserable than you seem to be.
I asked the parliamentarian if we could do good things instead of bad things and they told me to go fuck myself :/
