Published on
Friday, February 26, 2021
byCommon Dreams
'It Should Be Easier to Raise Minimum Wage Than to Drop Bombs on Syria':
Progressives Fume at Biden
"We assassinate people by drone strike and have a literal prison colony in
Guantanamo but where we draw the line is ignoring the Senate parliamentarian
when [she] says no to a minimum wage hike."
byJake Johnson, staff writer
President Joe Biden boards Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland
on February 26, 2021.
President Joe Biden boards Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland
on February 26, 2021. (Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
The contrast between the procedural difficulty of pushing a modest pay
increase for millions of workers through the Senate and the relative ease
with which President Joe Biden-without congressional approval-launched a
deadly bombing campaign in Syria late Thursday was the subject of much
discussion and outrage as the president's first lethal operation overseas
coincided almost simultaneously with the Senate parliamentarian's advisory
ruling against a popular $15 minimum wage measure.
The two events, according to progressive critics and political commentators,
spotlighted how existing institutional constraints are heavily biased
against the advancement of working-class interests but do little to prevent
the commander-in-chief from unilaterally bombing foreign nations on the
basis of highly dubious-to-nonexistent legal authority.
"Can't get Americans their relief checks in the midst of a historic pandemic
for which the nation's economy was effectively shut down, but bombing Syria
some more is a first 100 days priority. Unbelievable."
-Elizabeth Bruenig, New York Times
"Personally I think it should be easier to raise the minimum wage than to
drop bombs on Syria," tweeted The New Republic's Kate Aronoff.
Pointing to the Senate's legislative filibuster as a key obstacle in the way
of even minor policy changes, Matt Yglesias of the Slow Boring newsletter
wrote sardonically on Thursday that "the genius of America is you need a
60-vote supermajority to raise the minimum wage, but the president can bomb
some militia in Iran based on ... I dunno ... an AUMF from two decades ago
that was about something else entirely or something."
While Biden had no issue bypassing congressional oversight to launch an
attack on border-crossing station in eastern Syria, the White House
suggested late Thursday that having Vice President Kamala Harris overrule
the non-binding opinion of the Senate parliamentarian-an unelected official
with no constitutional authority-would be a bridge too far, despite the fact
that the Constitution empowers her to do so.
Biden "respects the parliamentarian's decision and the Senate's process,"
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement.
"We assassinate people by drone strike and have a literal prison colony in
Guantanamo but where we draw the line is ignoring the Senate parliamentarian
when [she] says no to a minimum wage hike," tweeted The Intercept's Ken
Klippenstein.
After lamenting the highly undemocratic nature of a system in which "some
unheard of parliamentarian ends up deciding whether or not a law gets passed
to give millions a raise," Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) tweeted Friday morning
that "we cannot stand up for congressional authorization before military
strikes only when there is a Republican president."
"The administration should have sought congressional authorization here,"
said Khanna. "We need to work to extricate from the Middle East, not
escalate."