The Progressive Populist Today Blog: Editorial: Democrats Take Big Win

Friday, March 12, 2021

Editorial: Democrats Take Big Win

The American Rescue Plan for COVID relief got through the Senate March 6, but it took an overnight session after an 11-hour reading of the 688-page bill, followed by debate over more than 30 amendments, most of them put up by Republicans in an effort to peel off Democrats, and nine hours of negotiations to keep centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) in line. Eventually, Dems passed the $1.9 trillion bill over unified Republican opposition.

Many progressives were upset that the bill did not include an increase in the minimum wage to $15, but the fight over the minimum wage might have delayed passage of the bill past the March 14 deadline, when the federal supplement to unemployment benefits lapses, and the minimum wage increase might have caused some Democrats to reconsider support for the rescue bill.

Progressives should celebrate the big win and not get hung up about what they didn’t get this time around.

Manchin stalled the momentum when he balked at supporting the rescue bill, insisting that the weekly federal unemployment benefit remain at $300, and be cut off in mid-summer. The House had approved $400 per week. Since the Senate is tied 50-50, Democrats need every vote to stay in line so Vice President Kamala Harris can break that tie. With the assistance of President Joe Biden, who appealed to Manchin in a phone call, Manchin agreed to support $300 weekly benefits through Sept. 6, with forgiveness of federal income taxes on unemployment income for jobless Americans.

As it stands, after passing on a 50-49 vote March 6, with one Republican opponent absent for a funeral, the Senate bill will send $1,400 stimulus checks to individuals making under $75,000, or $2,800 for married couples making under $150,000, as well as $1,400 per dependent. The payments would phase out above those income levels and disappear above income caps of $80,000 for individuals and $160,000 for married couples.

The income caps were lowered from the House version, which set cutoffs at $100,000 for individuals and $200,000 for married couples, but 85% of American households will get checks and Democrats should get all the credit.

The Senate bill also temporarily expands the child tax credit, which is currently $2,000 per child under 17, to $3,600 for children up to age 5 and $3,000 for children 6 to 17. For the second half of this year, the federal government would send advance payments of the credit to Americans in periodic installments, establishing a guaranteed income for families with children.

The bill also expands the earned-income tax credit for workers without children for this year. Through 2025, it exempts student loan forgiveness from income taxes.

The bill provides funding for vaccine distribution and coronavirus testing, contact tracing and genomic sequencing. It gives money to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for COVID.

It provides $350 billion for states, local governments, territories and tribal governments to prevent layoffs, and it contains $130 billion for schools to help them reopen safely. In voting against it, Republicans were literally defunding police, firefighters, other first responders and workers in public services. The bill also includes funding for colleges and universities, transit agencies, housing aid, child care providers and food assistance, over GQP opposition.

In addition, the bill contains funding to help businesses, including restaurants and live venues, and it includes a long-sought bailout for multiemployer pension plans that have become financially troubled, as industries have changed and union jobs have disappeared, particularly in construction, trucking and mining. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, the government-run entity that insures the plans, gets $86 billion to secure pensions for more than a million retirees.

The Affordable Care Act gets a boost, with increased subsidies for people purchasing health insurance through the healthcare marketplaces. It includes billions of dollars for public health programs and veterans’ health care. Republicans couldn’t care less, as they spent the week complaining that Dr. Seuss’s publisher took six of the late author’s outdated books out of print.

The bill also helps Americans who have lost jobs keep health insurance coverage they had through their employer, covering the full cost of premiums through September.

That’s a great day’s work, and Senate Budget Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called it “the most significant piece of legislation to benefit working families in the modern history of this country.” He was disappointed that his $15 minimum wage plan failed. Democrats who voted against putting the minimum wage in the budget bill included Manchin, Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), Jon Tester (Mont.), Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan (N.H.), Angus King (I-Maine who caucuses with the Democrats), and Chris Coons and Tom Carper (Del.). Some of them opposed the $15 minimum wage as too much; others may have thought it would imperil the COVID relief.

With the American Rescue Plan headed for final passage in the House, Democrats should bring up the minimum wage in a separate bill and force Republicans to vote up or down on it. It is popular, and Manchin suggested an increase in the minimum wage to $11 an hour, which small businesses could better afford. After that, he said, “it should be indexed so it never becomes a political football again.” Manchin’s plan at least would bring a full-time worker’s income above the federal poverty level for a family of three — and Sanders’ plan, which is phased in over four years, wouldn’t reach $11 until 2022 anyway. If Manchin could get Republican support for $11 with indexed rate increases, that would be a major accomplishment. If he can’t get Republicans to sign on, it will show the GQP is simply obstructionist and maybe that will give Manchin more motive to support filibuster reform.

The House and Senate also should proceed with the For the People Act (HR 1), which would limit states’ authority to restrict voting in federal elections. Republicans will fight that bill to the end because, as they’ve admitted, they can’t win in a fair fight.

Democrats are likely to face an insurmountable task in getting major bills passed if they keep the current filibuster rules, which require 60 votes to advance a controversial bill. Manchin and Sinema oppose eliminating the filibuster, but Manchin said he might support a return to the old rules that required a senator to stand and talk on the Senate floor to keep the filibuster going. “This filibuster should be painful,” Manchin said on “Fox News Sunday,” noting that senators now can conduct a filibuster just be sending an email.

Ultimately, if Democrats want to pass major bills outside the budget reconciliation process against an obstructive minority, they need to improve their numbers in 2022. That includes holding onto the House majority and Democratic Senate incumbents, including Sen. Raphael Warnock in Georgia, and flipping at least two Republican Senate seats on a map that includes open seats in Pennsylvania, where Pat Toomey is retiring; North Carolina, where Richard Burr is retiring; Ohio, where Rob Portman is retiring; and vulnerable incumbents Ron Johnson in Wisconsin and Marco Rubio in Florida. Roy Blunt also is retiring in Missouri, but that state may be too far gone for the next cycle. In the meantime, progressives should take the win on the American Rescue bill and get back to organizing. — JMC