“The two political truths Joe Biden can’t ignore.” “The crisis Biden can’t duck.” “Pressure grows on Biden to end the filibuster.”
How much longer can he go on like this?
Reports like these continue to build up the narrative: Partisanship and Republican obstruction imperil Democrats’ ability to, in Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s words, “change America,” the consequences of which mean that Biden either has to respond in kind (i.e. support abolishing the filibuster, overruling the Senate parliamentarian) or get nothing done.
That narrative has a major hole, though, especially as it relates to a key Democratic policy wish that went unrealized in the American Rescue Plan.
Among Democrats who, during the COVID-19 bill drama, loudly supported filibuster abolition and overruling the parliamentarian, their particular motivation for doing so was to see the $15 minimum wage passed. Yet Republican opposition is not what killed the wage hike. Seven Democrats, plus Maine’s independent Sen. Angus King (functionally a Democrat), voted against Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’s amendment to include the minimum wage proposal in the bill.
Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, who voted “nay,” offered this explanation: “At a time when our economy is still slowly recovering, though, policymakers have a responsibility to be especially mindful of the fragile state of small businesses all across this country.”
The point of abolishing the filibuster and of overruling the parliamentarian is that Democrats could pass what they wanted without dealing with Republicans. But there wasn’t enough Democratic support for the current $15 proposal to succeed under simple majority rules.
Liberal Democrats such as California Rep. Ro Khanna and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren do not see those eight Democratic votes against the $15 wage floor, let alone Republican opposition, as an impetus to compromise. They interpret it as an imperative to change the rules, even if it won’t work because there are too many Democratic reservations about that policy.
Yes, Republicans will oppose most of the Democratic agenda, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has even said that doing so has built-in incentives. “Having chosen the progressive route, [Biden has] certainly made it a lot easier for me to unify my members in opposition,” McConnell said in a Fox News interview last month.
On the other hand, offering a constructive counterproposal to the Democrats’ COVID-19 bill (which Republicans did) was hardly obstruction. It was ordinary politics, the beginning of a negotiation. Unfortunately, it was also the end, as Democrats shut down talks.
It seems that, at least for now, Biden recognizes the limits of such a narrow Senate margin. Democrats themselves do not have all their policy ducks in a row. Perhaps he even appreciates the threat which escalation through unilateral rules changes might pose to Democrats in a future Congress.
Meanwhile, filibuster abolitionists can’t see in front of their noses.
