Why They Eat Their Own

Divisions among people seeking the same end goal harm us all

A lot of Progressives are complaining because the Congressional Democrats and President Biden did not get all they ‘promised’ into the Relief Act.

And that is true. The President and Democrats in Congress did not get the promised $2,000 one-time payment or $400 weekly payments to the unemployed and, perhaps most important to many Progressives, the $15 an hour minimum wage increase.

Instead, Democrats managed to push through a one-time payment of $1,400 to all Americans earning under $75,000 yearly income, $300 a week unemployment assistance through September 6, 2021, with the first $10,200 tax free.

But no minimum wage increases.

And for failing to deliver, Biden, and Democrats in general, are being attacked by many Progressives for not getting everything the President and Congressional candidates campaigned on.

They see the one-time payment of $1,400, rather than $2,000 and the $400 weekly assistance to the unemployed cut to $300, along with the failure to raise the minimum wage as damning to the progressive Cause, an “insult”, some say, to those who voted Democrats into both Houses of Congress and Joe Biden into the Presidency.

What those complaining ignore is that Democrats hold a slim majority in the Senate so all fifty Democrats must vote in favor of any legislation that comes in front of them for it to pass.

But there were not fifty Democratic votes for the Relief Act to pass unless the benefit amounts were reduced, and the wage increase cut from the bill. Just as in the House, there was not a single vote in favor from the Republican minority.

Senate Democrats were on their own in trying to deliver much needed assistance to a suffering country.

The Republicans argued that the $600 payment in December should be considered part of the $2,000 President Biden supported and the Democrats in the House put into the Relief Act.

They also argued that $400 weekly assistance to the unemployed would discourage people from going back to work because they would make more money by staying home.

And that probably would have been true for many people. Forty hours a week at the current minimum wage, $7.25 an hour, equals $290 weekly before taxes, FICA, and deductions some employers take to cover the cost of things such as uniforms. Which means a worker’s ‘take home pay’ is not $290 a week.

So, for many minimum wage workers, the choice is easy; go back to work and risk exposing yourself, your family, and your friends to COVID, or stay at home and receive $1,600 a month versus $1,160 before taxes and deductions.

And for minimum wage workers to even get forty hours weekly requires working two part-time jobs because employers do not allow minimum wage employees to work full-time. In most states ‘full-time’ means forty hours a week, although a few states consider fewer hours to be ‘full-time’.

And companies with fifty or more employees, a category that includes most minimum wage workers, must provide full-time employees with worker’s compensation insurance, unemployment insurance, and family medical leave as required by the FMLA.

Employers have a financial incentive to hire as few full-time employees as possible and hiring more part-time workers.

And that clearly highlights the need for a Federal minimum wage increase.

But sacrificing the entire Relief Act to force a wage increase would not have been a good idea. And could possibly have cost Democrats the slim Senate majority it currently holds.

Senator Manchin made it clear that he would not vote for the Relief Act if it included a minimum wage increase and without his vote it could not even be passed under reconciliation rule that allows a simple majority vote.

And it is possible that refusing to compromise with him on that issue would have pushed him to switch his affiliation back to Republican, making that the majority Party and giving Mitch McConnell control of the Senate. Again.

And no Progressive, Leftist, or Liberal is under any illusion that Senator McConnell would allow progressive legislation, including infrastructure or clean energy projects, despite the millions of well-paying jobs that would create, to even get a floor vote, let alone be sent to a Democratic President to sign.

Senator McConnell has blocked hundreds of bills he received from the House if those bills might reflect well on the Democratic Party. He even ‘black mailed’, for lack of a better term, the Obama Administration from including a Public Option in the ACA.

Even legislation previously of Republican origin, with Republican backing and broad public support, was sidelined by McConnell when a Democrat-controlled House passed it. There is a reason he takes pride in calling himself “the Grim Reaper”.

So, with compromise (a word many Progressives detest) the $1.9 trillion Relief Act passed the Senate and was sent back to the House, where it was passed with Senate-made changes and sent White House for President Biden’s signature.

Democrats passed major legislation that benefits those most in need, in the face of staunch Republican opposition. And demands by some Progressives along with criticism at every step of the process.

“It is not enough!”

“It is not happening fast enough!”

“It should have been done our way because we know better!”

“Pelosi should not be House Majority leader, Schumer should not be Senate Majority leader, they’re too old. We need young leadership!”

“Democrats should just do it, stand up to the Republicans, but they give in, back down every time.”

“A $15 an hour minimum wage is not enough if it is phased in over five years!”

“You promised you would get us a $15 an hour minimum wage, you have betrayed us!”

“But you promised.”

Throw in a little stamping of feet and the sentiment is clear: Democrats are sellouts, wimps, afraid of change, too old or too rich to understand us, and are owned by the plutocracy. Democrats are neocons!

And what is included in that Bill? Not the $2,000 one-time payment and $400 weekly UE payments and no minimum wage increase, some of the many things Progressives wanted, and Congress included in the first version sent to the Senate.

Instead, it includes a one-time $1,400 payment to all Americans earning up to $75,000 a year and couple earning up to $150,000 a year. A couple earning less than the earnings cap will receive a combined $2,800. The child credit is raised to $3,000 and there is money for childcare, as well.

People on unemployment will receive $300 weekly, $1,200 monthly on top of their state UE benefits, with the first $10,200 nontaxable, and that weekly assistance is extended through September 6, 2021. That $1,200 per month will pay the rent or mortgage for most people and will certainly not harm anyone.

And an important factor many Progressives miss is that employers who must rehire as the economy rebounds will have to offer wages high enough to overcome the UE money being received by those minimum wage and low-paid workers just to bring them back.

And that higher pay will shift worker pay upwards throughout the business. A market forced minimum wage increase that is perfectly in keeping with the greed-driven capitalistic nature of managing a business.

The $15 per hour Federal minimum wage increase can be negotiated (Democrats compromise, again) in another bill and the fact that many businesses will already be paying higher wages makes the fight to get a Federal minimum wage increase to $15 an hour easier to accomplish.

The bill provides state and local governments $350 billion and $130 billion to help elementary, middle, and high schools to safely re-open.

Also included is $50 billion in assistance to small businesses, including $7 billion for the Payment Protection Program. Along with $28.6 billion in grants specifically for restaurants.

The bill allocates $20 billion for vaccine distribution, $1 billion for the CDC to launch a vaccine awareness program, $7.5 billion to set up vaccination sites and $50 billion to increase COVID testing.

And because Senator Manchin did not change his Party affiliation, Democrats maintained their slim majority in the Senate. And kept our future (for two years, at least) out of the hands of the “Grim Reaper”.

But all those things, no matter how good, are still not enough for some Progressives, those who vilify Democrats and President Biden because the final bill does not include everything originally in it.

If Democrats had allowed Progressives to make the decisions, nothing would have been gained, and they may well have given the Senate majority back to the Republican Party, otherwise known as the Party of Trump.

Whether Progressive, Leftists, Liberals, or Moderates, the Democratic Party is comprised of a wide spectrum of people who support a better future and a better today, but who often disagree on the methods used to get there.

Democrats pushed through a major, and life saving for some, and most expensive piece of legislation to help the public which has ever been enacted. And much more needs to be addressed: Universal Healthcare, clean energy projects, climate change, justice and police reform, education, and systemic racism are but a few of the challenges the nation faces.

But getting major legislation passed will become more difficult with every passing day. And it will be even harder to accomplish if all concerned “factions” on the Left refuse to work as one and present a united front in the face of those who would stop the progress the nation desperately needs.

Progressives, traditional Democrats, Leftists, Liberals, Independents, Socialists, Democratic Socialists, left-leaning Republicans, the unaffiliated, and even typically non-political people who care about a better, fairer America, a better World, need to present a united front in the face of an ever changing but always the same enemy.

Historically, the Party that wins the Presidency loses Congress in the mid-term elections, so Democrats have a lot to accomplish before then. People need to see their lives improving, see that the Democratic Party is doing the job the previous President and Congress could not, or did not, do. And job creation is perhaps the most visible sign of improvement for many voters.

Legislation to repair or rebuild the nation’s crumbling infrastructure would create millions of well-paying jobs, many of which can be started soon after passage of the legislation, throughout the country, especially in areas already financially distressed. And that work could include cleaner, more environmentally friendly policies.

New and better renewable energy projects could begin, creating millions of new jobs that would also have a job ‘tail’ effect of creating new jobs and supporting existing ones in related services and the manufacture of needed products just as major infrastructure requires.

A universal healthcare system can be designed that people, including voters, will quickly see as something better and less expensive, something this nation should have had years ago.

Criminal justice and police department reforms can be one step toward addressing systemic racism. But it must be made clear that ‘police department reform’ means just that- reforming police departments by adding social workers and drug abuse counselors. And not allowing police departments to buy surplus armored personnel carriers and tanks.

“Defund the Police” is a frightening thing for some people to hear but “reforming police departments” by adding social workers and others and leaving police only the core functions of street patrols, neighborhood policing on foot wherever possible, investigations, and arrests with proper warrants would not carry the same stigma as “Defund the police” does. Slogans should be short and easy to remember, but also clear enough that their meaning is difficult to twist by the opposition.

It must be kept in mind that the Republican Party and their rich donors will fight every step of the way, but the fight must go on. Democracy has never been an easy thing to attain and is even harder to keep.

It takes hard work and vigilance, but it can, must be done if we are to have a better nation than we have now.

Years ago, when going through an acrimonious divorce and custody battle, I grew frustrated with my attorney, thought he was being too patient and ‘giving in’ too much. When I questioned his methods, he told me he had dealt with similar situations.

“Give people like them,” he told me (my ex and her new boyfriend) “enough rope and they’ll hang themselves.”

So, I followed his advice to be patient and got what I wanted most, custody of my seven-year-old son. My ‘compromise’ was that she would not pay me child support. And that was a valuable life lesson; patience and compromise win the day.

And if that requires patience and compromise (and it does and always will), then that is the rope by which they hang themselves. Let them have it.

For all its faults, the Democratic Party is the best vehicle we have available to move forward toward a fairer, more inclusive, and progressive future.

But when differences of opinion between various groups become outright attacks on other Party members, it is easy to understand why some outsiders look at the “Left” and ask,

“Why do they eat their own?”

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