Biden’s economic stimulus plan’Minimum Wage of $15′ is ankle

Joe Biden’s US administration and the Democratic Party’s $1.9 trillion (about 2,140 trillion won) economic stimulus bill passed through the House of Representatives on the 27th of last month (local time) to the Senate, but met the reef. As the Senate announced a major amendment to the bill, the scale and timing of the stimulus bill became uncertain.

The House of Representatives voted 219 in favor and 212 opposition in a vote on the economic stimulus bill called the’American Rescue Plan’. The stimulus plan included cash payments of $1,400 per capita to most Americans, extending additional unemployment benefits, expanding vaccinations and testing, and funding support for school normalization. All Republican lawmakers opposed it, and in the Democratic Party, all but two agreed. The bill passed to the Senate is also facing a voting war. This time, not only the vote confrontation between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, but also signs of a rift between the progressive camps and the centers in the Democratic Party are visible.

The detonator is a proposal to raise the minimum wage that the Democratic Party has put into the bill. The Democratic Party included a statement in the Corona 19 economic stimulus package passed by the House of Representatives that “by 2025, the federal minimum wage will be increased from $7.25 per hour to $15 per hour.” It is President Biden’s presidential election pledge and a policy strongly pushed by the Democratic progressive camp.

However, when the Senate secretariat invokes the right to adjust the budget, it became inevitable to amend the bill as it came out with a voter interpretation that incorporating a minimum wage increase into the stimulus plan would violate the budget rules. Normally, 60 out of 100 votes are required to pass budget-related bills in the Senate without filibusters. Even if all 50 Democratic senators approve, at least 10 Republicans must be persuaded.

As the Democratic Party predicted that it would be difficult to pass the bill against the Republican Party, it was in the state of invoking the exercise of the right to budget adjustment, a method that could pass the stimulus alone. In this case, a simple majority of 50 people may approve.

The Democratic Party included this clause at the request of the progressives, knowing that the proposed minimum wage increase would violate Senate regulations. Progressive camps within the Democratic Party insist on dismissing the Senate secretary for interpreting votes or removing regulations to pass the stimulus bill as originally drafted, but the White House drew a line that President Biden had no plans to do so.

Currently, it is influential for the Senate to amend or delete the minimum wage increase provisions to vote on the bill, then return it to the House of Representatives to vote again. Some Democrats are considering bypasses, such as raising taxes for companies that do not pay their workers the minimum wage of $15.

Washington = Correspondent Park Hyun-young [email protected]