Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Far More Popular With Democrats Than Joe Manchin: Poll

BY JACOB JARVIS ON 3/4/21 NEWSWEEK

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is far more popular with Democrats than Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), according to polling conducted while the pair stand at odds on several issues.

Ocasio-Cortez and Manchin have previously criticized each other on several points and have taken contradicting stances on a number of issues of late.

Manchin has pushed targeting stimulus check payments further, with the White House having agreed with Senate Democrats to a move to tighten eligibility requirements. This is a point Ocasio-Cortez and other progressives have been against.
He has also questioned raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, suggesting $11 an hour instead. Ocasio-Cortez has strongly supported the $15 figure.
The $15 minimum wage push has been hurdled by the Senate parliamentarian's ruling that it should not be passed through budget reconciliation. Ocasio-Cortez has suggested this be overruled, a potential move Manchin has opposed and a course of action the White House has indicated will not be taken.
The White House has indicated President Joe Biden wants the minimum wage to increase to this point and will pursue it through other means.

With Ocasio-Cortez and Manchin's stances having clashed of late, polling has indicated that, of the two, Democrats have a more favorable opinion of Ocasio-Cortez.

In The Economist/YouGov polling carried out February 27 to March 2, 1,500 respondents were asked if they had a favorable or unfavorable opinion of each.

For Ocasio-Cortez, 23 percent were very favorable and 17 percent somewhat favorable. Among Democrats asked, 47 percent said very favorable and 28 percent somewhat.

For Manchin, overall 3 percent said very favorable and 18 percent somewhat. Among the Democrats asked, 4 percent said very favorable and 18 percent somewhat favorable.

More Democrats had an unfavorable view of Manchin also, with 12 percent very unfavorable and 25 percent somewhat. For Ocasio-Cortez, this was 3 percent very unfavorable and 8 percent somewhat.



Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) looks out towards a crowd during a food distribution event on October 27, 2020 in New York City. Polling has shown most Democrats have a favorable opinion of her.MICHAEL M. SANTIAGO/GETTY IMAGES

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Candace Owens buried by Black conservative for lying in an attempt to incite more racism

Tom Boggioni RAW STORY 
March 06, 2021

Candace Owens

Recent tweets by conservative gadfly Candace Owens set off a Black columnist at the far-right Red State website, leading him to accuse her of lying to her audience in an effort to ramp up more racism against Black Americans among her predominately white followers.

Leading off, with, "Some of you aren't going to like this one, but it needs to be said," Jeff Charles cut right to the chase and stated Owens is guilty of issuing " another series of deceptive remarks about black culture on Twitter that provide yet another example demonstrating why the conservative movement and the former Party of Lincoln fails to attract black voters."

According to the columnist -- who broke down Owens' tweets in a video which can be seen below -- the problem with Owens is that her entire schtick is aimed at convincing her mostly white audience "to view their fellow black Americans in a negative light."

At issue is her attack on Black culture which she claims, "....honestly breaks my heart. It disintegrated so quickly from topics of faith family & love to absolute debauchery. We went from the Temptations and Commodores to naked women debasing themselves in the blink of an eye. We are ruining black children with false idols."

According to the Red State columnist, she is ignoring facts that undercut her argument.

"For starters, the idea that black music, or even music in general, only recently had problematic elements is absurd. If Owens knew anything about the Temptations, she would know that the group's lead singer, David Ruffin, was a drug addict who died in a crackhouse. As for the Commodores, they may not have been quite as sexually explicit as Cardi B's "WAP," but old school folks know exactly what they were talking about when they referred to a woman being a 'Brick House,'" he wrote.

He added, "Owens' statements about black television are equally ignorant. Yes, there have been black television shows depicting African Americans engaging in bad behavior. But this is not exclusive to black programming – anyone who loves 'Breaking Bad' as much as I do knows this to be true."

According to the columnist, Owens should be scrutinized for her constant attacks on Black Americans and that she is hurting, and not helping, the conservative movement appeal to anyone other than white voters.

"While she is beloved on the right, she is widely reviled by the same people she is telling you she is trying to reach. There is no chance that folks like her can bring about the 'Blexit' she promised," he wrote before adding, "The fact of the matter is that Black Conservative Inc. cannot lead black folks from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party, because their rhetoric signals that they don't respect, or even like, the people they claim to be trying to reach. You cannot insult people into joining your cause."

You can watch the video below

CIVICS 101

Biden fires Trump official who refused to resign​

"At the end of the day you serve at the pleasure of the president," 

Matthew Chapman RAW STORY
March 06, 2021


President Joe Biden (AFP Photo/Jason Davis)

On Saturday, Mediaite reported that Sharon Gustafson, the Trump-appointed general counsel for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), refused to step down — so the Biden White House fired her.

"Bloomberg Law was first to report Gustafson's firing Friday, and shared the letter she wrote to Biden. She refuses Biden's request that she resign, noting that she was appointed to a four-year term," reported Marisa Sarnoff. "In her letter, Gustafson also accused the EEOC, under Biden, of undermining her work, saying that her reports on 'religious freedom' have been removed from the EEOC website. 'I can only assume that my resignation would be followed by similar suppression of our work promoting religious freedom,' Gustafson wrote."

Gustafson received national controversy after the EEOC sued the Kroger grocery store chain for having employees wear aprons with rainbow-colored hearts — which they deemed "religious discrimination" because an employee was upset at the apparent endorsement of LGBTQ rights.

"At the end of the day you serve at the pleasure of the president," said former EEOC general council David Lopez. "I think the norm that was violated was that she decided to stay. I've never heard of that happening before."

Thundering silence from GOP after top donor charged with biggest tax fraud scheme in history: report

Bob Brigham
March 05, 2021

Screengrab.

While Republicans have had lots to say about Mr. Potato Head and Dr. Seuss, they've been silent on GOP donor Bob Brockman, according to a new report by CNBC.

"The billionaire accused of running the biggest tax fraud scheme in U.S. history was a prolific donor to Republican groups and causes. The leaders of those organizations have kept quiet on the federal charges against him," CNBC's Brian Schwartz reported Friday.

Brockman was charged with running a $2 billion tax fraud scheme that took place over 20 years through offshore bank accounts.

"Brockman's most recent contributions to Republican committees came in 2017, ahead of the Congressional midterm elections the following year, according to Federal Election Commission records. Representatives of the organizations that are still active did not respond when asked whether they plan to refund or give the total amount of contributions away to charity in the wake of the allegations. The 2017 contributions had yet to be reported in the media," CNBC reported.

"In 2017, Brockman donated over $80,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee, the political campaign organization for House Republicans. Republicans went on to lose the House to Democrats, with Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., becoming speaker," CNBC explained. "The FEC records showing the NRCC contributions do not list Reynolds & Reynolds as Brockman's employer, but the Texas address matches the location listed on other contributions Brockman has made. The mailing address is also listed on a business registration form for Reynolds & Reynolds reviewed by CNBC. The form, signed in April before Brockman was charged, lists him as the CEO."

Max Steele, the spokesperson from for the Democratic super PAC American Bridge, predicted the GOP organizations would not return Brockman's contributions.

"Congressional Republicans spent the last four years gutting IRS enforcement and cutting taxes for billionaires while being bankrolled by the biggest tax cheat in American history," Steele told CNBC. "While they should return or donate the money, we know they won't. After all, can a party blindly loyal to Donald Trump afford to oppose billionaires committing tax fraud?"

‘Hovering ship’ photographed off U.K. coast in rare optical illusion

Josh K. Elliott 

Unusual footage from the U.K. has many scratching their heads over a rare optical illusion — one you might call a hovering tanker, a ghost ship or whatever floats your boat.

© David Morris/Apex A tanker appears to hover above the water off the coast of Cornwall, England, in this photo captured by a pedestrian from shore.

Pedestrian David Morris spotted a large tanker seemingly hovering high above the ocean from a beach in Cornwall recently, U.K. media report.

The massive ship appeared to be suspended in mid-air, with a large chunk of blue sky visible between the bottom of its hull and the surface of the water.

Morris was "stunned" by the sight and captured a photograph because he couldn't believe his eyes, BBC News reports.

He had good reason not to trust his eyes, as experts say the ship appeared to "fly" because of an optical illusion called a "superior mirage."

The phenomenon can occur in areas where a large surface makes lower layers of air colder than the layers above, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The temperature difference causes light from the object to bend down toward the observer, making it look like the distant object is higher than its true position. The illusion is most common in places like the Arctic.

Read more: Towering ‘ice volcano’ becomes very nice attraction in Kazakhstan

"Superior mirages occur because of the weather condition known as a temperature inversion, where cold air lies close to the sea with warmer air above it," BBC meteorologist David Braine said.

"Since cold air is denser than warm air, it bends light towards the eyes of someone standing on the ground or on the coast, changing how a distant object appears."

It's basically the opposite of an inferior mirage, which can flip or project objects onto a hot surface. Such mirages are the reason why some roads look wet on a hot day.

Superior mirages are occasionally used to explain reports of ghost ships around the world.

The Italians have even come up with a special name for superior images that distort the object’s appearance, which they’ve dubbed Fata Morgana. The term is derived from the sorceress Morgan le Fay of the Arthurian legend, and is based on the notion that witchcraft and magic are involved in such illusions.

Morris says he doesn't suspect anything supernatural was going on with the tanker, which he spotted on the water on Feb. 26.

"To me, it was an optical illusion caused by the still water," he told local paper the Falmouth Packet. "I have seen similar before, but not as good as this."

Former QAnon believers explain how they were radicalised

QAnon has merged with white Christian evangelicals, experts say — and the results could be lethal

‘It can and likely will get very bad’

Andrew Feinberg
Washington DC@AndrewFeinberg

The House of Representatives has left Capitol Hill for the week, but the National Guard soldiers standing watch around a hardened post-insurrection security perimeter could have their work cut out for them today.

“We have obtained intelligence that shows a possible plot to breach the Capitol by an identified militia group on Thursday, March 4,” the Capitol Police department said Wednesday in a statement, noting that they were “taking the intelligence seriously”. The FBI and Department of Homeland Security also issued a bulletin of their own, cautioning that domestic extremists had formed “plans to take control of the US Capitol and remove Democratic lawmakers on or about 4 March”.

The FBI and DHS bulletin also warned that the “perception of election fraud and other conspiracy theories associated with the presidential transition… may contribute to [domestic violent extremists] mobilizing to violence with little or no warning”. House leaders were quick to heed both warnings, announcing late Wednesday that the lower chamber would not be in session the next day.

The reason for all the alarm? After the January 6 insurrection failed to stop lawmakers from certifying Biden’s win and the new president was sworn in on January 20, QAnon believers and other Trump-centric cultists repurposed a decades-old conspiracy theory to fit their delusions. In short, their new narrative posits that Donald Trump will be sworn in as the nation’s 19th “real” President on the fourth day in March, which was the date set in the Constitution for presidential inaugurations until the 20th Amendment was adopted in 1933.

The general thrust of QAnon mythology goes something like this: Trump is engaged in a sub rosa battle against a powerful, secretive cabal of baby-eating pedophiles who control Hollywood, legitimate news outlets, the Democratic Party, non-Trump-supporting factions of the Republican Party, and many foreign governments. Every development — even his loss to Biden — is part of a long-running plan that will end with mass arrests and executions of Democrats, journalists, and Hollywood figures. The date for such a putsch, known in QAnon parlance as “the storm,” has shifted numerous times, most recently to March 4 (after Biden took office and Trump did not declare martial law to stop it on January 20). 

Trump, the central, messianic figure in QAnon and QAnon-adjacent conspiracy mythology, has tacitly encouraged such delusions. In remarks delivered at the 2021 Conservative Political Action Conference last week — his first public appearance since leaving office — the ousted ex-television star repeated many of his oft-told lies about having won an election which he lost decisively to Biden.

And it’s Trump’s refusal to acknowledge reality, combined with the increasingly intricate nature of Republican conspiracy mythology — theories that are becoming more intertwined with the flavor of evangelical Christianity that dominates the GOP — that have extremism experts and former Republicans warning the violent movement centered on the 45th president is not going away. In fact, they say, it will most likely become more violent.

Colin Clarke, a senior research fellow at The Soufan Center who studies extremist violence, said the upheaval wrought by the Covid-19 pandemic, the recent presidential election, and the continued prosecution of several overseas wars has created a confluence of circumstances that scholars would consider a perfect incubator for belief in conspiracy theories and apocalyptic mass delusions. 

“It’s not going to get better anytime soon, unfortunately… Conspiratorial thinking is very closely associated with high-anxiety situations and endless wars, elections and national tragedies,” he said.

Moreover, Clarke said there has been a “crossover” between the QAnon systems and evangelical Christianity that is going to imbue right-wing extremism with the sort of violent fanaticism more associated with al-Qaeda or Isis.

“Religious terrorism tends to be more lethal, because people believe they’re serving a higher purpose by committing acts of violence, as opposed to secular groups or ethno-nationalists who are fighting over territory or land,” he explained. “You can’t negotiate with these people, and you especially can’t negotiate with QAnon, because how do you assuage grievances that don’t exist?”

Clarke also posited that synergies between QAnon and the American anti-abortion movement — another religiously inspired faction that dominates the GOP — could spark extremist violence in the mould of the string of bombings carried out by Eric Robert Rudolph between 1996 and 1998.

Another prominent researcher of extremist movements and disinformation, former GOP Representative Denver Riggleman, said the connections between QAnon and white evangelical Christianity have “metastasized” into something else that is both “messianic” and “apocalyptic”.

“This has grown well beyond just something that we can categorize as QAnon,” said Riggleman, who was defeated by a far-right primary challenger after officiating a same-sex wedding and is now chief strategist with the Network Contagion Research Institute. “It’s almost become a conspiracy industry that is evangelical.”

Like Clarke, Riggleman said there are parallels between the radicalization process that is being driven by QAnon in the evangelical community and the Islamic radicalism that the US has been trying to combat since 2001: “There certainly is radical Islam, but there’s now radicalism on certain evangelical sides, and I think people have been afraid to call it for what it is.”

But Joe Walsh, the former GOP congressman and conservative radio host who mounted a brief primary challenge to Trump during the 2020 election cycle, said such problems go far beyond QAnon believers in the Republican Party.

Walsh said Trump’s insistence that he, not Biden, won the 2020 election, has been eagerly adopted by a Republican base that is more primed for conspiratorial thinking than ever. “When I ask people specifically about QAnon, it’s only a rare Trump supporter that can give me any specifics, but damn near all of them are just general conspiracists,” he added. “There’s just a huge general overlap in that most of the Republican Party base voters now are conspiracy believers… Because the base is evangelical, the base is now conspiratorial, and they are one and the same.”

Another prominent Republican, ex-GOP Chairman Michael Steele, cautioned that it’s specifically white evangelicals who’ve largely been taken in by QAnon and other mass delusions, driven at least in part by Trump’s insistence that 2020 election results were not legitimate because Black voters in urban and suburban areas played a significant role in the outcome.

Steele predicted that absent a change of course by Republicans in Congress and across the country — or intervention by law enforcement — the potential for violence from radicalized QAnon adherents and others who’ve been taken in by Trumpist election denial is very real.

“It can and likely will get very bad,” he said. “The idea that [Republicans] had better stop before someone gets killed? Well, we’re past that and they’re still engaging, so there is potentially more violence ahead… You’ve got to accept that and be honest about that because… they’re not putting that flame out… They’re finding more matches and fuel to add to it.”

Walsh, who in 2010 won election to the House in part by using often fiery rhetoric on the subject of Islamist extremism, said that the day is coming when US law enforcement will have to take evangelical Christian extremism just as seriously. But he also predicted that his former House colleagues who regularly stressed the need to combat the former will fight tooth-and-nail against any attempt to treat the latter the same way.

“Any religion, the more fundamentalist and extreme they become, the more prone they are to violence. I don’t know if we’re there yet, but when we enter the era when the FBI or whoever can say that fundamentalist evangelical extremism is a domestic terror threat, then our government can do what it has to do,” he said. “If we continue down this road, it’s coming… and we’re gonna fall into the world where all of the people like me — all of these conservative Republicans who demanded that the government do what it has to do to weed out radical Islam in our country — they are going to be the ones standing at the church door, telling the government to stay out.”

US poet Amanda Gorman says she was followed by security guard who said she looked ‘suspicious’

Amanda Gorman / Getty Images

By Leah Sinclair
Evening Standard

3/5/2021

Amanda Gorman, the US poet who won acclaim for her performance at Joe Biden’s inauguration, has said she was followed home and accosted by a security guard who allegedly said she looked “suspicious’”

Ms Gorman shared her experience on Twitter, revealing that she was walking home alone while “tailed” by a guard.

“A security guard tailed me on my walk home tonight. He demanded if I lived there because “you look suspicious.” I showed my keys & buzzed myself into my building”, she wrote.

The poet said the security guard didn’t apologise, adding: “This is the reality of black girls: One day you’re called an icon, the next day, a threat”.

In a following tweet, Ms Gorman said: “In a sense, he was right. I AM A THREAT: a threat to injustice, to inequality, to ignorance. Anyone who speaks the truth and walks with hope is an obvious and fatal danger to the powers that be”.

In revealing her experience, she re-shared a post she made in February which said: "We live in a contradictory society that can celebrate a black girl poet & also pepper spray a 9 yr old" - in reference to a recent incident in Rochester, New York.

"Yes see me, but also see all other black girls who’ve been made invisible. I can not, will not, rise alone".


Ms Gorman’s post was widely shared across Twitter and many discussed her experience.

A Virginia state legislator, Mark Keam, said: “Let this story sink in. And realise how – while I’m glad it ended safe for Amanda Gorman – this type of confrontation is an every day occurrence for millions of our fellow Americans”.

Ms Gorman, who turns 23 on Sunday, won the hearts many after giving a riveting performance of her inauguration poem, The Hill We Climb.

In her poem, Ms Gorman described herself as “a skinny black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother [who] can dream of becoming president, only to find her self reciting for one”.

She also spoke of “striving to forge a union with purpose / To compose a country committed to all cultures, colours, characters and conditions of man”.

Since appearing on the world’s stage, the Harvard graduate has performed at this year’s Super Bowl and was recently signed to IMG Models.

Her forthcoming books, the poetry collection The Hill We Climb and the children’s book Change Sings, also topped the book charts after her inauguration performance.

AOC Slams Democrats' Betrayal Of American People

Many Americans, in particular Democrats, felt betrayed when Joe Biden and co. went back on their campaign promise of $2000 relief checks in the stimulus bill, paring the amounts down to $1400. Then just this week the betrayal was heightened by the removal of a provision in the bill to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, another promise touted nonstop by Joe Biden on the campaign trail in 2020. Well, as they say in the infomercial business, that’s not all. Because now it appears that the final bill will also dramatically cut back on eligibility for checks, means testing some 12 million adults and 5 million children out of receiving relief - individuals who DID receive checks when Donald Trump was president.

In this clip from The Damage Report, John and Adrienne Lawrence note that Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has publicly wondered at the economic or political wisdom of Democrats coming into power and immediately going back on their campaign promises in such a public, obvious way to let millions of Americans know that they will be MORE stingy than Donald Trump in providing help to suffering Americans. Adrienne says it’s as if Democrats know how important a vibrant, secure working class is to a thriving economy, and they just don’t care.

John, meanwhile, wonders what Democratic leadership could possibly be thinking from an electoral standpoint about how these repeated moves to pare down a critical bill and go through repeated news cycles emphasizing how Democrats are going to give you less and less and less will play out come 2022 and 2024.

“To tell people you're going to give them this and then not give it to them, how could that possibly not hurt you politically?” he wonders.

AOC Blasts New Limits on Stimulus Checks, Says They're Less Generous Than Trump's


NASDAQ

CONTRIBUTOR
Christy Bieber The Motley Fool
PUBLISHED  MAR 4, 2021 


Image source: Getty Images

President Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats campaigned on the promise of providing $2,000 stimulus checks for most Americans. When President Biden actually released his proposed $1.9 trillion stimulus plan, however, it included $1,400 checks. The Biden administration indicated they felt this fulfilled the promise because the payments would combine with $600 checks authorized in a coronavirus relief bill in late December.

When the House of Representatives passed legislation based on Biden's stimulus plan, the bill made these $1,400 checks available in full to individuals with incomes under $75,000 and to married joint filers with incomes up to $150,000. Partial payments would be available above these thresholds. However, eligibility would phase out faster than it did with previous stimulus checks, with Americans receiving no payments once their income hit $100,000 for individuals and $200,000 for married couples.

However, some conservative Democratic senators were concerned this still resulted in too many people getting direct payments. As a result, when the bill was sent to the Senate, Democrats agreed to narrow eligibility further. Now, however, progressive Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (also known as AOC) is speaking out against these new restrictions, calling her colleagues less generous than President Trump.

AOC objects to stricter stimulus check limits

Under the new senate stimulus plan, individuals who earn more than $80,000 and married couples who earn more than $160,000 will not be eligible for payments. Altogether, this means around 12 million Americans will be left out of this next direct payment -- most, if not all of whom, received the prior two stimulus checks.

AOC voiced her displeasure with this targeted proposal by tweeting, 

"Conservative Dems have fought so the Biden admin sends fewer & less generous relief checks than the Trump admin did. t's a move that makes little-to-no political or economic sense, and targets an element of relief that is most tangibly felt by everyday people. An own-goal."

Ocasio-Cortez went on to tweet that she believes the Democrats "have a responsibility to show people in this country what a Democratic majority can do for working people." Her follow-up tweet included a list of what she sees as key Democratic priorities, including providing "more generous relief checks," as well as increasing the federal minimum wage from the current $7.25 per hour to $15 per hour.

The minimum wage increase has long been a priority on the left and was included in the House's coronavirus stimulus bill. However, it had to be stripped from the Senate version because the coronavirus relief bill doesn't have 60 votes in the Senate, which would be necessary to overcome a filibuster that can block legislation.

The bill can be passed through a process called "reconciliation," which requires just 51 votes. But all provisions of reconciliation bills must relate to the federal budget, and the minimum wage increase was determined not to fulfil this requirement.

In addition to criticizing her more conservative colleagues for imposing these new limits on eligibility for stimulus checks, AOC also signed on to a letter with 22 fellow progressives urging President Biden to push forward with his $15 per hour minimum wage anyway. The decision not to allow it in the reconciliation bill was made by the Senate Parliamentarian, and the letter urged the Biden Administration to disregard the ruling.

The Democrats, however, need to keep their caucus together. There are 50 senators who vote with the left in the Senate, and Kamala Harris can cast the tiebreaking 51st vote for the reconciliation bill. If they lose even one vote, the bill won't pass. And with some of the more moderate Democrats making clear they oppose the minimum wage increase and that their support for stimulus checks is conditioned on narrower eligibility rules, AOC is unlikely to move the administration on these issues.

Instead, the new income limits are all but certain to make their way into the final bill, which means fewer Americans are going to see stimulus money deposited into their bank accounts this time around.

NAME EM, SHAME EM, PRIMARY THEM

Group of Senate Democrats and Republicans vote to keep $15 minimum wage out of Biden's COVID stimulus bill

Nicholas Wu
USA TODAY

3/5/2021

WASHINGTON - A group of Democratic senators joined all Senate Republicans in voting against Sen. Bernie Sanders' proposal to increase the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour on Friday.

The Vermont independent tried to add the provision to President Joe Biden's COVID-19 stimulus bill as the Senate considered the $1.9 trillion measure. But the effort failed in a 58-42 vote with eight members of the Senate Democratic caucus voting against it. 

The vote started at 11:03 a.m. EST Friday and didn't officially end for nearly 12 hours as Democrats and Republicans negotiated changes to an extension of unemployment benefits. 

The outcome of the vote could spell trouble for future Democratic attempts to raise the minimum wage, something Biden included in his initial stimulus proposal that passed the House last week. 

NAME EM, SHAME EM, PRIMARY THEM

The eight Democratic caucus members who voted against the measure are:

Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont.

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H.

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz.

Sen. Angus King, I-Maine (King is a member of the Democratic caucus)

Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del.

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del.

Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H.

Sanders, an advocate of the wage hike, said earlier on the Senate floor the issue of raising the minimum wage was a “national emergency.”

He told reporters following the vote he was not surprised by the number of Democrats who voted against it.

“No, we knew exactly what was happening,” he said.

Sanders, in a statement, said this was not the last time he would try to bring up the wage hike for a vote.

"If any senator believes this is the last time they will cast a vote on whether or not to give a raise to 32 million Americans, they are sorely mistaken. We’re going to keep bringing it up, and we’re going to get it done because it is what the American people demand and need," he said. 

Sanders had attempted to add the wage hike back into the bill after a key Senate official, the parliamentarian, had ruled it could not stay in the bill. Democrats are using a process called reconciliation to advance the $1.9 trillion legislation. It allows Democrats to pass bills with a simple majority but subjects them to certain rules making it more difficult to include provisions like the minimum wage in the final bill.

Republicans have been united against the $15 proposal, citing opposition by some small businesses and an analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office which estimates it would result in the loss of as many as 1.4 million jobs. The same analysis said it would boost the pay for as many as 27 million Americans and would lift nearly 1 million out of poverty.

Higher wages increase the cost to employers of producing goods and services, and those costs are generally passed on to consumers who usually react by purchasing fewer goods and services, according to the CBO. As a consequence, employers faced with having to scale back their output usually cut back their workforce.

Stripped from stimulus:

Democrats left scrambling on a $15 minimum wage now that it appears left out of COVID-19 relief bill