Democrats Rage as $15 Minimum Wage Effort Fails: ‘Despicable, Unacceptable’

Several prominent Democrats expressed disappointment and frustration after several Democrats joined Republicans in the Senate in rejecting Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) effort to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

While the Senate parliamentarian ruled that the $15 minimum wage hike could not be included in the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief measure, Sanders, as well as his far-left allies, attempted to pave a way to make the hike a reality.

Seven Democrats, as well as an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, joined Republicans in rejecting the effort on Friday. Those include Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV),  Jon Tester (D-MT), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Chris Coons (D-DE), Tom Carper (D-DE),  and Angus King (I-ME).

“There is not one state in our country where you can make ends meet on the current federal minimum wage. Not one! How quickly would Congress raise the minimum wage if they were forced to live on $7.25 an hour?” Sanders asked Friday afternoon. “Outrageous”:

“I voted this AM to include Sen. Sanders’ amendment to raise the minimum wage to $15 by 2025. It didn’t succeed but the Fight for 15 continues,” Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) said:

“It is despicable and unacceptable that there is not unanimous support among Democrats in Congress for a $15 minimum wage,” Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) remarked as other Democrat lawmakers and pundits expressed similar sentiments across social media:

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), a champion of raising the minimum wage, said last week that a $15 wage is actually a “deep, deep compromise” for Democrats.

“Any person who thinks that a $15 minimum wage is the ‘crazy socialist agenda’ is living in a dystopian capitalist nightmare. And we should not prop that up. We should not continue that,” she said during an appearance on The Mehdi Hasan Show.

“Because when you take the minimum wage from several decades ago and you actually account for inflation and productivity gains to today, it should be $24 an hour,” she added.