New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) said Saturday that Democrats have lost sight of the important economic issues facing working-class Americans as the party works to rebuild itself after a devastating loss in the 2024 presidential election.
“The party, as a whole, has lost its focus on working people,” Mamdani said in an interview with MS Now.
“People want to know: What are you going to do for rent? What are you going to do for housing? What are you going to do for gas? What are you going to do for groceries? We have to have answers to that.”
Issues like housing affordability, the cost of healthcare and rising gas prices should be at the forefront of the party’s focus, according to Mamdani, rather than ideological battles that distract from what matters to most Americans.
I’ll grant that they didn’t even try for a standalone minimum wage increase. I’d be curious to know how that would go too. But it was meant to go into one of the earlier spending bills that had to be passable by a simple majority. Those kinds of bills have certain requirements, or else they’re subject to the fucked up filibuster rules the Senate has.
The Senate parliamentarian ruled that a minimum wage increase was more than a budget change and did not fit those requirements. I thought Democrats’ argument that it affected revenue via resulting taxes and therefore budgeting was a reasonable one, but it didn’t quite fly.
Anyway, to say “the Ds couldn’t even be bothered to increase minimum wage under Biden” is a little disingenuous IMO. They did make one honest effort, at least, and anything else was pretty much doomed.
No. Joe Biden and 44 Democratic senators and 36 Republican senators were not making an honest effort to fight for workers when they voted to block the rail strike in 2022. It doesn’t matter how many times you try to say otherwise. Blocking strikes is anti-worker pro-corporate behavior. Period.
I’m talking about minimum wage and nothing else.
Of course not. Because if you zoom out it’s pretty obvious Joe Biden and most Democratic politicians are pro-corporate trash who have no interest in fighting for American workers.
And if you change the subject you can always get your point across. Great job.
I didn’t change the subject. You’re asserting that if Biden and Democratic politicians had the ability to bump minimum wages they would. I challenged your assertion by demonstrating when Democratic politicians have the power to help American workers they decide in force to side with corporations.
And yes, I did get my point across. I’m glad you acknowledge that.
Other guy: “Democrats didn’t even raise minimum wage”
Me: “Well, they tried that one thing. Here’s what happened for that particular issue, how it was attempted, and how the Senate’s screwed up rules stopped them”
You: “But they didn’t block the train strike!”
…
Anyway, yes, you got your point across. If only it had anything to do with mine of what happened on a different day
This is you asserting they would fight for American workers if not for “senate’s rules”.
When it comes to minimum wage, as the initial commenter mentioned. Not everything under the sun
That’s the thing. Obstruction is so much easier. So Republicans have been able to stop most of the progress we would have made.