President Joe Biden has officially
signed the Coronavirus Relief Bill
into law.
I just recently the house also
voted to pass the amended Senate
version of the legislation and
only one democrat voted against it.
So, to give you all the details by
a 220 to 211 vote,
with no Republicans voting in favor
of Democrats handed Biden a crucial
first legislative victory.
One Democrat joined Republicans in
voting against the measure and
that was representative
Jared Golden of Maine who had cited
concerns about the cost and
scope of the legislation.
So, the house had already voted in
favor of passing the amended
version of the bill yesterday
before we went to air.
But I really wanted you to be on
the show with us today Cenk to talk
about it because you really
spearheaded this effort to try to
get progressives to fight back
since this amended version of
the bill clearly does not include
the $15 an hour minimum wage.
And there was pressure for
the Progressive Caucus to withhold
its vote until a $15
an hour minimum wage was included.
Obviously they didn't do that.
And clearly they made a political
calculation indicating that it's
just smarter to vote in favor of
this bill because of how
overwhelmingly popular it is.
Polling indicates that upwards of
70% of voters wanted to pass this
version of the bill.
So with all of that said,
with everything in context,
what are your thoughts?
>> Yeah, so first it's important to
be honest and
give the full context.
So, we desperately want a $15
minimum wage in this bill, I'm
going to explain why in a second.
But as it turns out,
it wasn't so does that
mean the bill is terrible?
No, actually the bill is really
good in many different areas.
And we've talked about
this throughout the coverage, and
we were honest with you guys
throughout the coverage.
Some of the contract compromises
were totally unnecessary, bringing
down the size of the checks for
the unemployed and for
people in general limiting
the checks to less people.
Those compromises were bad and
unnecessary, but there's
wonderful parts of the bill.
$20 billion
in COVID vaccine manufacturing,
$50 billion in testing, $25 billion
in rental and utility assistance,
10 billion in mortgage aid, 350
billion in relief state to state,
local and tribal governments, 120
billion in K through 12 schools.
I mean, on and
on we've told you all about this.
And Bernie Sanders is right for
example when he says that's
actually very progressive.
And the size of the bill which is
one of the largest ever in American
history 1.9 trillion.
And the fact that it was geared
mainly towards average Americans
and not a business interest,
all that is wonderful.
But okay, both of these things
are true, but they could have in
my opinion, had a real fight
over the $15 minimum wage.
I don't know they would have wanted
exactly this time around, but they
certainly would have won they would
have had a real real chance at it.
And number two,
they certainly would have gotten
a lot further in the processing and
could help to pass it next time.
But it's not in my opinion,
it's a fact that they chose
not to fight on that.
And that's progressives in
Congress.
So, Bernie Sanders was not going to
introduce it in the bill at all.
And thanks to the pressure that you
guys put on, that is no
exaggeration, nearly 100% you guys.
So Young Turks audience that did
that he introduced an amendment.
Which was great progress because
that means we got to find out who
the eight Democrats voting against
it are now we can apply political
pressure.
If we don't know who they are,
we can't put on political pressure.
That's why they're constantly
hiding and never actually want to
hold votes on these progressive
policies, because they don't
want to get caught with their hand
in the corporate cookie jar.
So the fact that we pressured them
to have that vote, was great and
you should
be incredibly proud of that.
Now having said that, they could
have blocked it in the house,
it only would take six.
In fact, since Jared Golden voted
against it, it would have only
taken five progressives in
the house to block the bill.
When you block the bill,
does that mean all these wonderful
things wouldn't happen?
No. But is there an actual price?
Yes, there is.
Now a thought far enough ahead.
They could have done this
without a delay.
But asking politicians including
progressives to think ahead in
Congress seems like an unlikely
realistic ask.
I am being harsh, but
they've earned that harshness they
have no planning at all.
They still don't have a plan to
pass minimum wage, okay?
So okay, the late date, it would
have delayed the bill a little bit.
Okay, that's true,
you don't hide around that,
these are not black and
white issues, okay?
So I'm curious what you guys think
that's why we have a poll on it.
Would you have delayed the passage
of this otherwise really important
bill to try to fight for
the $15 minimum wage.
So go to
TYT.com/polls/FightForFifteen, or
you could just go to /polls and
we have all our polls there.
I'm genuinely curious, because it's
a legitimate opinion to say no,
this is so important we
cannot delay the passage.
They got folks got to get their
unemployment checks, etc.
But I think that if they
had fought on this ground,
they would have had a chance to put
the minimum wage in this bill.
And they honestly,
just chose not to.
And they chose not to delay
the bill.
They chose not to plan ahead.
And they chose to give up on it.
Now, Bernie and others would say
and I'm sure the progressives in
Congress would say, Cenk,
there's nothing we could do they we
got the eight democratic senators
who were going to vote against it.
We knew they were going to
vote against it.
We told you they were
going to vote against it.
Yes, but I need their names.
Otherwise, you're never going to
create pressure and
you're never going to win.
And if we had actually demanded
this as part of the negotiation,
maybe we would have had a shot.
It's a must pass bill.
They can't not pass it.
We would have been at the table
instead, we got honestly nothing on
that other than the thing that
the Young Turks audience force.
So, I vote that they
should have blocked the bill.
I'm curious what you guys think.
But overall of course the media
doesn't say like that at all.
They save Joe Manchin and
Kyrsten Sinema block bill.
That's wonderful and strategic and
moderate and great.
If progressives ever blocked
the bill, I'm not unaware that the
world would collapse in on them.
And the media complicit in
the corporate rule in this country
would blame progressives for
everything, right?
But, [CROSSTALK] >> All
that notwithstanding they should
have actually gotten themselves to
the negotiating table. That's my
position, Ana. >> Yeah,
I agree with your position overall.
And to be honest with you, part of
the reason why I didn't come out,
breathing fire on yesterday's show
is because at this point I've just
become pretty disillusioned with
electoral politics and
thinking that there are saviors for
us within Congress. No one in
Congress is going to come out to
serve our best interests unless we
have power behind us. And we might
have people overall in a bipartisan
way who want a $15 an hour minimum
wage. The issue is that those
people are not organized. And so if
progressive lawmakers sit back and
make a calculation, they know that
there's a double standard in how
the media covers Joe Manchin and
Kyrsten Sinema versus how they
would cover them if they decided to
be the ones who held up that bill
over even an incredibly Popular
provision to increase the federal
minimum wage to $15 an hour.
So the reason why they made that
calculation is because,
what are we going to do?
If you have unorganized people who
are just, maybe for a week
straight, tweeting mean things to
them, that's not really power,
just keeping it real, right?
So electoral politics is certainly
a part of the puzzle in my mind.
But the more I study this and
the more I look at other models in
other countries and
what actually works in increasing
the minimum wage on a regular basis
to not just a living wage.
But to something that's actually
a little more equitable to what
managers or executives would make,
you need to have organized unions,
organized labor every single
Nordic country has no federal
minimum wage.
They don't have the government set
the minimum wage for them.
They have Trade Unions, Labor
Unions, that literally negotiate on
behalf of the workers, which is why
they not only get paid far more
than Americans get paid for work.
But more importantly they get weeks
and weeks and weeks off, paid time
off in order to rest, in order to
spend time with their families.
Their working conditions
are a lot safer,
a lot more enjoyable to work in.
And people in Nordic countries
don't live to work they
work to live.
And so I think that we just have
this very narrow mindset about,
if we just elect the hero,
if we just elect our savior, if we
just Just elect the right person.
If that doesn't go far enough,
we can't just get involved in
election cycles and
then back off and get angry on
social media when these lawmakers
don't serve our best interests.
They don't do it because they
don't fear us.
And the reason why they don't fear
us is because we're not organized.
>> Yeah, and
two really important points to
think about going forward.
So number one,
all Democrats, unfortunately,
including Progressive's,
in Congress are,
always throw up their hands and go,
well, there's nothing we can do.
No, if you make your case there's
a lot you can do, but he takes yes,
I'm going to use the word courage,
I know they get deeply offended.
It takes to courage to challenge
your own Democratic colleagues,
because here's how you could win.
So you force a vote and then you
say, wait a minute, the $15 minimum
wage is incredibly popular.
Even a majority of Republican
voters wanted, incredibly popular.
It's immensely popular in Arizona
and in West Virginia.
Why is mentioned blocking?
Why is mentioned by Delaware it's
through the roof popular why the
two Delaware senators blocking it.
But that would require
Bernie Sanders AOC wrote Karna,all
of them in Giant Paul,
who's supposed to be the leader of
the Progressive Caucus,
to call out other Democrats.
And they just don't want to.
Let's be honest about it.
They don't want to, it's going to
create discomfort for them.
Now look, I'll be honest on
a second thing with you guys,
when we critique them they
get very offended.
But- >> Dude, who cares?
>> No, no, but-
>> They supposed to work for us.
We're not supposed to
work for them.
We're not there are agents, I don't
care if they're progressives,
I don't care if they're
conservatives, I don't care.
On any particular issue if they
lack the courage to do the right
thing and more importantly,
if they go back on their word of
representing our best interests and
increasing the federal.
I mean, how many democrats
campaigned on increasing
the federal minimum wage,
not just progressives,
corporate democrats as well.
And then when they don't follow
through on their promises, and
they get critiqued on it,
they act as though they're
the ones who are aggrieved.
No, you're the one who lied
to the American people.
You're the one who lied to your
constituents.
And when push came to shove when
they had an opportunity to fight,
they didn't do it.
>> Yeah, look, I don't know that I
would go as far as saying that they
lied, okay, but I will say this.
Look, to finish the point I
was making at, if you're
a progressive legislator now and
you're getting offended by
legitimate critique based on facts.
Well, how does that separate
you from the rest of the elite and
the rest of the establishment?
I remember when we ran those
campaigns against establishment
candidates with these exact
individuals, they didn't seem
to mind offending the incumbents
were running against, they didn't
mind offending establishment,
at that point they loved it.
Now that they're in office,
some of them not all of them,
some of them are saying,
how dare you offend me?
Well, that doesn't really separate
you from the rest of the Democrats.
It just doesn't.
So you could spare your offense,
I don't care, I'm with Ana.
So, some of them are deeply
offended at me.
No, I'm offended at you.
We worked our asses off.
You at least owe us a plan.
So the last thing is guys, yes,
if we fight and we embarrass
people with the wrong positions,
that's how politics works,
then you can win by pointing
out how popular our positions are.
If our own people don't dare to
point out how popular our
positions and fight for them, well,
obviously we have a 0% chance of
winning, that is obvious.
So we must you and I together and
I don't mean and I mean you guys
out there in the audience.
If we continue to put pressure on
them, in a thoughtful strategic
way, and not in over the top way,
not in a burn down the house kind
of way, but in a thoughtful
strategic way, then we can create
the pressure on them to create
pressure on their colleagues.
Otherwise, it looks like for
the moment being they're going to
choose a comfortable route.
Guys at a bare minimum,
we have every right in the world to
demand a plan to pass a $15 minimum
wage because no such plan exists
right now.
I am positive of that.
And don't give me loose talk about,
maybe one
day we'll end the filibuster.
Okay, then what's your plan for
ending the filibuster.
So if they don't have a plan, then
they can spare getting offended.
They can actually get to work and
do the things that they said they
were going to do, saying you're in
favor of it, is not good enough.
That's what Joe Biden does,
that's what Kamala Harris does.
That's what every establishment
Democrat does,
you must actually pass them.
No excuses.
If you don't pass them, then yes,
it's on you.