Bernie Sanders

Congressional Democrats are quickly looking for an alternative to support fair wages for workers now that a $15 increase won't be included in President Joe Biden's coronavirus stimulus package.

"Mega-corporations can afford to pay their workers $15 an hour, and it's long past time they do so, but this should not come at the expense of small businesses already struggling to make it," Hawley said in a statement on Friday.

The Vermont senator told a livestream hosted by People's Action "we have got a number of ideas about how we are going to come back."

The Senate Budget Committee Chairman ridiculed Walmart for forcing taxpayers to "subsidize" low-income workers struggling to make a living wage.

The Vermont independent, who caucuses with the Democrats, has suggested a push could be made on infrastructure which could bypass the need for Republican support.

President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez(D-N.Y.) were the only national politicians to receive net positive favorability ratings in a new poll.

On Tuesday, the Vermont senator, along with six Republicans, opposed Tom Vilsack's confirmation as secretary of agriculture.

"Incrementally increasing a pitiful 7.25 wage to $10 over 5 yrs is a cruel joke. Poverty cannot be overcome just by $2.75/hour more," Democratic Michigan Representative Rashida Tlaib wrote.

"We have tens of millions of workers working for starvation wages," Sanders told reporters on Tuesday afternoon. "It is an absolute national disgrace."

In his renewed battle with Senator Warren, Biden inaccurately implies that student debt relief would help rich people. The president has spent 40 years blocking debt relief.

"Most successful small businesses can pay a fair wage," said the California congressman.

Democratic lawmakers are pushing to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour through President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package.

President Joe Biden has already expressed doubt that the proposal will be included in his $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, but Democrats have drafted another proposal to obtain the first hike in minimum wage in over a decade.

Before taking office, Biden said that he wanted to act "boldly and urgently" to get the checks passed through Congress. But weeks have gone by since his inauguration and another stimulus bill has still not been passed.

The last time the U.S. raised its federal minimum wage was 2009 to its current level of $7.25, although many states have a higher rate.

"Are the prosecutors right when they claim that Trump was telling a big lie or in your judgment did Trump actually win the election?" Sanders asked.

"We also want to be mindful of the small businesses across our country that have been hit particularly hard this past year during an unprecedented pandemic," Democratic Senator Tom Carper said.

"There were vicious attacks against progressives, people who I have worked with, me personally," Sanders told Tanden during her confirmation hearing.

Varoufakis also thinks the Democrats will fragment over the coming years.

Representative Ilhan Omar said that the wage increase is supported by the "overwhelming majority of Americans, including in swing states."

It looks unlikely that the legislation to increase the minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 will pass into law, after centrist Democrats expressed skepticism at the measure.

President Joe Biden's proposed plan for the third round of stimulus checks is facing some opposition, including from Senator Bernie Sanders, who has voiced his displeasure on social media.

The Senate Budget Committee chairman said Democrats would not win 10 GOP votes for the measure.

"Last I heard, someone making $55,000 a year is not 'rich,'" Senator Bernie Sanders tweeted.

Democrats are one step closer to passing the COVID-19 relief package, which includes $1,400 checks for all Americans earning below $50,000 a year.

"Today marks the beginning of a new era in our foreign policy," Representative Ro Khanna said.

Ari Rabin-Havt, who helped run the senator's 2020 presidential campaign, has backed the New York congresswoman's video about the events of January 6.

If the increase is successful, it would mark the first increase in the federal minimum wage in 12 years.

"The minimum wage hike, I do not believe, will fit in there at all," Democratic Senator Joe Manchin said.

A group of 10 Republicans want a bipartisan stimulus bill less than a third the size of what President Joe Biden has put forward.