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**JANUARY 19, 2021**

Meyerson on TAP

Let Republicans Be Republicans!

The tactical debate over whether President Biden and congressional
Democrats should try to win Republican votes to enact his $1.9 trillion
emergency stimulus package (which would require 60 Senate votes to pass)
or try instead to pass it directly through budget reconciliation (which
would require only 51 Senate votes) isn't really tactical at all.
It's strategic.

The strategic question it raises is whether the Democrats should allow
the Republicans to kill measures that are both necessary and popular
before the Democrats then resort to trying to pass such measures with
only 51 votes (which they can do once through budget reconciliation, or
more than once through suspension of the 60-vote cloture requirement for
individual pieces of legislation-a suspension that also requires just
51 votes).

My belief is that on matters other than budget reconciliation, they
won't even amass the 51 votes to suspend the supermajority cloture
requirement unless they subject their bills to the 60-vote hurdle first.
It will be only through demonstrated McConnell-esque obstruction that
they may be able to convince their more conservative Democratic
colleagues, like West Virginia's Joe Manchin, to agree to suspend the
filibuster on particular necessary pieces of legislation. And if Manchin
& Co. (which includes centrist Democratic senators like Colorado's
John Hickenlooper and Montana's Jon Tester) agree to suspend it on
several bills, maybe they can be brought around to deep-six the 60-vote
rule altogether, in deference as well to the obscure doctrine of
majority rule.

If, as I suspect, not enough Republicans vote for the Biden stimulus and
the Democrats push it through in their budget reconciliation bill, how
will that affect its provision to raise the minimum wage to $15? The
conventional wisdom is that the provision isn't really budgetary and
thus can't be part of the bill. That matter will be adjudicated by the
House and Senate parliamentarians, who I presume will be the appointees
of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, respectively. I hope those
parliamentary sages consider two arguments in favor of its inclusion:
First, that a wage hike is just as stimulative to a badly damaged
economy as the federal government's direct provision of funds; and
second, that raising wages will directly affect federal budgets by
increasing tax revenues and reducing the number of poor Americans who
must rely on such federal programs as food stamps and Medicaid.

But, to return to my initial point on strategy, I'm all in favor of
letting Republicans vote down bills that ensure at least rudimentary
safeguards and decent living standards before the Democrats turn to the
51-vote route. Letting Republicans define themselves with memorable
clarity is the least we can do for them.

~ HAROLD MEYERSON

Follow Harold Meyerson on Twitter

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2021. BY DAVID DAYEN

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