Well yeah, but that wouldn't really hurt the Republicans that vote against it. The ones that vote for it will receive MORE voters (like Collins), but the ones that vote against it know that it won't hurt their re-electability. Republicans, generally speaking, would prefer to focus on getting people into higher paying jobs through training/education/apprenticeships and solve the poverty issue that way rather than increasing the pay for someone to put cheese slices on burgers or take trash out. Ideally, EVERYONE works their way into a high-demand career that pays well because what they are producing with their work is highly valuable to society, and ideally we can automate, as much as possible, simple tasks with machinery. Then we won't even need minimum wage to be a certain amount because everyone will be making good money except for high school students who haven't figured out what profitable path to take yet (but their parents will ideally make good money so that will just be spending money).

No major party wants poverty, but there is a huge difference in getting everyone to work in areas that advance our nation and the economy and make good money from that production then there is in forcing people to make good money even though what they produce is not that valuable to economic growth.

What are the policies that the GOP have put into place to get people into higher paying jobs through training/education or apprenticeships.  If I actually seen a program or push to help people who are making minimum wage be able to advance through something along those lines I would be 100% behind that.  People who are making minimum wage probably are not finding themselves with a whole lot of case and some not a whole lot of time from putting cloths, food and utilities first.  I definitely agree there are a lot of trades that can pay way better than minimum wage, opportunity is the key.

As for someone flipping a bugger, taking out the trash or putting cheese on a burger, we as tax payers are still paying no matter how you see it.  If the job does not pay enough to feed their family or themselves because the pay is below poverty level, then food stamps and other assistance is still required.  The thing is those jobs still need people to work them and if that is the case, they also need to pay a wage above the poverty level.  The problem with the US is that is has become to profit centric that paying the absolute lowest amount is considered smart business.  If you can get away with paying 7 bucks an hour even if the people you employ cannot live off of that, well its their problem.  Its this mentality that keeps the status quo and the poverty level in the US exactly where its at.

I personally do not believe upping the Minimum wage is a solution but instead just one of many solutions that are needed to raise US citizens from Poverty.  I definitely like a plan that helps get people into training/education and apprenticeships to better jobs.  I believe something along those lines should also be a focus.  In the end, the culture of the US is really the biggest problem and until that change well those will just be half measures.

I reject the notion that there are jobs being paid minimum wage that not valuable to economic growth.  Businesses don't hire people as charity, it is because they require the labor to run there business.  Without those workers doing there jobs the economy would crash.  On the other hands there is plenty of evidence that businesses would survive just fine paying there workers who currently making minimum wage a bit more or if necessary a small increase in products costs that not going to effect demand enough to crash the business.

Also there never going to be enough high paying jobs for everyone and generally speaking when you replace low paying job with high paying job you replacing many low paying jobs with a few high paying jobs.  

Plus high paying job are high paying because that what require to get qualify people to do those job.  If the number of people capable of doing the job is way higher then the demand the salary going to go down.  You never going to get into a place where every job pays a living wage (and there enough jobs for everyone) without government involvement.  If you not going to require businesses to pay a living wage then the only other alternative is to use tax payers dollars on people who cant afford to live on there wages.  Otherwise there always going to be a percent of people living in poverty.  

^As a counter to the GOP fantasy that everyone should be in high paying jobs this is actually pretty good 

So, with the noise of the past week all eyes have been on Manchin. He got slots on most of the major news networks, and even Republican outlets are making him out to be the voice of reason within the Democratic party. They want to use him to divide the party so they don't have to get their hands dirty.

And what does he do with that attention and praise? He praises the Covid relief bill up and down and moves on to advocating for changing the filibuster to a talking filibuster. While not as strong as removing the filibuster, talking filibusters end and it hurts a lot more when you have to talk for 24 hours about how you don't like a popular bill. This is a huge development and Joe Manchin largely just served it up as the one the Republicans made out to be the voice of reason.

I don't like to speculate too much on political strategy, because it is such a shit show most of the time, but if Joe Manchin's strategy was to make himself out to be one true moderate just to usher in filibuster reform, it just might work...

Often political analyst's on mainstream media just talk to people in power and the wealthy about their views/opinions, but every now and then they go out in the wild and ask the average person, you then get some on the ground feedback on what political decisions made back in Washington mean to them, can be eye opening

The Dems need to actually fight for change this time or it's curtains 

It's always good to counter the bad faith, shameless lies that are spammed daily in this thread.

Biden's plan goes a very long way to boost income for the poorest and most needy. The child credit is going to cut child poverty in half, and give a very strong boost to low income families. 

If we're going to make bad faith arguments about Republicans being the same as Democrats, at least it is important to have facts and evidence rather than nonsensical videos.

The plan is not only good when compared to Trump's signature policy that overwhelmingly helped the 1% - it is a great plan on its own.

What lies are you talking about? Be very specific, we can always correct errors in good faith  

Just don't make stuff up just because you don't agree with a view, that's actually a form of lying in of itself 

When talking Dems being like Rep lite, its one particular group of Dems the "moderates"/"centrists", 8 Dem moderates voted against the $15 min wage to be included (2 from Delaware, both Biden's close friends), also other moderates are downplaying M4A, it was moderate Dems that pushed to have the unemployment income dropped from $400 to $300  

As far as the Relief package on it's own without the $15 min wage, it's a good package, but it's just very interesting how much the moderates have done to water down any additional befits, and should be called out on it, no lies.. 

Things are not always rainbows with the Dems, so don't always be offended, if people don't address those issues, and they might in time (I hope), the Dems due to the "moderates" risk taking a big step backwards in 2 years  

You still do not get it.  Votes still matter and when you have a huge bill like the relief bill, if you believed that everything proposed was going to get through without little push back, you were  deceiving yourself.  The problem is that you keep posting videos of every talking head that has an agenda this early within Biden Presidency when it has not even been 100 days, crying because every piece of legislature did not pass Congress which he doesn't actually have the power to accomplish. 

Moderate Dems are not going anywhere soon just like the GOP reps are also not going anywhere soon because American as a whole continue to vote them in office.  Because of that, Dems in general need to know what it takes to get their votes and Progressives better learn fast how to work with them or they get nothing.  What you fail to understand is that if you are the one making big changes, then you need to work way harder then the people who only want moderate change.  Progressives need to understand how to get things done instead of crying about every thing that could not get done because moderate Dems were not on board.

When you get things done, and it can be proven to do what you say it does, that is when you work from a position of strength.  The first step is getting thing done, if you can get 2 out of 5 of your issues done that is better than getting nothing.  When a vote comes around for the next thing you want, you are working from strength because data will show how effective your last items were.  

The reason I have a problem with Progressive in office today is that there is way to much bitching and whining and not enough strategy to get things done.  Do not create a bill that is basically a pie in the sky wish list of everything you want that never even gets to the Senate floor, that is stupid.  It never gets enough attention and it dies a fast death.  There is no way M4A gets to the Senate floor for a vote unless progressives work with moderate Dems and probably even Biden.  There is no way wage increase gets to the Senate floor without moderate Dems and Progressives out a comprehensive plan to get 10 more votes from the GOP.  There is definitely no way of the filibuster or change to it every gets done without moderate Dems so if Progressives really what the rules change, they better get to working on something all can agree on.  If all they are going to do is cry us a river of tears because they cannot get anything done well the blame is always going to be on them.  If their plan is to wait for the American people to vote those people out and put progressives in those seats well, I hope you are ready to be frustrated for a very long time.

I also have been watching the Manchin show for the last few days and I am sure getting a lot of pub on conservative media isn't really what the GOP really wanted since he is making statements that bring to light minimum wage increase and changes to the filibuster.  Should be interesting if this turns into something or just a one shot move and Manchin fades away.  I do believe that Biden plan on healthcare, 15 dollar minimum wage should be the focus within the house and Senate now while the issues are hot.  Start to dumb up support and get the GOP into denial mode so that its a nice campaign issue come up for 2022.  I actually do believe there are some GOP members who are ready to break away from the current course the party is going but not sure if there are 10 of them in the Senate.  Should be interesting to see if their is any real play to get GOP to vote on these 2 issues.