[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] - Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema
...senior senator from Arizona since 2019 and the Senate’s first open bisexual. Though originally a member of the Green Party and a social worker, she is now considered a moderate centrist — for a Democrat, anyway... announced she will vote against a $15 minimum wage if it's included in the COVID relief plan
- Her decision effectively kills Democrats hopes of passing the controversial measure with a simple majority vote
...as it stands, at any rate. No doubt she will recomsider if they take out that provision...
- 'What's important is whether or not it's directly related to short-term Covid relief. And if it's not, then I am not going to support it in this legislation,' she said
- 'The minimum wage provision is not appropriate for the reconciliation process. It is not a budget item. And it shouldn't be in there,' Sinema told Politico
- Democrats hoped to pass the measure as part of President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID relief plan
- That would allow them to get it through the Senate via reconciliation - a process that lets them avoid a GOP filibuster
- Republicans oppose wage hike, claiming it hurts small businesses
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