Dear fellow MoveOn member,
On Friday night, the House passed President Joe Biden's sweeping COVID relief bill with a $15-an-hour minimum wage—which would be a game-changer to tens of millions of severely underpaid workers in the richest country on earth—but now the Senate is on the verge of killing the minimum wage increase?!1
Democrats have the majority, and it's time for them to use it. Democrats must wield their power—and that means getting rid of the filibuster. Fast.
The filibuster is an archaic Senate rule that requires a 60-vote supermajority to pass legislation. In its current form, it's rooted in the Jim Crow era, when senators from Southern states used it to block civil rights legislation.2
It takes only a simple majority to change a Senate rule. But conservative Democratic Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona want to keep this Jim Crow-era relic in place.3 Enough is enough.
That's why my friends at MoveOn plan to turn up the heat on Sens. Manchin and Sinema by buying full-page ads in their hometown newspapers, launching polls showing the popularity of the $15 minimum wage and other urgent legislation, running a grassroots text messaging campaign to flood the senators with phone calls from their constituents, and more. But they can't do it without your support.
Will you chip in $5 a month to help MoveOn turn up the heat and keep it up for as long as is needed to convince Senate Democrats to stop wasting their time negotiating with Mitch McConnell and immediately end the filibuster?
No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
The filibuster threatens any hope of safeguarding our democracy and ushering in transformational change, starting with passing the $15-an-hour minimum wage.
Green New Deal? Forget about it.
Immigration reform? Dead on arrival.
The John Lewis Voting Rights Act? Nope.
Legislation to combat Big Money in politics? When pigs fly.
Mar, let's be clear: This is a fight for the soul of the Democratic Party. And none of us can remain on the sidelines. That's why I have an urgent request:
Will you join me and chip in $5 a month to MoveOn right now to help turn up the heat and get rid of the filibuster? Whether it's flooding Senate offices with calls, launching hard-hitting ads, or something else, MoveOn will do whatever it takes to get the job done.
No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
Think about this: A $15-an-hour minimum wage would lift nearly 1 million people out of poverty and increase pay for a stunning 21% of U.S. workers.4,5
If worker compensation had kept pace with productivity gains, the current minimum wage would be more than $24 an hour.6
The current federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour is simply unconscionable.
A $15-an-hour minimum wage would help all workers, particularly Black workers and other workers of color, and especially women of color workers, who make up a disproportionate share of our lowest-wage workers.7
As a former labor secretary, I could quote economic statistics to you all day long (no, really, I could). But we all know that this isn't about economics. It's about politics.
Sen. Manchin, Sen. Sinema, and other wavering Democrats need to hear from their constituents that they support getting rid of the filibuster, so we can raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour and pass transformative policies to address the multiple crises our country faces. Only then will these senators come around.
MoveOn's millions of members nationwide—including impressive numbers even in red states like West Virginia—give MoveOn a unique ability in the progressive movement to mobilize grassroots pressure on Sen. Manchin and others like him. Your donation will enable MoveOn to amplify the voices of these senators' constituents, help commission polling, and make sure that these senators know that getting rid of the filibuster is not only good policy but also good politics.
This is simple: The filibuster is racist. It's anti-democratic. And it has to go. Now.
Democrats in Congress are at a crossroads. Your voice is essential right now.
Please, chip in $5 a month, or whatever you can afford, to convince Democrats in the Senate to end the filibuster and ensure that Mitch McConnell doesn't get to block critical legislation.
No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
Thanks for all you do.
–Robert Reich
Sources:
1. "House Passes $1.9 Trillion Stimulus as Democrats Work to Salvage Wage Raise," The New York Times, February 26, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/150187?t=8&akid=291252%2E10220574%2EDcqs9f
2. "The Case Against the Filibuster," Brennan Center for Justice, October 20, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/150154?t=10&akid=291252%2E10220574%2EDcqs9f
3. "Opinion: Can Democrats exercise a mini-nuclear option against McConnell?" The Washington Post, January 25, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/150188?t=12&akid=291252%2E10220574%2EDcqs9f
4. "Raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour would lift 900,000 people out of poverty while adding $54 billion to the deficit, CBO report finds," Insider, February 8, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/150120?t=14&akid=291252%2E10220574%2EDcqs9f
5. "Why the U.S. needs a $15 minimum wage," Economic Policy Institute, January 26, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/150121?t=16&akid=291252%2E10220574%2EDcqs9f
6. "This is What Minimum Wage Would Be If It Kept Pace with Productivity," Center for Economic and Policy Research, January 21, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/150189?t=18&akid=291252%2E10220574%2EDcqs9f
7. "Why the U.S. needs a $15 minimum wage," Economic Policy Institute, January 26, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/150121?t=20&akid=291252%2E10220574%2EDcqs9f
Want to support MoveOn's work? With our nation ravaged by the pandemic and the cruelty and incompetence of the Trump administration, we need to take bold action to contain the spread of the virus, speed up the delivery of vaccines, and deliver real economic relief to families across the country. MoveOn is prepared to launch a massive, nationwide campaign to ensure Congress acts swiftly to deliver more emergency checks, extend unemployment benefits, ramp up our nation's vaccination program, and more. But MoveOn needs your help.
Will you chip in to MoveOn's campaign to ensure Congress acts boldly to overcome the pandemic and build back our economy?
No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
Contributions to MoveOn Civic Action are not tax-deductible for income tax purposes. This email was sent to Mar Alfaro on February 28, 2021. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. MoveOn's privacy policy was recently updated. To read our new privacy policy, click here. To remove yourself from this list, click here.
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