 So last Friday, President Joe Biden decided to illegally and unconstitutionally bomb Syria. And we also learned that he is giving up on the $15 an hour minimum wage, yeah. Because you know, his hands are tied. He can't do anything. The unelected Senate parliamentarian, who serves as an advisory role, said you can't pass the $15 an hour minimum wage using budget reconciliation, you need 60 votes. So the most powerful person in our government said, you know what? My hands are now tied. The Senate parliamentarian spoke, and I can't do anything, except you actually can. The Senate parliamentarian can easily be overrided by the vice president, Kamala Harris. That would take 50 votes. It's pretty easy. So it seems to me like even though you could get the 50 votes needed to secure a minimum wage increase using budget reconciliation, you're choosing to unilaterally disarm when you still have a reason to fight. However, when it comes to near attendant, when it is abundantly clear that you do not have 50 votes, well, you're still committed to quote unquote fighting your guts out for her. So it seems to me like the Biden administration's priorities are as backwards. You care more about confirming near attendant a corporate Democrat than giving millions of Americans a minimum wage increase. Now it's almost like we should be asking the Biden administration why it seems as if they're prioritizing an appointment over a wage increase for their constituents who they promised they passed a minimum wage form. And thankfully, somebody did ask this question to White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, and you're going to see that she had no good answer because there really is no good answer. Like their position here is indefensible. And you're going to see her struggle to explain away their choice to move away from the minimum wage. Take a look. You said that he respects that decision, but progressives don't understand this. In some respect, they're like, why not fight for this? So why is the White House not more aggressively challenging that and sending the vice president to try and potentially overrule that with the vote? Well, the decision for the vice president to vote to overrule or to take a step to overrule is not a simple decision. It would also require 50 votes. As you know, it's not a one-step decision. And the president and the vice president both respect the history of the Senate. They are both formally served in the Senate. And that's not an action we intend to take. But the president is committed to raising the minimum wage, to working to determine the best vehicle forward to doing that. That's why he put it in the package. He wants it to be raised to $15 an hour. And he will be in touch with leaders from all wings of the party in determining the best path forward for that. Go ahead, Jeff. The follow-up to Jeff's question, which strikes me, the White House doesn't have 50 votes to confirm Nira Tandon as OMB director. And yet, we've heard from the White House chief of staff say that the White House is going to fight their guts out, fight our guts out, was the praise he used to get her confirmed. So why push for that and not push as hard, one could say, for raising the minimum wage, you could make the argument that the American people stand to benefit more from a higher wage than they would from a chosen OMB director. Well, I think that's mixing a few things kind of irresponsibly. If I'm just being totally honest, I would say on the minimum wage, the president included a raise of the minimum wage in his package because he felt strongly that it's long overdue, that men and women working hard, trying to make ends meet, shouldn't be living at the poverty level. That's why he put it in his package. There is a process that goes through, a parliamentary process, when it's a reconciliation bill, as you know, but for people who haven't been following all the nitty gritty of this, because it's a budgetary bill. That's why it went through the process. And, you know, again, I would send you to talk to leaders in Congress to see if they have the 50 votes necessary. But regardless, the president, the vice president, have made the decision they're not going to move forward with that step. But also it's not a simple process. It requires two steps. As it relates to Neera Tanden, she is somebody who has decades of experience. She is qualified. She is prepared to lead the budget team. And we're continuing, of course, to fight for the confirmation of every nominee that the president puts forward. We'll see if we have 50 votes. That's part of the journey. That's part of democracy in action. That was genuinely cringe-worthy. That was genuinely cringe-worthy. Okay, understand why what she's saying is nonsensical. She says that if the Biden administration chose to overrule what the Senate parliamentarian says, that would require 50 votes. And it's not a simple decision, except she also says that Biden is committed to raising the minimum wage. Okay. Well, you kind of are disproving that that's actually the case, because if it's going to take 50 votes to override the Senate parliamentarian, well, if you're truly committed, isn't that the easier route to go? Because if you don't override the Senate parliamentarian, then that will mean you're going to have to get 60 votes to increase the minimum wage. Whereas if you override the Senate parliamentarian, you need 50 votes and Kamala Harris could do just that, using her role as vice president. So if you're committed to actually passing the minimum wage increase that you said you were multiple times throughout the course of your campaign, then you don't say, well, you know what we have to do with the Senate parliamentarian says and find 60 votes. No, you pass it getting 50 votes. Like she makes it seem like getting 50 votes to override the Senate parliamentarian is less possible than finding 60 votes to pass the minimum wage increase. This is delusional. It's, it's absurd. It's absolutely absurd. And I love what that second reporter who asked the follow up said there, why push for near attendance confirmation and not push us hard for raising the minimum wage? Don't the American people stand to benefit more from the minimum wage than a chosen OMB director? That was such a great question. That reporter, whoever that individual is, is doing a great job. Kudos to that person. Yeah, that's precisely it. And I love how Jen Psaki's response was, oh, well, I think that that's mixing a few things kind of irresponsibly. Is it irresponsible, though, or is it more inconvenient because you don't have a good answer to that? You know, again, I would I would send you to talk to leaders in Congress to see if they have the 50 votes necessary. But regardless, the president, the vice president have made the decision they're not going to move forward with that step. But as it relates to near attendant, we'll see if we have 50 votes. That's part of the journey. That's part of democracy in action. Even though it's very clear Biden does not have the 50 votes needed to get near attendant confirmed. He's not going to withdraw. They're going to fight their little hearts out for her. But when it comes to the minimum wage, well, you know, we just we can't pass it using budget reconciliation. So, you know, we have to walk away from it at this moment, but we're still going to fight. We promise you, even though now when we have a real opportunity to pass it, we're walking away, but we're still going to fight. Please believe us. I mean, this is why people don't trust Democrats because their word is shit. Now, I can't play this video, but Dem Watchdog on Twitter, they put together a fantastic compilation where they showcase all of the times that Joe Biden promised that he would increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour on the campaign trail. And now immediately he is already walking back that promise. You see, it's not that Joe Biden's hands are tied here and that he has no route to getting this done. If he truly wants it done, it's that he probably doesn't actually want to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Now, I'm speculating about his motives here, but he can prove me wrong by fighting for this. It seems like the minute he found an out, a convenient excuse, he chose to take it because he doesn't actually want to raise the minimum wage. But I want to read an article by David Sirota that he wrote for The Daily Poster titled Stop Pretending Biden is a powerless bystander because this narrative is absolute horseshit. Now, in this article, David Sirota explains how presidents can use the power that they have to affect the legislative process in a really meaningful way. And he cites Lyndon Johnson's fight for Medicare as an example. Quote, in 1964, Johnson was trying to pass Medicare, but two conservative Democratic senators threatened to take down the entire legislation over a tax issue. Sound familiar? In a story flagged by economist Stephanie Kelton, the New York Times noted that months before that legislation passed, opponents proposed a large and popular increase in social security benefits and taxes, which would have made passage of new Medicare taxes almost impossible. At the last minute, Senators George Smathers of Florida and Russell Long of Louisiana, both Democrats, but Medicare opponents, switched and voted to save Medicare. Johnson told me to Senator Smathers explained the pivotal story was recounted in more detail in The Heart of Power by Harvard University's David Blumenthal, a former Obama administration official and Brown University's James Monroe. They write Johnson knew there was an indispensable role that only he could play. He could best publicize the idea, build support, jawbone interest groups into line and organize and lobby the Congressional Coalition. When reporters asked Senator George Smathers why he had switched his vote and salvaged the administration's Medicare proposal in 1964, he responded simply, Lyndon told me to presidents win complicated reforms by doing what the office of the presidency is uniquely designed for publicizing and persuading. There is, of course, a danger at the other extreme that of the disengaged executive. The president chooses his analysts, gives them directions and decides when the debate is over. The staff always knows when the boss has lost interest and the issue, no matter how well staffed, is probably doomed. So the moral of the story is that whether or not the minimum wage hike lives or dies will hinge entirely on Joe Biden and Joe Biden alone. He is the president of the United States. He can use his influence. He could use his bully pulpit to get this accomplished if he actually is willing to fight for it. But the fact that he's showing his willingness to cave that tells us he doesn't want to fight for it. It's his decision to unilaterally disarm and to back down. Now, it also makes him look terrible because David Sirota makes the fantastic point that Joe Biden ran on talking about his experience, his ability to build coalitions in government and even reach across the aisle to get it done. So if you can't get the corporate Democrats that you need on board, maybe find some Republicans. I mean, that's very unlikely. But at a minimum, you can at least persuade Kirsten Sinema and Joe Manchin. Can you not? You're the president of the United States. You have so many tools at your disposal. But we're supposed to believe that because the Senate parliamentarian told you you can't pass this using budget reconciliation, that that's it. Procedure is stopping you from getting this done. Do you think that the American people are going to accept that as a plausible excuse? They're not. They're going to blame you and you are going to get wiped out in 2022 and 2024 because the people who came out to vote for you because you promised them things like a minimum wage increase, they're not going to return and Democrats are going to prove to the elector at once again, that their word is shit. So don't allow the spinsters and Democratic Party loyalists and media to pretend as if Joe Biden did everything he could here because that is a lie. If they want to get this done using budget reconciliation, they can. Kamala Harris can override the Senate parliamentarian and Joe Biden can use his influence as president to get individuals like Joe Manchin and Kirsten Sinema on board if he truly wants to fight for this. But the fact that they're already showing you that they don't want to fight. That's not because of circumstances. That's because of Joe Biden.