After weeks of negotiating, arguing, and punditry, the Senate FINALLY voted 50-49 to approve Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill. The American Rescue Plan is undoubtedly a huge win for democrats and for America itself, but democrats were still forced to cave on several popular amendments. Most notable among them is the fight to increase the minimum wage to $15, which was rejected by West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin and Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema. Senator Bernie Sanders held a floor vote for the minimum wage increase, with saw 8 democratic senators voting against it.
Net worth of the 8 Democrats who just voted down $15 minimum wage:
Chris Coons: $10.13 million
Angus King: $9.49 million
Joe Manchin: $7.62 million
Tom Carper: $5.73 million
Jeanne Shaheen: $3.82 million
Jon Tester: $3.67 million
Maggie Hassan: $3.47 million
Krysten Sinema: N/A— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) March 5, 2021
It’s beyond frustrating that these wealthy democratic senators would vote against the most paltry of increases to the minimum wage, and even more odious that republicans won’t even consider it. But Sinema’s gleeful performance of voting the amendment down is a slap in the face to her over 800,000 constituents whose lives would be changed by a minimum wage increase. In the video, you can see Sinema giving an exaggerated thumbs down:
Did Sinema really have vote against a $15 minimum wage for 24 million people like this? pic.twitter.com/Jv0UXLKLHI
— Sawyer Hackett (@SawyerHackett) March 5, 2021
Sinema’s vote is all the more enraging considering she publicly supported raising the minimum wage years ago. What changed? Oh right, money and politics. Sigh. Twitter was quick to roast the Arizona senator for her ghoulish and deeply unprofessional behavior:
Show me you don’t care about Americans without saying you don’t care about Americans. @kyrstensinema pic.twitter.com/FzQSlFepqX
— Sari Beth Rosenberg (@saribethrose) March 6, 2021
Me:
Next Time,
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ)
Requests Money For Her
Campaign: pic.twitter.com/KWgfe5ZnU9— Ron *Thug* Hall (@RonHall46) March 6, 2021
Senator Sinema a little too happy for poverty wages to remain pic.twitter.com/ze2T2CGtML
— RootsAction (@Roots_Action) March 5, 2021
I knew Kyrsten Sinema in the mid-2000s. We were local Green antiwar elected officials. We’d meet up at conferences & laugh at shameless centrists. Here she is fucking curtsying while voting against raising the minimum wage. I’m convinced she’s a psychopath pic.twitter.com/2G40DXwfsO
— a$hok kumar (@broseph_stalin) March 6, 2021
The huge disappointment here is Kyrsten Sinema who grew up so poor, her family was homeless for years, squatting in an abandoned gas station. She was a social worker, belonged to the Green Party, has the lowest net worth of any senator, and is one of two out LGBTQ senators. Why?
— Victoria Brownworth #EndTheMisogynyFightFor15 (@VABVOX) March 6, 2021
But wait, it gets worse! Sinema brought a chocolate cake to the floor of the senate to celebrate keeping poor people poor. Sinema said the cake was for the senate floor staff who worked through the night, but the Marie Antoinette parallels were undeniable, and “Marie Antoinette” began trending on social media.
Sinema just walked into the Senate carrying a large chocolate cake
— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) March 5, 2021
Sinema was literally like let them eat cake. Amazing.
— Guy Hamilton-Smith (@G_Padraic) March 6, 2021
I am insane and zoomed in on another picture of her carrying and in the spirit of Edward R. Murrow-level journalism I'm humbled to announce in a parody of white feminism Krysten Sinema [sic] voted against a $15 living wage while carrying a giant Lululemon bag. pic.twitter.com/BCHVCbpvR2
— Bess Kalb (@bessbell) March 5, 2021
FACTS about minimum wage workers:
80% are adults (not teens) and 2/3rds are WOMEN.
No surprise that women of color are over-represented in that group.
Don’t ever let Kyrsten Sinema tell you she’s a feminist.
— Pam Keith, Esq. (@PamKeithFL) March 6, 2021
Krysten Sinema (a Democratic Senator) wrote a book about Rwandan genocide in 2015 and voted down a coronavirus relief bill and living wage increase in 2021.
If that's not white feminism, I don't know what is.
— jenn m. jackson (@JennMJacksonPhD) March 6, 2021
Sinema’s team have responded to the online outcry by trying to frame criticisms as a sexist attack. It’s not. “Commentary about a female senator’s body language, clothing, or physical demeanor does not belong in a serious media outlet,” said Sinema spokesperson Hannah Hurley. Because what’s more sexist: disenfranchising women by rejecting the fight for $15 or being called out for your own shitty behavior?
It’s Actually Feminism to Keep People In Poverty and Not Feminism to Make Fun of People Who Are Keeping People in Poverty Says Senator
— Sophia Benoit (@1followernodad) March 6, 2021
The “criticizing Kyrsten Sinema is sexist” discourse feels so exhausted. Even Sinema’s PR people don’t believe what they’re saying. The ultimate “heart isn’t in it” fight.
— Carlos Maza (@gaywonk) March 6, 2021
(via HuffPost, featured image: ALEX EDELMAN/AFP/Getty Images)
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