There won’t be a $15 per hour minimum wage, or medicare-for-all, or free college tuition, or forgiving student loan debt during Joe Biden’s presidency. The reason is simply that Biden does not believe in and support these policies.

What was probably our best chance at getting a $15 per hour minimum wage some time before the climate change apocalypse likely evaporated last Saturday, March 6 when the Democrat-controlled Senate passed the COVID-19 relief bill without the minimum wage raising clause approved by the House of Representatives.

The loss of the wildly popular increase to the minimum wage has caused an uproar among the Democratic party’s progressive wing. Conservative-Dem scapegoats like Senators Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema have already appeared, but the bottom line is that Biden is the one who wields the power of the presidency and he is to blame for this failure.

Now $1.9 trillion in relief is nothing to scoff at, but this was not the transformative piece of legislation that the American people needed. This was not a moment where Democrats seized the opportunity to advance their party platform. This legislation is, at best, a band-aid on the gushing bullet wound that COVID-19 has created in the U.S., a stop-gap half-measure of what it’s going to take to get people back on their feet.

Biden ran his campaign promising that he would deliver on $15 an hour minimum. Now with Democrats in complete control of the presidency and congress, the Dems are full of excuses as to why he can’t deliver the promise.

When it comes to the minimum wage, Biden won’t rally senate Dems to eliminate the filibuster. He wouldn’t instruct Vice President Kamala Harris to overrule the Senate Parliamentarian. God knows he wouldn’t lift a finger to get Senate Dems in line before this COVID-19 relief bill. Hell, he started giving up on $15 per hour before the fight even started. It’s been a disaster.

The Democrats wield power like Phoebe Bridgers wields the guitar she’s trying to smash. It’s pitiful, just maddening to behold. While millions of Americans die in poverty and misery, Biden just keeps dangling the carrot of progress in front of Democratic voters. 

And I cannot stress that point enough — the cost of our politicians continuing to drag their feet on progress is American lives. Studies show that a $15 an hour minimum wage increase would lift millions of people out of poverty, and still nothing seems to inspire urgency from our politicians.

The fact is that Joe Biden is not a leader, he’s certainly not a fighter for the middle class and working class Americans. I don’t care what he says that he’ll do and you shouldn’t either until he actually starts delivering on his major promises. As of right now Biden is a liar and a phony.

It’s well documented that the man has been on the wrong side of dozens of major issues since he’s been in power. Whether it’s the Crime Bill, or the Iraq war or segregation on buses, Biden just never seems to be able to get it right. And guess what? People knew that. It’s why they didn’t vote for him in the Democratic primary until Barack Obama intervened. It’s why going into November’s election the enthusiasm for his candidacy was so loathsome.

What’s worse is that like so many of our rancid political leaders, Biden has never faced any serious repercussions for his shortcomings. The man has thrived for decades in the hierarchy of our broken two-party system without ever being held accountable.

Now, after this abhorrent failure on $15 per hour minimum wage, Biden and the Dems are already being let off the hook. The mainstream media is already running puff pieces about how great and transformative the COVID-19 relief bill is. 

This process, ladies and gentlemen, is known as manufacturing consent. It’s one of the go-to instruments in the tool-kit of the establishment political corporate media apparatus that continually operates to control the public narrative and stifle progress for the American people.

It is this corrupt establishment that has delivered to us a federal government that has unlimited amounts of money for wars abroad, for corporate bailouts and for tax cuts for many of the wealthiest individuals in the world — yet only has means-tested watered-down table scraps for the American citizens that it is supposed to represent.

The current state of affairs in this country is unacceptable, and if the American people don’t hold political class accountable no one else is going to. Things won’t change without a serious push from the majority of Americans.

If this once-in-a-century COVID-19 crisis wasn’t enough to force our government to recognize the humanity of the American people and lend a firm helping hand to the most vulnerable people struggling in this country, then there won’t ever be circumstances where those in control yield their wealth and power in service of the greater good of our nation.

We must recognize this and commit boldly to radically changing the way our government operates. Make no mistake, Biden is not a transformative leader. No more good faith for his lies and inaction. I’m fed up.