Before taking office, President Joe Biden rolled out a proposed COVID-19 relief proposal that includes some long-held priorities of so-called “progressive” Democrats. One of those priorities is a $15 per hour minimum wage. Democrats hope to get enough Republican support in the Senate to advance the proposal through regular order, but they’re not ruling out the use of budget reconciliation to pass a COVID-19 bill if they fail to get many Republicans on board.

From a so-called “economic miracle” to a human rights disaster, Venezuela has followed in the footsteps of literally every single socialist or communist country ever with its country in complete collapse. Crime is on the rise, the people are starving, protests are going all throughout the country, and unconfirmed rumors are coming out that President Nicolas Maduro is considering leaving.

People have a bizarre way of deflecting criticism. In some cases, when they hear something that questions their worldview, they will go so far as to pretend it does not exist. At the moment, that is happening right now in Seattle.

For the second time this year, a city has found that there are no quick fixes to addressing poverty and raising wages. Recently, the city of Seattle funded a study on the impact its minimum wage increase was having and concluded that it was having a negative impact on the city’s economy. As is surprising to no one who has been paying attention to the effects of the minimum wage over the past few years, it has reduced employment, economic growth, and works hours.

On Friday, March 24, Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh vetoed a new $15 minimum wage that would have been implemented by 2022. This makes passing the measure’s future in serious doubt since an override of the mayor’s veto requires 12 out of 15 city council members to vote against and already several who voted for the measure have decided not to support an override.