First of all: Fuck Joe Biden, Fuck the Democrats, Fuck the Republicans. Long live labor.
TL;DR – 36 Republicans 44 Democrats and Joe Biden all blocked a union's right to strike. Anybody expressing gratitude to Biden and the Democrats for “saving the economy” or “serving the American people” by doing this… has to thank at least 16~ senate Republicans for the same thing.
Why does the fact that 36 senate republicans voted with 44 senate democrats to deliver the anti-striking legislation to Biden matter? Well my friends I invite you to review some of the conversations we've been having in the comments. Have you seen comments like this?
They had to block the strike! Rail corporations wanted the strike to happen because it would have justified them running even leaner operations!
Or this one?
The economy would have been ruined! Biden and the Democrats have saved the American people. I am immensely grateful to them.
Or how about
If the strike had proceeded that would have handed the next presidency to the Republicans.
That last one is particularly interesting. If the strike had proceeded, which would have happened if Republican senators had not voted for it, Republicans would have won the next presidency? That would mean 36 Senate Republicans robbed themselves of an opportunity to gain the next presidency. Does that sound like the Republican party you know? Does it sound like the Republican party anybody defending Biden does? How about Republican voters?
Remember, this is happening while the Federal Reserve keeps raising interest rates and basically saying they want to break the will of labor. Situations where rich senators in both parties have to expose their unspoken alliances has the potential to break the spell of their power. A bipartisian 80 votes in favor of blocking a strike shows these people for who they are.
You might be wondering at this point why they didn't just go with 51. Two reasons: First, there were 15 votes against blocking the strike. Two you might recognize: Warren and Sanders. Sanders was threatening to block, not just vote against, the legislation. The second reason is that any member of the senate can invoke the filibuster which Sanders made clear he planned to do. So it needed at least 60 votes to pass.
Why did they over vote by 20? Chaos. This legislation was rushed so there wasn't time to be surgical about this. While some political alliances can be counted on, nobody really knew for sure how many Democrat senators (or even Republican senators) were going to vote for this. Sure, everybody probably knew Sanders and Warren were out. And Rubio, regardless of his motives, said he was going to oppose it so that's three. But most other senators play their politics really close to the chest. The remaining corrupt and anti-union Democrat senators and anti-union Republicans couldn't take any chances.
So the next time someone expresses their gratitude to Biden and the Democrats for averting the strike and thereby “saving the economy” and “serving the American people” ask them if they've expressed that same gratitude to 36 Republican senators. My experience? They run away.
Source: https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1172/vote_117_2_00372.htm#position