The Stingiest Stretch

By the time Congress gets back from its month-long vacation, they will be celebrating the ninth anniversary of the last time the minimum wage was increased: September 1, 1997.

To put things in perspective: When that happened, I was still a junior in high school, Tiger Woods had just won his first Masters, Titanic was the #1 movie, Ellen had just come out of the closet, and Dave Matthews Band was cool.

Yesterday, the Democrats rightfully blocked the latest attempt to raise the minimum wage-- a disgraceful shenanigan in which Republicans attached a massive estate tax cut to the same bill.

If the Republicans continue to play dirty tricks instead of offering relief to America's working people, they will go down as the stingiest bunch in American history. If they don't act by December 1, it will be the longest stretch without an increase since the minimum wage was enacted in 1938.

But why wait to see if these Scrooges will ruin Christmas again? Let's vote them out before they get the chance.

Comments (8)

1. Mr Graham-Felson, as I noted on Mr Grieder's article...

   NOW, the Republicans are on record SUPPORTING a Minimum Wage Hike....and the Dems are on record OPPOSING one.

   Talk of "8200 'winners' of the estate tax cut" and "Paris Hilton" or even "massive deficits", don't mean anything to the workers who ask "Where's my pay raise, Mr. Democrat?"

   Posted by Mask at 08/05/2006 @ 07:58am

2. How many people are actually going to be conned by the "Trifecta" of bundling two measures to consolidate a permanent aristocracy of wealth with a minimum wage increase that would cut the wages of some working Americans?

   Posted by BruceMcF at 08/05/2006 @ 5:53pm

3. Mr Graham-Felson, as I noted on Mr Grieder's article...

   NOW, the Republicans are on record SUPPORTING a Minimum Wage Hike....and the Dems are on record OPPOSING one.

   Talk of "8200 'winners' of the estate tax cut" and "Paris Hilton" or even "massive deficits", don't mean anything to the workers who ask "Where's my pay raise, Mr. Democrat?"

   Posted by MASK 08/05/2006 @ 07:58am | ignore this person

   Yes Mask, you've made this point several times in several places. However, I was just wondering...do you LIKE what the Republicans did? Do you admire them for concocting this hobsons choice for purely political purposes? Do you now vilify the Democrats involved...exactly as the Republicans intended?

   Because that's what it sounds like!

   Posted by Lillian at 08/05/2006 @ 7:33pm

4. Posted by LILLIAN 08/05/2006 @ 7:33pm | ignore this person

   No, LIL...as "Ash" says in "Alien", "I admire its purity".

   The Dems should have seen this coming MONTHS ago, and started a campaign to counter it...but they didn't. NOW they have to try to explain this fall why they "opposed a Minimum Wage hike just to hurt rich guys" to Joe Six-pack.

   If they had gotten ahead of the curve this spring and said "Watch for Repubs to use the MW to get more tax cuts" or "Watch the GOP link MW to some stupid legislation", it would have blunted it when it came.

   Now they play catch up....and sound like "class warriors" or policy wonks.

   Posted by Mask at 08/06/2006 @ 08:12am

5. Now they play catch up....and sound like "class warriors" or policy wonks.

   Posted by MASK 08/06/2006 @ 08:12am | ignore this person

   Interesting labels...which the Republicans may try to hang on them. Again I'm wondering what label you would hang on the Republicans. 'Admirable Purists'?

   Again, do you LIKE what they did? Do you think it's a great way to GOVERN? You seem to love to expend time and energy dissing the Democrats because "they should have seem this coming" but you waste not a word for the Republicans.

   As far as labels for the Republicans go (and a counter argument for what they've done) I kind of like the vein The Nation writers have come up with...let's try 'Political Blackmailers'. I think a very cogent and powerful point could be made to the voters using that label, with minimum wage workers as the hostages and 'tax cuts for the rich' as the ransom.

   Posted by Lillian at 08/06/2006 @ 2:27pm

6. Posted by LILLIAN 08/06/2006 @ 2:27pm | ignore this person

   Let me see if I can explain my "admiration" in some simple terms for you.

   A military strategist can "admire" the genius of Robert E. Lee....without supporting slavery or secession, LIL.

   Put it another way....why don't the Democrats have a "Karl Rove"? Dean? He opens his mouth and costs the Dems votes.

   This Min. Wage thing is a prime example of why the GOP has held Congress for a dozen years, and might just prove my prediction of a Dem House in the fall, wrong.

   Posted by Mask at 08/07/2006 @ 09:01am

7. Posted by MASK 08/07/2006 @ 09:01am | ignore this person

   And once again Mask you seem to love to expend time and energy dissing the Democrats because "they should have seem this coming" but you waste not a word for the Republicans. Without actually 'taking a stand' regarding what the Republicans did. It's exactly why I asked you several straight-forward questions...which you have yet to answer.

   Again I'm wondering what label you would hang on the Republicans. 'Admirable Purists'?

   Do you LIKE what they did?

   Do you think it's a great way to GOVERN?

   Posted by Lillian at 08/07/2006 @ 1:15pm

8. Posted by LILLIAN 08/07/2006 @ 1:15pm | ignore this person

   Oh, Lord, woman ...does it take a simplistic answer for you to GET it?

   Okay...here goes....NO...I DON'T LIKE HOW THEY'RE GOVERNING or WHAT THEY'RE DOING ON THE MINIMUM (note: when the topic came up before I said I SUPPORTED a modest hike in it, just not the vague and eternally GROWING "living wage" concept bandied about!)

   Clear? But that said, the GOP is running rings around the Dems....ON THEIR ISSUE. And all because they didn't have the brains to see it coming, or the nerve to say "Hell, let's call their bluff....raise the Minimum...and LATER, when we re-take Congress we'll show some balls and raise the estate tax BACK to where it was!"

   Okay?

   Posted by Mask at 08/07/2006 @ 3:14pm