Minimum Wage: A Matter of Politics for Dems, Not Compassion

Minimum-Wage Increase Fails
Rate Has Stayed Same for 9 Years

By Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 22, 2006; Page D02

The Senate yesterday rejected a Democratic plan to boost the minimum wage for the first time in nearly a decade, but Democrats vowed to campaign on the issue this fall to highlight their differences with the Republican majority.

The measure, offered as an amendment to an unrelated defense bill by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), would have raised the minimum wage to $7.25 per hour from the current $5.15, where it has remained for nine years. The 52 to 46 vote was eight short of the 60 required to meet a procedural requirement and pass the measure.

We have had debates on gay marriage, we have debates on flag burning, and we have debates on estate tax," Kennedy said. "We're saying that it's time we take action to increase the minimum wage."

Democrats noted that the minimum wage has not been adjusted for inflation in nine years, despite soaring gasoline and energy prices and rising housing costs. Workers receiving the current minimum wage earn only $10,700 a year, "almost $6,000 below the poverty line for a family of three," Kennedy said.

The Post is again letting its slip show. Yes, the huge 41% increase in the minimum wage as proposed by Ted "the Lady Killer" Kennedy was voted down, largely along party lines, by the Republican majority, but when confronted by the Zeni alternative which was a more modest 21% increase with some compensatory offsets for the small businesses that would have to bear the brunt of the increase, one that should and would have passed, the Democrats voted unanimously against it. That's right not one of those "compassionate" Democrat was willing to vote to give those workers a raise. Why? Because the Democrats don't want to help minimum wage earners, they want to be able to use this issue to bash the Republicans in the upcoming elections.

The second vote, on the Enzi proposal, was 45 yea and 53 nay. This reflects the true nature of Democrat compassion. If just 15 Democrats had been willing to break with their party orders and voted for relief for the lowest wage earners in America, the minimum wage would be on its way to being law.

Democrats have an all or nothing at all attitude. They blame the President and the Republicans for not working in a bipartisan way, yet here is another example of the Democrats refusing to compromise in any way. They are the whiney spoiled brats in Congress. Would it not have been wiser and more compassionate for them to vote for the compromise offered by Senator Enzi, providing some relief for the poor wage earner over the next year and then return to the issue in a year or so? Instead, they took the political option so that those same wage earners would continue to suffer. What about it Teddy? Don't these people matter to you?

Of Course not, it's all about politics. What a jerk!

Full Story: Democrat "Compassion" is a Lie

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