Senate Doesn't Pass Wage Bill, Estate Tax

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/08/04/MNGIDKB4Q21.DTL

This is an article about the failure of Congress to pass a bill requiring an increase in the federal minimum wage. It discusses the trade-offs made between an estate tax bill and the minimum wage bill, neither of which passed.

I spoke in an earlier entry about efforts to lump the minimum wage demands with other, seemingly dry economic topics, and that is precisely what occurred with this attempted trifecta bill, which tried to offer something to satisfy everyone. It called for a Republican-backed cut in estate taxes for the wealthiest families, the minimum wage increase, and business tax cuts that appealed to both sides.

While Republicans may have been willing to allow an increase in the minimum wage, Democrats couldn't let the proposed taxes happen and saddle lower-class Americans with debt just as their increased wages attempt to take them out of it. The article focuses on the mid-term elections, and Republicans being more open to a wage increase as a means of garnering public support for their campaigns.

This all reminds me so much of the conversations we have in class about spin and public image. This issue got especially hot prior to the elections. Apparently, this bill featured a host of specific tax breaks aimed at specific senators in order to gain their vote. Republicans didn't want to be vulnerable to criticism about treatment of the poor, but they also didn't want to concede without getting something in return. They tried to make this bill look like something that benefited poor people, when the truth is the taxes they were hoping for would benefit the richest people in the country more so than the wage provision would benefit the poor.

I find it so funny that this bill is referred to as a "package" in the article--it goes to show that politics can be largely about compromise, one branch or party needing to barter with votes and laws in order to achieve success in any one area. It is hard to accomplish policy that responds solely to public opinion because the partisan conflicts get in the way and policies end up grouped together as part of a package deal.