On February 1, 2007 the Senate voted overwhelmingly to increase the Federal Minimum wage to $7.25 per hour over the course of two years.
Tom Coburn (R) Oklahoma Warning about Minimum Wage Increases.
This bill is unfair to workers and, in many cases, it will be harmful to the very people it is supposedly designed to help. Most workers will experience a minimum-wage penalty rather than a minimum-wage benefit because of this bill," said Coburn. "This bill has far more to do with increasing the political capital of politicians in Washington than increasing real wages of low-income families
January 2007. Rush responds to Ted Kennedy’s comment on Increasing the Minimum Wage:
KENNEDY: Who's delaying? Who's opposing? Who's using every kind of parliamentary tactic known to every possibly parliamentarian to delay action on the increase in minimum wage! It lies right at the feet, right at the feet of the Republican leadership! Make no mistake about it. Make no mistake about it!
RUSH: That's exactly right -- and we are applauding it here, senator! What is he upset about? He's upset that there are tax breaks for small business in the minimum wage bill. There aren't such tax breaks in the House bill, but they have been added in the Senate because there is a cost to small business, and they simply want to get some tax breaks so as to be able to afford the increase in the minimum wage without having to fire anybody! Of course, we can't have tax cuts, and so Senator Kennedy is out there saying this a filibuster, filibuster, filibuster, by amendment, make no mistake about it! It's a filibuster by amendment! He this one continued.
KENNEDY: What do we tell them after five days: $200 billion more in tax cuts here; $35 billion more in tax cuts here; $8 billion more tax cuts for HSAs! How many more billions of dollars do we have to give you, Mr. Republican? How many more dollars do we have to give you to get an increase in the minimum wage?
RUSH: Ha-ha-ha! Whatever we can get, senator, because it's not your money, and you're not giving it to anybody! You are stealing it!
This is just a small representation of some of the debate that happened before the Minimum wage bill was approved. The concession in the Senate was that tax breaks would be given to small businesses to help them cope with their cost of just doing business and because of that concession, enough Republicans, including president Bush, went along with this bill.
Two things you should take away from this are that Republicans were right about what it would do to small business and that the Republicans DID work, in a bipartisan fashion to pass this bill. There was compromise. And the ONE area that Republicans tried to use to protect the small business owners is now under assault by the DEMOCRATS in Congress, namely the infamous Bush Tax Cuts.
How can you look at the economy today and not see whose fingerprints are all over the blueprint of the destruction of our economy? It is the Democrat Ideas that are killing us and in spite of efforts and compromise by Republicans, a Democrat victory is a huge defeat for Americans.
Bureau of Labor Statistics Chart
