U.S. Senate Dems Kill Minimum Wage Increase

The proposal was to increase the minimum wage to $7.15 an hour and to raise the amount exempt from estate taxes from two to five million dollars. In the end, the Democrats desire to stick it to the rich outweighed their desire to help the working poor. They were not going to vote for a minimum wage increase if it meant any rich person got a tax break, even if they were dead!

Actually, raising the estate tax limits helps the working poor too. Hefty estate taxes have forced heirs to sell businesses, sometimes resulting in them being closed down or consolidated. That costs the workers their jobs. And even if the heirs just buy a yacht with the money, someone had to build that yacht, and maintain it. The working poor get some of that money even with no estate taxes. When it goes into a government black hole who gets it?

Oh and when I said that raising the minimum wage helps the working poor I was stating the case from their alleged perspective. People who actually understand economics know that raising the minimum wage helps some people, but hurts others more. Some people will either lose their jobs or not be hired or be reduced in hours when the wage goes up. People on fixed income like seniors, will be hurt by the inflationary aspects of a wage hike. It will give a bigger advantage to the employers who cheat and pay illegal aliens under the table.

The only reason I might want a federal minimum wage was that the feckless politicians in Arkansas who knew better caved into pressure and voted to raise our minimum wage- making us uncompetitive with surrounding states. A federal hike would undo the craven shortsightedness of our politicians by making the whole country craven and short sighted.

You cannot legislate the laws of economics. They might as well try to pass a law lessening the strength of gravity because their constituents would like to weigh less.