03 Aug 2006
Minimum-wage bill threatens tips, opponents say

Morons.

This was political grandstanding on the part of the Republicans from the get-go. Did they really think they could slide something like this in at the last minute and not have it noticed? Raising the minimum wage was supposed to make them look like a "friend of the working man" (and we can debate if that's really a very friendly thing to do to todays workers) - instead they're coming off as heartless bastards taking change out of the pockets of poor working mom waitresses...

The Republicans are somehow managing to alienate their base constituency (minimum wage laws are pretty much anathema to conservative economists) and everyone else at the same time - in the same bill!

If they keep up with this kind of strategy through the elections the Democrats will get control of both houses of Congress in a landslide.

Tip money earned by waitresses in Las Vegas, manicurists in Hollywood and bartenders in Seattle is on the table in the nation's capital as lawmakers scrap over an election-year minimum wage bill.

(link) [CNN.com]

Update: CNN has changed this article substantially since I blogged it: see the writebacks for further info.

23:09 /Politics | 3 comments | permanent link