Thu, 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.

/Politics | 3 writebacks | permanent link

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On 8/3/2006 22:54:16
SB wrote

Um, I can't find the opening line you have there in the article you linked to. I do find that they've put the estate tax elimination bundled into the minimum wage hike, so Democrats who vote against estate tax elimination will be branded as against raising the minimum wage. Poison pills are pretty common. My mil just moved here from California and was shocked to learn that the minimum wage was $5.15, when she had been earning...whatever the California minimum wage was. She'd been the one berating us for not cutting our "latte factor", when in fact our major indulgences included 1. having a landline phone, and 2. using air conditioning to beat the frequent 90 degree heat. We were such hedonists we couldn't afford to make rent and pay the bills, at least, that's what she thought. Because $5.15/hour and each person working a job that would only go up to 30 hours/week left us unbelievably affluent. So fabulously wealthy that we had luxury time to spend pursuing second jobs!

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On 8/4/2006 00:07:48
Dave H wrote

Whoa!

What happened??!!! SB, you're right - the headline is no longer in the article linked! In fact, the article linked has been changed substantially, out from underneath me! I can understand making edits, and I can even understand changing the headline, but this is ridiculous! The article I linked didn't even mention the permanent estate tax repeal tucked into the bill! This makes me afraid to continue to use CNN as a source for blogging: shit like this makes me look like an idiot! Thanks for the heads up - I'm off to see how much other CNN article I've linked in the past have changed! Be well, Dave H.

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On 8/4/2006 04:46:15
SB wrote

Nah, I have had CNN do the switcheroo on me too, something about their frontpages stories not having permanent links. Once they've moved from the front page, they get a permanent link, CNN just doesn't like to be helpful to bloggers. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/04/washington/04cong.html?ref=business "The opposition was aided by a dispute over a provision that would allow employers in a handful of states to begin counting employee tips against minimum wage increases, an approach Democrats said could end up cutting the pay of some workers. Republicans disputed that contention, but the prospect was enough to deter some Democrats Republicans had hoped would vote for the bill." That might work better, though the NYT occasionally plays silly subscription games.

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