Yup, They’re Serious Alright
The Democrats are rapidly proving that they have come to believe deeply in a fictional America that simply does not exist. Worse, they are basing their efforts in the November elections on that fiction. At a time when the Middle East is a powder keg, where North Korea is acting more and more like a thoroughly deranged aggressor, where a firm ally like India is now under terror attack they have found their one, true campaign issue.
A minimum wage that by far and away effects mostly teenage (hence non-voting) workers. And it doesn't even do that in most cases since the local McDonald's in my town starts part-time high schoolers at over $7 per hour. The average wage in the US is over $16 per hour per a left-leaning think tank.
And this is what the Dems have to run on.
Democratic leaders in Congress are closely coordinating their efforts in Washington with campaigns in critical races around the country. Democratic lawmakers say they will try to block what is normally an automatic pay increase for members of Congress until Republicans agree to raise the federal minimum wage.
“We are putting some skin in the game,” said Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “We’re saying that there will be no pay increases for Congress until there’s an increase in the minimum wage. This separates us from Republicans.”
Last weekend, Mr. Emanuel held news conferences in five cities across upstate New York, with Democratic lawmakers and candidates signing pledges to oppose any increase in Congressional pay until the minimum wage is raised.
Republican lawmakers have repeatedly defeated increases in the minimum wage over the past eight years. Business groups, supported by many economists, have always fought such increases on the argument that setting wages above normal market levels will cause employers to cut back on hiring the very low-wage workers an increase would be intended to benefit.
“The minimum wage raises the take-home pay for some people at the expense of others,” said Kevin A. Hassett, an economist at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative policy group.
“It is wrong to redistribute money from the worse-off workers to other low-income workers.”
For the most part, Republicans have sought to avoid debates about the minimum wage and focus on the overall strength of the economy. They note that unemployment is down to 4.6 percent, that the nation has added about 5.4 million jobs in the last three years and that wages have been climbing this year. Though most economists are dubious about the benefits of a minimum wage, the evidence of a link between a higher minimum wage and higher unemployment is mixed.
The unemployment rate among teenagers, a big share of minimum-wage workers, has remained above 13 percent ever since 2000 even though the minimum wage has gone down in real terms, after adjusting for inflation. Unemployment among people 16 to 19 has hovered around 15 percent this year.
Opponents of higher minimum wages contend that prosperity is best generated by stronger economic growth rather than by mandated wage levels. And while the minimum wage has lost about 20 percent of its buying power since the last increase, average hourly wages have done better.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, a left-of-center economic research group in Washington, “real” average hourly wages, adjusted for inflation, have edged up to $16.52 in May of this year from $15.58 in 1997.
The Democrats have let themselves fall into the trap of trying to play to the fictional America they have built up in their collective heads. The coatless girl of John Edward's fame, etc. etc. Instead of calling this for what it is, the highly partisan New York Times portrays it as a successful strategy.
I don't think so. I think it another attempt at a Sale of Two Cities. Stand by for a remake of The Little Match Girl.
UPDATE: The Influence Peddler has a good post up that demonstrates exactly how cynical this campaign by the Dems is. Especially since they blocked the last attempt at an increase.
