Politics As Disco

Watching politics is sometimes like watching a really bad dance contest. Picture a 70's style disco and a bunch of guys in polyester leisure suits (in various pastel colors not actually found in nature) vying on the dance floor to be the next John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. Only they move more like the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz making it more like Saturday Night Feeble. As bad as they all are, statistics tells us that every once in a while someone will make an actually good move.

So it is that the Republican House managed a slick little dance number and cornered the Democrats in the Senate. Harry Reid is now in the unenviable position of having to try to scuttle a bill that raises the minimum wage. They rolled the dice on this one, but it may wreck the Democrat's use of the minimum wage as a club to whip on Republicans with.

The House last night voted to boost the minimum wage for the first time in nearly a decade while also permanently slashing the estate tax, a coupling that GOP leaders calculated might garner enough Senate support to become law.

House lawmakers also approved the biggest overhaul of the nation's pension laws in 30 years.

In the rush to bolster their party's accomplishments before leaving today on a five-week summer break, House Republican leaders effectively took a gamble. If the Senate follows the House and passes legislation shoring up the pension system, raising the minimum wage, permanently cutting the estate tax, and extending such measures as a research-and-development tax credit, Republicans can say they departed for the summer in a flourish of accomplishments.

But the maneuvering by House and Senate GOP leaders to package the measures over the objection of some Senate chairmen caused severely bruised feelings. Lawmakers from both parties said last night that the legislation could easily collapse in the Senate, underscoring Democratic contentions that Congress has become dysfunctional.

"It's a risk," said House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), "but I think it's the only way to proceed."

Democrats were incensed that the GOP leadership would couple the minimum wage hike, the first increase since 1997, with an estate tax cut that would reduce federal revenue by $268 billion over the next decade, to the overwhelming benefit of the country's richest families.

"This is beyond cynical. This is disgraceful," said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.).

Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) signaled he would try to scuttle the tax bill next week. "Republicans have made perfectly clear who they stand with and who they are willing to fight for: the privileged few," he said.

But Republicans believed they had found a way to snatch the minimum-wage issue away from Democrats, who had been using it as a cudgel, while securing passage of a central plank of their economic program: all but eliminating the estate tax.

"I know why you're mad," said Rep. Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.). "You've seen us really outfox you."

It actually was a smooth move, politically. It is no more cynical than the Democrat's efforts to use issues like this as weapons. In other words, most politics is cynical in nature. The Dems got caught on this one.

Other Links to this Post

1. Blue Crab Boulevard » Blog Archive » Politics As Disco, Part Two — Thursday, 3 August , 2006 @ 7:40 am