Senate GOP kills minimum wage increase

[ProSense]

Senate GOP kills minimum wage increase

By Steve Benen

The outcome of minimum-wage fight on Capitol Hill wasn’t surprising, but it was nevertheless disappointing for the millions of low-income U.S. workers hoping for a raise.

A proposal to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 died in the Senate on Wednesday, when Democrats failed to gather the 60 votes required to bring it to an up-or-down vote. <…>

Even if the proposed minimum wage hike cleared the Senate, there it was little chance it would ever receive a hearing in the Republican-controlled House. Yet recent polling shows growing popular support for raising the minimum wage, making Wednesday’s vote into a political win for the Democrats. Nearly the full Senate Republican caucus is now on record opposing a wage hike which most Americans support – a fact which [Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid] has not shied away from since the vote. In a press conference following the bill’s failure, he blamed the billionaire businessmen, Charles and David Koch.

“They’re fighting for billionaires,” he said. “We’re fighting for people who are struggling to make a living.”

The final Senate roll call is online here. Note, the official final tally was 54 to 42, but it was 55-41 before Reid had to switch his vote for procedural reasons. Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee was the only Republican to vote with the majority, not because he supports a wage hike – he was likely to vote against it – but because he thought it was a debate worth having.

Indeed, it’s worth remembering that what transpired on the Senate floor this afternoon wasn’t a vote on whether to raise the minimum wage; it was a vote on whether to end a Republican filibuster and begin a debate on raising the minimum wage. The GOP minority – including “moderates” like Susan Collins and Mark Kirk – blocked wage increase, but in the process, they also rejected the World’s Most Deliberative Body from even debating the issue.

<...>

Republicans show no interest in budging on the issue, and with the party poised to make gains in the 2014 midterm, the earliest Americans can expect progress on the issue is 2017, barring an unexpected boost in progressive turnout later this year.

- more -

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/senate-gop-kills-minimum-wage-increase

[onehandle]

1. The party of the the 00.01% nt

[yeoman6987]

2. The states are doing it

Maryland and Washington will have 10.10 minimum wage in 2018.

[djean111]

3. Why 2018? That seems a long time to be existing on 7.something, and then figuring in inflation.

[yeoman6987]

4. Governor O'Malley was patting himself on the back about it

I have no idea their thought process. Maryland is one of the progressive states and could not do better. I was stunned but can't really do anything about it.

[ProSense]

5. New low: Koch group claims Harry Reid opposes minimum wage increase

New low: Koch group claims Harry Reid opposes minimum wage increase

by Jed Lewison

Just when you thought the Koch-funded groups had already hit peak dishonesty, they outdo themselves yet again:

ICYMI: @SenatorReid voted NO on raising the #minimumwage. http://t.co/0dCa3FQ5bL #tcot #ccot #PJNET
— @afpnevada

The stunning thing about this is that it was Senate Republicans who blocked the minimum wage increase, using the Senate's filibuster rules to block the Democratic legislation even though Republicans don't have a Senate majority. Once it became clear that no Republicans would join Democrats to supply the 60 votes needed to break the filibuster, Reid voted no on the cloture motion—but he did so in order to preserve his ability to bring up a vote again.

In other words, by voting no on cloture, Reid was actually voting in favor of increasing the minimum wage. It was a procedural vote he was forced to take because Republicans refused to move forward on the minimum wage, but according to the Americans for Prosperity Nevada chapter, Reid was voting against the minimum wage itself.

That's a gigantic lie, and even if the AFP Nevada crew are the stupidest people in politics, they know it's a lie, because the article to which their dishonest tweet links makes it clear what really happened. Meanwhile, AFP not only opposes raising the minimum wage, they'd like to get rid of it altogether.

...So on Twitter these clowns claimed to Markos that they were simply trying to "share information."

@AJentleson @YvonneCa2 @michaeldanish @markos our point was to simply share information.
— @afpnevada

Bull. They said Reid voted against raising the minimum wage. False. He voted to preserve his ability to bring the minimum wage up for a cloture vote at some point in the future. And they can't claim to be hiding behind technical accuracy, because technically the vote wasn't on the minimum wage, it was on proceeding to a vote on the underlying legislation. Republicans voted no because they oppose raising it. Reid voted no because he supports raising it and had to vote that way in order to keep the legislation alive.

Oh, and one more thing: The article they originally linked to wasn't even about the minimum wage. It was about paycheck fairness. (Though the same thing happened there.)

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/04/30/1295897/-New-low-Koch-group-claims-Harry-Reid-opposes-minimum-wage-increase