ABC News reports:
Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked the Democrats from fulfilling a campaign promise to increase the federal minimum wage, demanding that the pay hike include tax relief for small business.
On a vote of 54-43, Democrats fell six short of the 60 needed to end debate and go to passage of a House-approved bill, to raise the minimum wage for the first time in a decade — boosting it over two years to $7.25 per hour from $5.15.
The good news for Democrats:
Democratic leaders responded by adding $8 billion in tax breaks, and the Senate is expected to pass the bill next week. The measure adopted by the House included no tax breaks. The two chambers must agree on a final bill before it can become law.
“There is no doubt in my mind that we will get together quite quickly,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat.
But Brendan Daly, an aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said: “We should not delay a minimum wage increase another day in order to negotiate a tax package.”
Kennedy already said that he agrees with the tax breaks, as long as the minimum wage is raised.
According to ABC, 479 000 Americans receive the minimum wage in 2005. That’s not very much, compared to America’s total population (over 300 million). However, “several million others were paid just a dollar or two more.”
I have already stated that I am not easily in favor of something like a minimum wage raise. In fact, I quite oppose the simple existence of a government-determined minimum wage. It is not, nor should it be the government’s responsibility to determine how much people make in the private sector, which is called private for quite a good reason.
Tax breaks, however, are quite something else. Small businesses are, mostly, the backbone of the economy. If one wants one’s economy to grow, one must encourage entrepreneurship.
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