Raise Minimum Wage; but no deals for big business

The Democrats need to rais the minimum wage without any additional deals for big business. The six years of the Bush administration have been nothing but benefit and deal after deal for big business. The only true way to know where Bush stands on any issue is to judge if it is a giveaway to private industry; if it helps industry, Bush is pushing it. If it throws money and tax breaks at big business, then W will be fighting for it.



Success of 100 hours hinges on few uncertain Senate votes The Hill By Elana Schor and Jeffrey Young

Two planks of the House Democrats’ “100 Hours” agenda are headed for swift passage this week but risk delay in the Senate, where Republicans and Democrats must navigate intra-party disputes over how to raise the minimum wage and amend the Medicare drug benefit.

Unlike their party colleagues in the House, Senate Democratic leaders are sending high-priority bills through regular order, a move that underscores their promise of bipartisanship. But this could deny them the political benefit of demonstrable progress when there are fractious conference negotiations with the House over different approaches to the minimum wage and Medicare.

“I’m becoming aware of the difficulties of the U.S. Senate in trying to pass a bill dealing with one issue,” freshman Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) said yesterday, urging the Senate to follow the lead of his former House colleagues and approve a clean minimum wage increase.

Republicans, however, are seeking tax and regulatory sweeteners for businesses to ease the impact of a phased wage hike to $7.25 per hour. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has indicated that he will back the business breaks, remarking last week that a filibuster-proof margin for a stand-alone minimum wage increase may be achievable, but, “I’m not sure I want to do that.”

The Senate Finance Committee today will examine options for tax breaks that the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee can successfully pair with the wage hike. But HELP Chairman Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and ranking Republican Mike Enzi (Wyo.) are already dissenting from party leaders’ positions on the minimum wage.

Kennedy will push for a Senate wage hike without business tax breaks at an event today with House Majority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.), AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, and freshman Reps. Betty Sutton (D-Ohio) and Carol Shea-Porter (D-N.H.).

At least two members of Kennedy’s panel, freshman Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), backed his approach.

“We need to do serious business tax breaks … [but] don’t link them to the minimum wage,” Brown said. Sanders also called for a clean bill, saying via e-mail: “After 10 years of inexcusable inaction, I believe that the time is long overdue for Congress to pass a clean minimum wage bill.”

Enzi, meanwhile, spent yesterday’s GOP policy lunch tamping down enthusiasm among Republicans for adding small-business health plan provisions to the minimum-wage hike. Enzi’s small-business health plan bill fell short on the floor last year, and he continues to work carefully on a compromise with Democrats that he hopes to pursue as a stand-alone issue, spokesman Craig Orfield said.

Senate Republicans also endorse other business benefits as add-ons to the wage bill, but support for including small-business health plans is being stoked in the House. There, senior Republicans gathered yesterday to tout Reid’s support for a business-friendly wage bill and promote their alternative – which includes small-business health plans.

“Small business health plans would be my choice,” Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) said in an interview late last week, adding that a wage increase coupled with health insurance incentives would ensure businesses are “able to give their employees a better life.”

The Medicare prescription drug bill slated for House approval on Friday, which would require the Bush administration to negotiate with drug companies on behalf of Medicare beneficiaries, poses considerable challenges of its own for Senate Democrats.

Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) has been granted first dibs on drafting a bill to fulfill the Democratic campaign promise for federal negotiation of Medicare drug prices. He will hold a hearing on the issue one day before the House considers its Medicare bill, strongly opposed by the White House.

But Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a Finance Committee member, got 54 votes last year for a bill he and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) authored that would allow federal negotiation of Medicare drug prices. Wyden and Snowe will release an updated version of their measure today, mandating negotiation in the case of single-source drugs, drugs created with substantial taxpayer funding, or in cases where private insurers request help.

Wyden said yesterday that he and Snowe count 58 votes in the new Congress for their plan, if freshman Democrats were added and Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.), who is ailing, subtracted. Still, even if the pair can reach the crucial 60-vote threshold, Baucus could credibly claim to provide the Democratic leadership with a bigger margin, starting with his own vote.

“I’m going to work very closely with chairman Baucus,” Wyden said when asked whether he would consider using his head count for leverage in discussions with Baucus, who voted against two Medicare negotiation bills last year. “I’m pleased with the discussions we’ve had.”

Baucus is under pressure from Democratic leaders, who have vowed to approve negotiation by spring, to get a bill through the Finance Committee. Though Baucus has criticized the Bush administration’s handling of the drug benefit, he was one of only two Democrats who participated in the drafting of the law creating the program.

“I suspect there [are] going to be serious questions about it in the Senate,” Republican Whip Trent Lott (Miss.) said yesterday of the Medicare negotiation concept. “I’m not sure how or when Reid plans to call it up. I think Democrats have serious questions about it too.”

Complicating matters for Baucus is that a majority of his committee voted for the Wyden-Snowe amendment on the floor. Baucus was the only Democrat on the panel who voted against it, while Snowe captured the support of fellow Finance member Gordon Smith (R-Ore.).

Snowe said yesterday that she and Wyden would discuss their new bill at tomorrow’s Finance hearing and she hoped “some of the changes will broaden the support [for negotiation].”

Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) was one of two members missing the vote on Wyden-Snowe. Despite Democrats’ emphasis on negotiation during their electoral triumph last year, Coleman said yesterday he would continue to oppose government involvement in Medicare drug prices.

“We’ve got a system now that’s working,” Coleman said, acknowledging that he would risk political attacks during his reelection run in 2008 but charging that negotiation would “add another layer of bureaucracy.”

The pressure coming from outside interest groups is considerable. Two of Washington’s biggest powerhouses, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, and the AARP, are facing off and are ready to bring the full weight of their influence to bear.