Rarely has our system produced a more naked exercise in opportunism than this measure. Most conservatives oppose the minimum wage on principle as a form of government meddling in the marketplace. But moderate Republicans in jeopardy this fall desperately wanted an increase in the minimum wage.
So the seemingly ingenious Republican leadership, which dearly wants deep cuts in the estate tax, proposed offering nickels and dimes to the working class to secure billions for the rich. Fortunately, though not surprisingly, the bill failed.
Heard about this this morning on the way in…and it just didn’t make sense–an increase in the minimum wage AND cuts in the Estate tax?
Huh? What sort of game are these guys in the House running?
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I don’t particularly agree with Dionne’s article, but I do see the current situation as untennable–Ammericans en masse cannot support our current lifestyles given $3.00+ gasoline. Somethings got to give. Here in Lexington, we’re close to civil unrest as people witnessed a 30-cent rise in gas prices overnight, without a coincident rise in wholesale prices. In short, we all got gouged, and the airwaves were alight today with complaints.
This situation would be bad enough if we were a nation of fiscal conservatives, living well below their means. We’re not. Taken together, we max-out credit, overbuy houses, finance cars on 6-year notes. We lived right to the razor’s edge, and that was when gas was $1.20.
I know one thing, I’d not mind converting my car to E85, or swapping-in a VW diesel. Yeah, blasphemy I know, but like I said: Interesting times. . .