While Russia and health care have more or less dominated the news, two liberal agenda items have been undercut. The first is single-payer, where even The Washington Post had to comment on its astronomical costs and tradeoffs that will probably not be accepted by the larger public. California tried to pass such a system at the cost of $400 billion. It met a legislative death in the State Assembly, where state Democrats faced a brutal backlash from the progressive Left, some even receiving death threats.

The other is the minimum wage, where liberal bastions have increased the rate at the cost of reduced pay to their workers and fewer jobs. In Seattle, the city council passed a $15/hour rate in 2014, which was to be phased in over a four-year period. It’s currently at $11/hour, but the detrimental economic impacts can already be seen. A preliminary report by the University of Washington threw more cold water on the initiative, which angered the mayor’s office. So, they shopped it over to UC Berkeley, where there were friendlier data crunchers. That study was released a week before the University of Washington report in what appears to be an apparent attempt to preempt the detrimental findings. Now, we have the USA Today editorial board suggesting that we should slowdown on the minimum wage pushes, which has also screwed over New York.