Aided by a vast flow of corporate and right-wing money, Republicans have spent years persuading the public that the deficit is the nation’s biggest financial problem and that austerity is the answer to it. Their success in making that argument — keeping taxes and government investment low — has helped increase American income inequality to crisis proportions: 95 percent of the income gains since 2009 have gone to the top 1 percent. The majority of the country has stagnated or lost ground, leaving the economy sluggish.

Democrats have largely been passive or defensive as all the wage increases flowed upward, but they have vowed to take a more aggressive stand this year. Last week, they announced a nationwide campaign in 2014 for a higher minimum wage, showing how it would help the economy and reduce inequality, while highlighting the cost of the adamant Republican opposition to the idea. They also plan to press for wage-increase referendums in states with crucial Congressional races this November.

It’s smart politics. More than three-quarters of Americans support a wage higher than the current $7.25 an hour, and Republicans will be hard-pressed to explain why they oppose it. The issue might bring people to the polls who would otherwise be indifferent to midterm Congressional elections.

But more important, it’s good economics, and it would benefit tens of millions of people. Raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour by 2016, as the current Democratic bill would do, would directly or indirectly increase the take-home pay of 27.8 million workers, according to the Economic Policy Institute, adding $35 billion in greater wages through 2016. The resulting increase in gross domestic product would create 85,000 new jobs.