the momentum had clearly shifted in favor of considering an increase of at least $2 in the $5.15 an hour minimum wage, despite strong resistance from conservative Republicans and the party's allies in the business community.

not

appear

warned that Republicans might try to tie the increase to an unacceptable piece of legislation on taxes or health care as a "poison pill" to drive off Democrats and make certain the increase could not clear the Senate or become law.

Fun Facts

The federal minimum wage has not been raised in ten years.

Its purchasing power is now the lowest it's been in fifty years.

A full-time worker with a family earning the minimum wage is below the official poverty line.

If you're a Republican lawmaker in a tough election year, beholden to corporate interests but on the wrong side of public opinion when it comes to raising the minimum wage, what do you do? It's easy: allow a vote on a bill to raise the wage from $5.15 to $7.25 over two years, but attach a couple of poison pill amendments to it such that it doesn't have a chance of actually passing. That way, you can get the benefit of friendly headlines in the New York Times like " G.O.P. Nears Vote to Increase U.S. Wage " without having to deal with the headache of actually raising the purchasing power of working families. And the best part is that readers of the Times will have no idea!Carl Hulse's story asserts thatThe only problem with this sentence? It isn't true. Willingness to raise the minimum wage hasincreased among Republicans, just a willingness toas though it has. Hulse's only acknowledgement of the poison pills is a watered down, tepid paragraph that DemocratsWith no elaboration on what those "unacceptable piece[s] of legislation" actually are, Hulse makes it sound as though Democrats are merely crying wolf for the hell of it. To learn the real details, you'll have to read the Associated Press' surprisingly clear-headed story (printed here in the Post). Not only is the G.O.P. trying to tie the minimum wage vote to an amendment cutting the inheritance tax on multi-million dollar households, they want to make it more expensive for small businesses to purchase health care for their employees (see Think Progress for more on this issue).