George W. Bush may be stupid, but he’s not a complete idiot.
He knows that with the Democrats winning control of the House and Senate, there will be a bill raising the minimum wage coming his way. He knows that he’ll look like a mean-spirited ogre if he vetoes the bill. So he’s trying to co-opt the effort and turn it as much to the advantage of his paymasters as possible. In a press conference yesterday, Bush said he will support an increase in the minimum wage of $2.10 — but only if the increase is accompanied by new tax breaks and more lax labor laws for businesses.
There’s something Bush doesn’t want you to notice in his proposal. The minimum wage is not indexed to inflation, and so has sunk to a 56-year low. What minimum-wage proponents are seeking isn’t some new, higher guarantee; they’re simply looking for a return to the wage floor American workers had in the 1980s — which is lower than the wage floor American workers had in the 1970s, which is lower than the wage floor American workers had in the late 1960s. As soon as any new minimum wage increase is passed, it will begin to lose its impact as inflation creeps forward. Within a few years, the benefit of a new minimum wage will have disappeared.
In the meantime, I bet my lovely pet goose that the tax cuts and relaxations of labor laws for business won’t diminish with inflation. That’s because the tax cuts are likely to be on a percentage basis, and labor law restrictions aren’t currency-related.
A temporary partial reversal of wage losses for workers. A permanent advantage for business. Sneaky, sneaky, sneaky.
When I saw on the news that Bush was supporting a raise in minimum wage the first thought that came to my mind was; “What’s he up to?”
Well, I guess I know now.
The dems already voted down a Bush attempt to add something in this vein to a minimum wage bill, but Dick Durbin(D-IL) said he would be willing to go along with the president’s desire to help buisness by adding something in the bill for businesses that provide health benefits for their employees. LOL!