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red states rule
02-01-2007, 08:11 AM
So libs are in power and they still have tamper tantrums.

Sen Ted Kennedy is having a stroke over the House version of the minimum wage bill. It has tax cuts for evil businesses so they can cover the increase of the minimum wage

Republicans pushed for the cuts and the moderate Dems in the House concured.

Senate Republicans can block anything from passing (you need 60 votes) so poos Ted now says this is unfair

Libs are never happy. Bipartisanship is when Dems get everything they want and Republicans shut up and sit down


Senate Moves Toward Approval of Higher Minimum Wage (Update1)

By William Roberts

Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) -- The Senate moved toward approval of the first increase in the U.S. minimum wage in a decade, voting 88-8 to complete work on the bill after eight days of debate.

The measure includes $8.3 billion in tax breaks over 10 years for small businesses that lawmakers paid for in part by including a cap on deferred-compensation for top executives.

The bill, which must be reconciled with a measure passed Jan. 10 by the House of Representatives that didn't include the tax provisions, would raise the federal minimum wage, for the first time in 10 years, to $7.25 an hour from $5.15. Senate Republicans said they would support the wage increase only if tax cuts for small business were included.

The Senate ``correctly concluded that raising the minimum wage without providing relief for the small businesses that must pay for that increase is simply not an option,'' said Senator Michael Enzi, a Wyoming Republican. ``I hope this is an approach that our colleagues in the House will not derail.''

Majority Leader Senator Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said the Senate was likely to approve the legislation by the end of the day tomorrow. The bill extends for one year the expense deductions and depreciation benefits for small businesses under President George W. Bush's tax cuts that were set to expire in 2008 and 2009.

Senator Ted Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of the Senate Labor Committee, said the increase in the minimum wage for working-class Americans employed in restaurants, hotels and other establishments includes as many as 50,000 spouses of U.S. military personnel serving in Iraq.

`Do a Favor'

``We can do a favor for those individuals and treat them with respect and dignity by voting for an increase in the minimum wage. We ought to do that right now,'' Kennedy said.

Senate Republicans last week thwarted an effort by Democrats to pass the minimum-wage legislation without the tax breaks as Democrats fell six votes short of the 60 votes required to end debate and bring the measure to a vote.

``If we are creating some unemployment because of a decision we are making here, a political decision we are making, we ought to at least take that into consideration,'' said Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee. ``This tax package is peanuts.'' Grassley said.

Holly Sklar, a spokeswoman for Business for Shared Prosperity, a Boston-based non-profit advocacy group for higher wages that is backed by the Unitarian Universalist Church, predicted a compromise version of the bill would be produced by talks between the House and Senate.

`It's going to have tax benefits in it when they pass final legislation,'' Sklar said. ``So, it's just a question of what kinds of amendments are tacked on, and how long it takes. It probably won't be the clean bill that the House passed.''

To contact the reporter on this story: William Roberts in Washington at wroberts@bloomberg.net .

Last Updated: January 31, 2007 17:51 EST
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=atb0PlNozDTo&refer=us