Senate Democrats and a few moderate Republicans did America the honor of rejecting the election-year gambit of GOP leaders who tried to win steep cuts in the estate tax in exchange for an overdue increase in the minimum wage.
It was perhaps the most cynical legislative ploy of the year, and it would have succeeded except two Republicans and 40 Democrats said no. Forbes Magazine called the attempt a “spectacular flop.”
Now it’s time to pass a minimum-wage increase with no strings attached.
The estate tax cut would have applied to only 8,100 families, multimillionaires one and all. The minimum has been stuck at $5.15 an hour since 1997. Seven million Americans depend upon it.
Colorado laws must abide by a single-subject rule. It ought to be applied to Congress.
Thursday night’s monstrosity proposed to raise the minimum wage to $7.25 over three years, and it proposed to increase the size of an estate exempt from taxation by 2015 to $5 million for an individual and $10 million for a couple. Estates worth as much as $25 million would be taxed at capital gains rates, currently 15 percent and scheduled to increase to 20 percent. The top rate on larger estates would fall to 30 percent by 2015.
Republicans mustered a 56-42 majority, short of the 60 needed to cut off debate and bring the bill to a vote. (The House passed it the previous week.) Sen. Ken Salazar joined the majority of Democrats who voted against the measure, calling it “hypocrisy and political posturing of the worst kind.”
Sen. Wayne Allard went along with the majority of Republicans who voted in favor of the shameless legislative approach.
Allard’s spokesman, Sean Conway, said Allard believes in full repeal of the estate tax and opposes an increase in the minimum wage but was willing to go along with what he viewed as a compromise, which also revived a slew of tax deductions that expired last year. “We took a Democratic priority and a Republican priority and the best of several expiring tax deductions and tried to craft something that was good for American families,” said Conway, adding that Allard will join other Republicans who might try to revive the legislation when the Senate returns in September.
The bill should be banished to the congressional scrap heap. Besides merging two completely disparate issues, it would void laws in seven states with minimums higher than $7.25. Polls show the majority of Americans favor an increase in the minimum wage. A group in Colorado hopes to ask voters in November to raise the state minimum from $5.15 to $6.85 an hour.
Congress also should pass a more palatable federal minimum wage increase in September. The estate tax should be taken up separately. Surely the super rich can wait patiently until Congress has taken care of the nation’s working poor.
