House Republican leaders next swallowed the 41 percent minimum wage hike -- under duress. Moderate Eastern and Midwestern House members, many threatened for re-election and embarrassed by failure to raise minimum wages, issued a ultimatum: Without the minimum wage, they would block scheduled House adjournment last Friday. The moderate tail again was wagging the conservative dog in the House.
Conservative Republican Reps. Mike Pence and Jeff Flake tried to soften the higher minimum wage's impact on small businesses by joining it with a plan to cut their health care costs. They were told this would be doomed in the Senate by the "Big Blues" (Blue Cross and Blue Shield).
"It's about time we increased the minimum wage!" Thomas told the House. That triggered instant conversion by Republican debaters, extolling the minimum wage as a positive good, with or without estate tax relief. When fellow Republicans tried to convince Pence that this was shrewd politics, the third-term congressman from Elwood, Ind., replied: "I didn't come here to pass wage controls." But only 20 other Republicans joined Pence and Flake in voting against Thomas's concoction. The consensus at a Senate Republican conference Monday was positive (though Grassley did not attend).
Thomas, the fabled legislative mechanic, added $3.9 billion over 10 years for the "abandoned mine lands" program to attract mining state Democrats (perhaps including Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia). He also put in the bill state and local tax deductions and writeoffs for higher education expenses, among other goodies. Earlier, the bill took on a timber tax break intended to snare Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell, facing a vigorous re-election challenge in Washington state.
At this writing, it appears all this will pass the Senate untouched by week's end. But most Democrats are opposed, chiding Republicans that they embraced a higher minimum wage only if tied to the estate tax. Having abandoned its principles, the GOP can't even get credit from its opposition.