Economy & Budget

Senate Republicans must do what House Republicans didn't - stop playing games with the minimum wage and get serious about providing a fair pay increase for the 6.6 million hardworking Americans and their families who would benefit from a raise in the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25. House Republicans' cynical political ploy won't fool the American people, and shouldn't be replicated in the Senate.

The Senate may vote this week on a House Republican bill that would immediately cut the minimum wage for some groups of workers and gradually raise the minimum wage for other groups of workers. The bill would also give an average $1.4 million tax break to the wealthiest 8,200 estates in the country, driving up the federal budget deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars. In short, the bill is a sham.

It is not surprising that Republican leaders in Congress larded up a minimum wage increase with a wage cut and massive tax breaks. But it is shameful. It means that while some groups of low-wage workers would get a wage increase, hundreds of thousands of workers in Alaska, California, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Guam would see a decrease in their wages.

A true national minimum wage increase must raise the wages of all workers across the board, plain and simple. But House Republicans still refuse to allow a clean vote to increase the minimum wage. This bill's harmful provisions prove once again just how deceptive and cynical Republican leaders are willing to be just to score political points.

The Senate must reject this deceptive legislation. Americans deserve a Congress that will pass an honest national minimum wage increase that benefits all working families. Democrats believe that it is time for a new direction that will value and reward the contributions that workers make to our nation's workforce and economy, and we will continue to fight for the clean minimum wage increase that working families deserve.

The vote was extremely important. This is a real breakthrough, particularly in the Senate, in terms of opening up a new area for drilling, new production, and in terms of allowing revenue sharing. I think that model can allow us to open new areas in the future to increase domestic oil and gas production.

It was vitally important for Louisiana. We have been fighting for this for years – getting our fair share of offshore oil and gas revenues so that we can help meet our needs in terms of coastal reparation and hurricane protection.

Unfortunately, Friday's vote on the minimum wage was about political theater rather than passing substantive legislation. That's why I joined most of my Democratic colleagues in voting against the plan to link a hike in the minimum wage to a deficit-expanding tax break for the rich.



The House majority intentionally created a bill that its own members could support and most Democrats would oppose. That's how they ended up with a proposal that provided a modest increase in the minimum wage, which has been stuck at $5.15 an hour for nine years, while also giving a huge tax cut for the wealthy that would increase the deficit. There is no other rationale for linking the two efforts.



I strongly support increasing the minimum wage from its current $5.15 an hour to $7.25 cents an hour. This provides low-wage earners a little help to pay for gasoline, food, rent and other critical items that cost far more than they nine years ago.  I could not vote for a fiscally irresponsible plan, which does not have the votes to pass the Senate, to slash the estate tax before our budget deficit is significantly reduced or eliminated.

If all goes well in the Senate this week, we should accomplish our long stride for lower gas prices and energy independence with the passage of the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act. I have long advocated opening up Lease 181 and fully support the provisions in this commonsense legislation. But, I have also offered an amendment that would allow other States including Virginia to opt out of the federal ban on deepwater exploration, if they choose to do so, with a portion of generated revenues going towards transportation infrastructure, in-State college tuitions, and coastal communities. With gasoline prices surging at more than $3 dollars a gallon, it is unbelievable and irresponsible to continue this obstructionist, detrimental moratorium on deepwater exploration. The Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act is an outstanding bill and is vital for our national security, competitiveness, and creating jobs.

The Bush Administration has so far been unable to win a full repeal of the estate tax, which would add hundreds of billions of dollars to the national debt. Yet, a major newspaper recently exposed the Administration's plan to layoff 157 of 345 tax attorneys who audit estate and gift tax returns at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) by September 30. This decision requires substantial clarification. With no Congressional review whatsoever of this plan, I don't see how political appointees at the IRS can deny charges that these layoffs are intended to weaken enforcement of tax laws that the Administration opposes.
My Democratic colleagues and I have requested that IRS Commissioner Mark Everson immediately delay this decision until Congress has adequate time to review the plan. "The IRS has repeatedly told Congress that the problem of the wealthiest Americans failing to pay the true amount of taxes owed is a growing problem. Therefore, we cannot understand why you would want to eliminate auditors from a division that is not only the most productive, but also, according to your agency, where there is a growing need for audits," we wrote. "We would appreciate clarification about the exact workload of these auditors, the distribution of cases by the amount of taxable estate value, and how their possible elimination will affect tax collection for this division of the IRS." In short, with fewer auditors, how will the IRS keep up with audits of those who are not adequately paying taxes on gifts?
More information and a copy of our letter to Commissioner Everson are available online at: http://rothman.house.gov/news_releases/2006/july28.htm

Obviously national defense and homeland security are the most critical issues as we look at what's happening in Iraq.  Domestically, it's energy.  Hopefully people will think a bit more about advantaging ourselves of the natural gas and oil resources that we have.

Energy security equals national security.

I hope we can get our budget stuff done. I'd like to see us look at tax reform. I'd like to see some stuff on the Fair Tax, or at least some hearings on it.

Most of the people in my district aren't making minimum wage - from that standpoint, the market is taking care of itself.  While we look at the unemployment rate being the lowest in four years and the economy having sustained growth, it's also important that everyone benefits from the good economy, not just the privileged few.

What I'd hope is what we've been demanding for years: a clearly-found vote without too much baggage.