The Meme and the Minimum Wage

Today the Senate voted to end debate on the measure to increase the minimum wage to $7.25 over the next two years ending a week of debate in which Senator Ted Kennedy pointed out that every Congressman made as much money as a minimum wage earner will earn in four months. And naturally, the GOPers found a way to get their elite constituents a piece of the pie by saddling the bill with tax breaks for business.

Here's the GOPer meme: "Raising the minimum wage will cost some jobs," Al Hubbard, the director of the president's National Economic Council told reporters aboard Air Force One Tuesday. "We think it's important to counter that with tax breaks that will replace those jobs."

It never has in the past and if the economy is as strong as Tony Snow and George Bush keep saying, can't it absorb the cost? And it's worth pointing out that the pay increases for lawmakers alone over the past couple years outstrip anything a minimum wage earner makes in a year. Democrats have a chance to strip out the GOPer business welfare provisions from the bill in conference committee and I hope they do. And I hope we rub every GOPer nose who votes against raising wages for America's working poor in their own doo-doo for the next eternity. Our new meme can then be that the Republicans hate the poor.