Minimum Wage Defeat Loss for America

Polls show the American people support raising the minimum wage:

"By an overwhelming margin (83 percent to 14 percent), the American public favors raising the federal minimum wage to $7.15 per hour -- a hefty $2.00 an hour increase, according to research conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. And nearly half (49 percent) say they strongly support such an increase. While there are differences in the extent of support across political and socioeconomic lines, raising the minimum wage receives widespread support from both Republicans and Democrats, wealthy and poor."

Hypocrisy on the part of the Republicans:

"Thursday's Senate vote and a July 29 House vote did give GOP supporters of raising the minimum wage inoculation against an especially potent attack by Democrats — that Republicans in Congress have refused to raise the minimum wage for 10 years, even as they've accepted pay raises totaling $35,000 over that time."

Republicans conspired to help the wealthy and business interests:

"Still, Republican leaders saw combining the wage and tax issues as their best chance for getting permanent cuts to the estate tax, a top Republican priority fueled by intense lobbying by farmers, small business owners and super-wealthy families such as the Waltons, heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune."

"The maneuver was aimed at defusing the minimum wage increase as a campaign issue for Democrats while using the popularity of the increase to achieve the Republican Party's longtime goal of permanently cutting estate taxes."