Some Democrats Oppose, Minimum Wage Vote Postponed.

Lacking votes, Reid stalling action on minimum wage hike legislation

From the article:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Tuesday delayed action on legislation raising the minimum wage, the centerpiece of the Democrats’ 2014 agenda.

The Nevada Democrat made the surprising move amid escalating Democratic resistance in the wake of a Congressional Budget Office report released last week estimating that hiking the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour could cost the equivalent of 500,000 jobs by late 2016.

Reid has not yet unified his caucus on the issue, which is a constant in the Democrats’ election-year playbook. Of the 55 senators who caucus with the Democrats, only 32 have signed on as official co-sponsors of Sen. Tom Harkin’s (D-Iowa) bill.

Throughout this year, President Obama has called on Congress to “give America a raise.” But there is Democratic infighting over how much the raise should be.

Sen. Mark Pryor (Ark.), the chamber’s most vulnerable incumbent, has said he does not support the legislation. He does, however, back a pending plan in his home state to increase the minimum wage to $8.50.

Other Democrats up for reelection who have not co-sponsored the Harkin measure include Sens. Mark Warner (Va.), Kay Hagan (N.C.) and Mary Landrieu (La.).

Meanwhile, Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), who is not up for reelection, has said he prefers raising the minimum wage to a level lower than $10.10.

Based on the number of holdouts, there is a chance the bill could fall short of a simple majority if the vote were held today. Such an outcome would sap the movement of significant momentum.


Reid on Tuesday dismissed the possibility of compromising on a rate lower than $10.10.

“Not with me,” he said when asked about the possibility.

Reid blamed the delay on Republicans.

“The obstruction continues and it slows things down,” he said. “We’ve also been hampered by trying to get an extension of unemployment benefits. The slowdown has been a result of continued obstruction.”

-----------------------------------------------------------

I know Harry, always those pesky Republicans.

Why would Senate vote on it? I thought they were gathering signatures for a discharge petition in the House so Boner couldn't block it.

What's with the $10.10 figure. Also Reid shouldn't be blaming the Republicans for this, the issue is that the Democrats appear to be divided on this issue and Reid doesn't seem willing to accept a lower figure (or at least not $8.50, I imagine he would accept $10 or maybe $9.50) and some Democrats won't accept the $10.10 figure.

And? The senate still needs to pass their own bill.

I really hope the 500K figure doesn't scare anyone away from voting for this bill. I know unemployment rate is a mythical, easily digestible economic health figure figure to most Americans, but that same CBO report also concluded that nearly 6 million people would be pulled out of poverty by this same bill, which is ultimately far more important.

Not for the people who are currently unemployed.

It's not going through. Those democrats that won't support it are in vulnerable, traditionally republican districts. Anything they do that makes it seem like they don't care about creating jobs will be another nail in their coffin.

Fucking stupid to not support this. The higher the pay, the more spending. The more spending, the more jobs due to more need of services. In the end, it balances itself out. It's just a bunch of corporate ass kissing dems who don't want to betray the corporate lobbying.

Not sure why Reid would expect this to pass (he probably doesn't). Not sure it's a good idea anyway.