Dems' Pandering To The Far Left | Extremist Minimum Wage Bill Could Cost Up To 1 Million Jobs

Today in Washington, D.C. - April 29, 2014
The Senate reconvened at 10 AM today. The Senate began a series of cloture votes on six district judge nominees for Tennessee, Washington, Illinois, Kansas, California, and Maine. Majority Democrats are again using the precedent they established after they used the nuclear option to break Senate rules, so that these nominees can achieve cloture with only a simple majority vote, instead of the 60 votes it requires for cloture under the Senate rules. This is a method to pack the current court system with liberal judges to fend off cases by the American people in the future against the arbitrary and capricious overreach of the current administration and to rule against conservative positions in the future.

Yesterday, the Senate voted 51-40 to confirm Michelle Friedland to be United States Circuit Judge for the 9^th Circuit. Then, again using the procedure Democrats created via the nuclear option, the Senate voted 51-42 to invoke cloture on the controversial nomination of David Weil to be the administrator of the wage and hour division at the Department of Labor. The Weil nomination was then confirmed by a vote of 51-42.

Also yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) filed cloture on S. 2223, Democrats’ minimum wage bill, which the CBO says could cost up to 1 million jobs. A cloture vote on the bill is expected tomorrow.

The House reconvened at 10 AM today.  They will consider today:
H.R. 4488 — "To make technical corrections to two bills enabling the presentation of congressional gold medals, and for other purposes."
H.R. 627 — "To provide for the issuance of coins to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the National Park Service, and for other purposes."
H.R. 4167 — "To amend section 13 of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, known as the Volcker Rule, to exclude certain debt securities of collateralized loan obligations from the prohibition against acquiring or retaining an ownership interest in a hedge fund or private equity fund."
H.R. 4414 - "To clarify the treatment under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of health plans in which expatriates are the primary enrollees, and for other purposes."

Yesterday the House passed the following bills:
H.R. 1501 (Voice Vote) — "To direct the Secretary of the Interior to study the suitability and feasibility of designating the Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument in Fort Greene Park, in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, as a unit of the National Park System."
H.R. 298 (Voice Vote)— "To direct the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a special resource study to evaluate the significance of the Mill Springs Battlefield located in Pulaski and Wayne Counties, Kentucky, and the feasibility of its inclusion in the National Park System, and for other purposes."
H.R. 3110 (Voice Vote) — "To allow for the harvest of gull eggs by the Huna Tlingit people within Glacier Bay National Park in the State of Alaska."
H.R. 4032 (Voice Vote)— "To exempt from Lacey Act Amendments of 1981 certain water transfers by the North Texas Municipal Water District and the Greater Texoma Utility Authority, and for other purposes."
H.R. 4120 (384 - 0) — "To amend the National Law Enforcement Museum Act to extend the termination date."
H.R. 4192 (367 - 16) — "To amend the Act entitled "An Act to regulate the height of buildings in the District of Columbia" to clarify the rules of the District of Columbia regarding human occupancy of penthouses above the top story of the building upon which the penthouse is placed."
H.R. 4194 (Voice Vote) — "To provide for the elimination or modification of Federal reporting requirements."
H.R. 930 (Voice Vote) — "To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a special resource study of the archeological site and surrounding land of the New Philadelphia town site in the State of Illinois, and for other purposes."
S. 994 (Voice Vote) — "To expand the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 to increase accountability and transparency in Federal spending, and for other purposes."

On the Senate floor this morning, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell discussed Democrats’ latest minimum wage proposal: “The American people want Congress to focus on one thing above all else: jobs. So you’d think the Democrats who control the Senate would want to help us advance bipartisan ideas to boost job creation. You’d think they’d actually work with us to address the concerns and anxieties of our constituents. But instead, Senate Democrats are pushing legislation this week that could actually cost — not create — up to a million American jobs. It’s completely tone deaf. Their bill could cost up to 17,000 jobs in Kentucky alone. And apparently, this is what Senate Democrats have made their top priority. It’s not much of a surprise though. As I’ve said many times, Washington Democrats often seem to hurt the very people they claim to be fighting for. When it comes to so many of their proposals, Washington Democrats appear to prioritize the desires of the Far Left over the needs of the Middle Class.”

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Democrats’ poll-tested plan to increase the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour “would reduce total employment by about 500,000 workers” by the time it was fully implemented and “[t]he overall reduction in employment could be... 1.0 million workers.” Janet Yellen, the head of the Federal Reserve, said earlier this year that “[t]here would be some amount of negative impact on employment as a consequence” of raising the minimum wage and that she “wouldn't argue with” CBO’s assessment on potential job losses. In a letter to policy makers, a huge list of economists that included Donald Boudreaux and Tyler Cowen, wrote, “One of the serious consequences of raising the minimum wage is that business owners saddled with a higher cost of labor will need to cut costs, or pass the increase to their consumers in order to make ends meet.”

And yet Democrats persist with this job-killing policy. Why? For political purposes, of course. The New York Times wrote last month, “The votes will be timed to coincide with campaign-style trips by President Obama, with the first planned around the time of the minimum-wage vote. The proposals have little chance of passing. But Democrats concede that making new laws is not really the point. . . . Privately, White House officials say they have no intention of searching for any grand bargain with Republicans on any of these issues. ‘The point isn’t to compromise,’ a senior White House official said, speaking anonymously to divulge strategy. . . . Part of the goal is to energize the Democratic base, which will be crucial to turnout in the more conservative states where the party needs to win this year.”

National Journal noted yesterday, “Republicans are greeting the news of a long-awaited vote with skepticism, saying that Majority Leader Harry Reid wants to push the measure as a campaign issue for as long as he can, providing a counterweight to the Republican attacks on Obamacare. . . . Privately, Republicans also wonder whether the reason the bill has languished—Democrats first began talking about hiking the wage before Thanksgiving—is because Reid does not have his caucus in line. Democrats, including Mark Pryor of Arkansas, who also faces a close race, and Tom Carper of Delaware, have balked at the $10.10 rate. Some have suggested lowering the upper limit. But Reid, an original cosponsor of Sen. Tom Harkin's bill, is not open to compromise. ‘I'm wedded to $10.10,’ he has said publically.”

As Leader McConnell said, “Of course, the one big loser in all of this is the American Middle Class. The Moms and Dads and sisters and brothers whose primary concern is paying the bills and putting food on the table. The kind of people who’ve had it worst in the Obama Economy. The very people Washington Democrats should be doing everything to help.” Addressing Senate Democrats, he said, “[I]f you’re ready to get serious about job creation, then there are some easy ways to demonstrate that to the American people. For starters, you can stop pushing legislation that would cut, rather than create, jobs. And you can stop blocking projects like Keystone – things that everyone knows will create jobs. Americans want jobs, not symbolism.”

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