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BohemianBabe Most Democrats are lying when they say they want to raise the minimum wage, that's why they're not trying. It's only the so-called far Left of the party that is actually fighting for a living wage.
If Congress were being run by a Majority Leader like Sen. Robert Byrd and a Speaker like Tip O'Neill, Jim Wright or Tom Foley, the minimum wage would have not only been raised during Obama's first two years in office while the Democrats had a clear majority in both chambers than no one or two senators could block, but it would have been indexed to inflation, too.
Prior to 1988, work places with more than 50 employees didn't have to give any warning when they were shutting down. When the Democrat-controlled Congress passed a law requiring 60 days notice, President Ronald Reagan vetoed it and Congress failed to override the veto. But Sen. Robert Byrd, unlike Sen. Chuck Schumer, was a master of Senate rules and procedures. He brought the bill back up shortly before the general election. President Reagan then had two choice: sign the bill or veto it and thereby hurt Vice President George Bush's election chances. Rather than risk the election for the Republicans, Reagan decided on the former.
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1988/5/25/president-vetoes-trade-bill-pwashington-president-reagan/
https://www.upi.com/Archives/1988/06/23/Senate-considers-plant-closing-notice-again/5496583041600/
https://www.csmonitor.com/1988/0803/afill03.html
Would it have been better for the Dukakis campaign had Reagan had vetoed the bill just before Labor Day? That's a no-brainer. But it was better for workers to have that plant closure legislation became law than to use it as a campaign issue.
It's the same thing with the minimum wage. Democrats today like having the issue to bash Republicans on it. And it works - when you have (or win) a big majority in Congress.
President Truman said it best in 1948.
"(Republicans) favor a minimum wage — the smaller the minimum the better."
President Truman campaigned on raising it!
Truman was elected and (as Obama would do 60 years later) flipped both chambers of Congress to majorities of 54-42 in the Senate and 262-171-2 in the House.
And within 12 months of winning the 1948 election he had signed legislation that nearly DOUBLED the minimum wage from five years earlier. It was the biggest - and still is - largest percentage increase per year in the history of raising the minimum wage.
Obama came in with a 56-40-2 Democrat margin in the Senate and 257-178 in the House. During the first two years of his first term, the Democrats FAILED to pass legislation to raise the minimum wage (and failed to at least tie it to inflation). The argument against pushing for an increase was that the bill raising the minimum wage from $5.15/hour in steps to $7.25/hour that President Bush signed in 2007 was to take effect on July 24, 2009.)
At one point the Democrat margin (with two independents) in the Senate was a filibuster proof 60-40. Did Obama push to raise it? No. The priority was the ACA (i.e. ObamaCare). That cost the Democrats BOTH chambers of Congress.
And for what? He could have easily got a stand-alone bill passed for a ban on pre-existing exclusions.
Another piece of legislation that could have been passed had been proposed by Sen. John McCain: tax credits of $5,000 for a family and $2,500 for an individual would be indexed annually for inflation and available to Americans regardless of income, employment, or tax liability. Any remaining balance of the credit could be deposited into an "expanded" health savings account (HSA). A Guaranteed Access Plan (GAP) would have been created for those who insurers deemed "uninsurable."
But a combination of banning pre-existing exclusions AND full tax credits indexed to inflation (regardless of income or the amount of income tax paid) would have been easier to get passed - and may have saved the Democrats from losing control of Congress in 2010 as it would have had the backing of a decent amount of Republicans.
Instead, we were left with the ACA, which "solved" the "uninsured" problem by REQUIRING people to buy a product from a FOR-PROFIT company (or from a state run pool) with no meaningful price controls. Blue-collar workers with so-called "Cadillac" insurance plans got shafted, having giving up wage increases in exchange for good health insurance.
While the ACA provides for tax credits adjusted for inflation to go towards paying for health insurance (phased out gradually as one's income is higher), the McCain plan was to index a fully refundable tax credit to purchase health insurance to inflation with the taxpayer KEEPING any balance left over into a HSA (and able to be used for any medical purpose, including paying deductibles and co-pays). The ACA tax credit does NOT allow one to do that.
