Raising the minimum wage is a good thing, right? Living wages help those struggling to get by by giving them greater buying power. This means more food on the table and possibly a better place to live. Sometimes it means more time with the kids since one wouldn’t have to work 3 jobs just to make ends meet.

Well, thank the Republicans once again for effectively killing a minimum wage increase. CNN reports that Republicans have poisoned the House bill by counteracting the minimum wage increase by cutting inheritance taxes on multi-million dollar estates. The part that gets me about all of the opposition to raising the minimum wage is that as much as Republicans claim those on welfare or state aid are lazy, they don’t realize that mandating that employers give low-income workers a living wage would probably allow some folks to stop collecting some welfare benefits. Now, wouldn’t that be a nice benefit for Republicans if they signed on to raising the minimum wage? Unfortunately, this bill will most certainly be voted down in the Senate. With the election season just about in full-swing, you can bet Republicans will swift-boat vulnerable Democrats by saying they voted against a minimum wage increase. The article even says as much:

But Republicans also reveled in putting moderate Democrats in the uncomfortable position of voting against both the minimum wage increase and the estate tax cut — and an accompanying bipartisan package of popular tax breaks, including a research and development credit for businesses and deductions for college tuition and state sales taxes.

It’s tactics like this that make my proposal of One Bill, One Issue sound even better. At least that way, we’d be able to get on the road toward living wages for all of our nation’s low-income citizens.