We already know that Senate Republicans launched a filibuster rather than let the Senate approve the first increase to the minimum wage in 12 years. What went largely unnoticed, however, was an amendment from Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) that would have undermined the very idea of a federal minimum wage.
The AFL-CIO’s blog had a disconcerting post on the subject.
Yesterday, 69 years after the minimum wage was first established, 28 U.S. senators did just that when they voted “yes” on an amendment from Colorado Republican Wayne Allard that would have scrapped the federal minimum wage. (Click here to see the 28 senators who voted for the Allard amendment. They should be ashamed of themselves and if they are your lawmakers, let them know how wrong they were.)
We’re not making this up. Here’s what Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) had to say about the Allard amendment that was offered to the Senate bill (S. 2) to raise the federal minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 an hour:
“On the Allard amendment, members should understand what the effect of the Allard amendment is, and that is effectively to repeal the minimum wage for any states among the 50 states. That effectively is what the Allard amendment does.”
Initially, I assumed this was wrong. Sure, there’s some hostility for the minimum wage among congressional Republicans, but there couldn’t possibly be 28 GOP senators who’d give up on the policy altogether.
But the description is largely on the mark. The Allard amendment would have basically left it to the states to set their own wage limits — there’d be no national minimum at all.
Now, the reality is that Allard almost certainly knew that this measure wouldn’t pass, but offered it to make a point — he believes in “state flexibility” on the minimum wage, so he wanted a vote on his preferred method. Besides, he’s retiring from Congress in two years and doesn’t have to worry about political consequences.
But it wasn’t just Allard; 28 Republicans voted for this thing, including a presidential candidate you may have heard of.
The full list is here, and it’s worth taking a look at. Not surprisingly, you find all of the chamber’s most conservative members, including Bunning (Ky.), Coburn (Okla.), Hatch (Utah), and Inhofe (Okla.).
But you also find John McCain voting for this, and rumor has it, he’s running for president.
Now, like everyone else, McCain surely knew that Allard’s measure wouldn’t pass, so by voting for it, he indicated that he really believes in it. This wasn’t party pressure or loyalty to the president; he voted this way all on his own.
Is it me, or is this an unusually risky political move for the leading GOP presidential candidate? The vote on the amendment didn’t much of anything in the way of media coverage, but in a single day, McCain voted against the first increase in the minimum wage in 12 years and for effectively repealing the federal minimum wage altogether. All of this, despite four out of five Americans taking the opposite position.
Sounds to me like a possible campaign issue.