Senators Mitt Romney and Tom Cotton have proposed a minimum wage hike in addition to immigration enforcement. NBC News. Raising the minimum wage has been a major priority for the Democratic Party but bills have stalled in congress with Republican opposition a major factor why. Bernie Sanders bill for a $15 an hour wage would not pass a Republican filibuster while being unlikely to be approved constitutionally under budget reconciliation. Romney and Cotton's bill has not been revealed but it would tie minimum wage to inflation while making it illegal to hire illegal immigrants.
My Comment:
I've got mixed feelings about this one. For one thing I don't trust Mitt Romney at all. As far as I am concerned he is a Republican in name only and not someone that has anyone's interests in mind but his own. He doesn't care at all about raising the minimum wage or blocking illegal immigrants and he cares everything about staying in power.
Indeed, I feel this is probably a cynical attempt to position Mitt Romney for a 2024 presidential run, which would be doomed to failure even if President Trump decides not to run. Romney failed miserably back in 2012 largely because he had the typical neocon policies which were not popular back then and are toxic today. I see this effort to raise minimum wage as an attempt to steal President Trump's platform of economic populism and immigration enforcement.
But there are things that I like about this. For one it seems like it's an honest effort at compromise. In the past instead of just having Democrats force everything they want through congress, daring the Supreme Court to do something about it, there was a thing called compromise where both sides got something they wanted. This seems like an easy case for that. The Democrats absolutely demand a higher minimum wage and the Republican base is determined to have more restrictions on illegal immigration so it should be a win win.
I also think that the minimum wage has been stagnant for too long. I think trying to raise it to $15 an hour is insane and would cost millions of jobs and do massive economic damage to red states but I also think that $7.25 is really too low. Tying the wage to inflation would be a good compromise position and I really never understood why the Democrats insisted on $10 or $15 instead of settling at $8 or $9 and then working from there.
Will the bill pass? Almost certainly not. I can't imagine enough Democrats going along with the immigration restrictions to go for this and even if they didn't care about that they are in full revenge mode and won't work with Republicans on anything, even if it gives them something they want.
Plus fixing the minimum wage takes away one of the Democrats major issues. If they actually did something about the minimum wage then they wouldn't be able to use the issue as a campaign issue and given how popular it is, it could cost them seats in 2022. They care more about staying in power than anything else.
As for the Republicans there is a decent chance they won't go along with it either. Part of it is because Romney is toxic but it's mostly because many in the GOP really don't want to see any raise to the minimum wage. Though I agree that $15 is too much I also think that not raising the wage at all is just as dumb.
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