Millionaires Win Again. Working Families Don’t

by Mike Hall, Jun 23, 2006

The “Paris Hilton tax cut” may sound oh-so-cute, but working families aren’t laughing.

House Republicans handed out another expensive package to multimillionaire families yesterday when, in a mostly party-line vote (269–156), the House approved a bill that permanently exempts estates worth up to $10 million from the estate tax and slashes the tax rate on those worth more.

Meanwhile, hard-working families who are struggling to get by on the $5.15 an hour federal minimum wage have been slapped in the face by Republican lawmakers who are holding a minimum wage increase hostage.

It’s been nearly 10 years since Congress last raised the minimum wage, which today is at its lowest buying power in more than half a century. In that same time, Congress has taken care of itself with nine pay raises, adding nearly $35,000 a year to their paychecks.

Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), the chief sponsor of a House bill to raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour, says the millionaire estate tax cut:

…is a clear statement of who the Republicans in Congress really represent. Already this year, the Republican-controlled Congress has approved an average tax cut of $42,000 for those making more than a million dollars annually. Now they are on track to give more tax cuts to the super rich, yet they refuse even to allow a vote on an increase in the minimum wage. This is truly a disgrace and a slap in the face to all Americans who go to work every day and must provide for their families on poverty wages.

The estate tax cut will cost U.S. taxpayers more than $760 billion, according to government figures.

Republicans spun the millionaire tax cut gift as a “compromise” to complete repeal of the estate tax on all wealthy estates. Last year the House passed a repeal bill, but failed to win Senate approval earlier this month.

While Republican leaders hustled to reward the extremely rich, they deliberately have stalled efforts to bring a minimum wage increase to a vote.

Last week, the full House Appropriations Committee approved an amendment to the Labor, Health and Human Services spending bill that raises the wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour. The bill was scheduled for a vote this week until the wage hike was included.

Now, feeling pressure to at least give the impression that they have concern for low-wage workers, there are reports Republican leaders may allow the bill, or another minimum wage vehicle to come to the floor. But is likely to call for a lower raise and contain the same poison pills that were in Senate proposal defeated earlier this week, including eliminating wage and hour protections for millions of workers, cutting overtime pay by replacing the 40-hour workweek with an 80-hour, two-week work period and cutting wages for tipped workers.

A measure to raise the wage by $2.10 an hour without the toxic add-ons won a majority of the Senate (52–46), but because of Republican leaders’ parliamentary maneuvering, it took 60 votes to pass. The Senate also defeated minimum wage increase.

In a letter to House members, the AFL-CIO called for a vote on a “clean” minimum wage increase of $2.10 an hour:

Poison pills that negate the benefits of a minimum wage increase are designed to provoke opposition, not to address the needs of working people. Working Americans should not have to sacrifice wage and hour protections every time the minimum wage is increased, because minimum wage increases merely restore the value that has been lost to inflation. 

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