In the ongoing Congressional battle of meaningless
legislative measures designed to gain election campaign talking points, but
having no change at all of ever becoming law, both sides of the capitol are
wasting time on bills our leaders say are meant to help middle class citizens,
but will never go on the statute books. Last Thursday, April 19, the House
voted 235 to 173 to pass a 20% income tax cut for small businesses employing
fewer than 500 workers. Though House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia
says the bill could create 100,000 jobs annually, the Senate will never vote on
the measure, and President Obama has vowed to veto the bill if it ever does
reach the Oval Office.
Meanwhile, across the capitol rotunda, Iowa Senator
Tom Harkin proposes increasing the minimum wage from $7.25/hour to $9.80/hour,
and index minimum wage increases to the cost of living after that. Tipped
worker minimum wages would go up from $2.13 to $6.85 under the Harkin bill, and
be indexed at 70% of the minimum for non-tipped workers after that. Harkin’s proposal
doesn’t stand much of a chance of passing the employer dominated House.
If our elected leaders were half as thoughtful
about compromising across the aisles of Congress and actually passing some
measures that would promote business development and job growth as they are
about introducing headline grabbing, meaningless, unpassable bills, economic
growth could suddenly materialize.
