“Moderate” Democrats serving their most cherished constituency
by digby
Already facing heavy Republican opposition, congressional Democrats who support raising the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour now find themselves beating back a less ambitious proposal being considered by a contingent of their own party.
The Hill reported Tuesday that Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) was discussing with Democratic senators an alternative plan that would hike the minimum wage by a smaller amount — a compromise that could potentially give cover to incumbents on both sides of the aisle in an election year. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) told the paper he would be open to such a deal.
Why would Democrats need cover? Are there a lot of voters who are against the minimum wage being raised?
On minimum wage, voters support raising the federally mandated minimum, 72 percent to 27 percent, including a majority of Republicans, who support it 52 percent to 45 percent, according to a Quinnipiac poll out Wednesday.
Now, it’s certainly possible that Susan Collins needs some cover. She needs the votes of Tea Partiers who think the only people in the Nation who ever held down a job are them — so they deserve government benefits but no one else does. But what about those Democrats? Surely they don’t believe they are going to get the votes of GOP minority who are against the minimum wage do they? That’s just nuts. If they need Republicans to vote for them, surely they can work with that GOP majority that’s in favor.
Of course, there is one constituency that really doesn’t like this legislation and it’s bipartisan: big business. I’m going to guess that’s who they’re worried about. And it’s shameful. At least the Republicans can legitimately claim that almost half of their own misanthropic voters are against it. The Democrats who are going along with this are just being corporate love-slaves.
By the way, since Susan Collins is so compromised by her need to pretend to be a moderate while delivering for the GOP, maybe it would be good to replace her. The Democrats have a good candidate, Shenna Bellows. You can contribute to her campaign here.
.