A brief interlude from religious-liberty news, to an issue where Republicans are indeed standing on principle (well, with the backing of big business). Going into the 2014 elections, one of the few issues on which congressional Republicans were worried they were vulnerable was the minimum wage — raising it is very popular, but conservative economic principles recommend against the idea. Last November, a number of ballot initiatives to raise state-level minimum wages succeeded, but almost no Republican senatorial candidates caved on the issue on their way to victory.
I argued, contra liberal claims, that this means Republicans are doing fairly well on the tricky issue. The situation could change, though, and I worried “that Republican leadership could fold on the issue without its being political necessary.” But this week’s Senate “vote-a-rama,” where lots of symbolic amendments are brought forth by members who want to make their opponents take embarrassing votes, suggests that surrender hasn’t come yet. Only two Senate Republicans voted for a resolution saying they’d like to raise the federal minimum wage — Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, who is expected to face a tough reelection fight in 2016, and Susan Collins, who has been a little squishy on this idea for a while.
Will things change over the next couple years, driving Republican leadership to bring up a minimum-wage bill in the Senate? Maybe, but for now, Senate Republicans seem more or less united against the idea, as are those in the House.