Congress To Give Another Tax Cut To Millionaires, While Blocking Minimum Wage Increase
(Washington, DC) – Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) condemned the Republican leadership’s decision to move forward with a vote today on a bill to virtually eliminate the estate tax, while blocking a bill that contains a long-overdue increase in the federal minimum wage from being considered on the House Floor as previously scheduled.
“It is unacceptable that the Republican Majority in the House will vote today to give a tax cut to the heirs of millionaires while blocking an increase in the minimum wage for millions of hardworking Americans,” said Lee. “This Republican-controlled Congress already approved an average tax cut of $42,000 this year to those making more than a million dollars annually. Instead of rewarding the hard work of Americans struggling to make ends meet, Republicans are hard at work making sure the heirs of the wealthy few get an enormous tax break.”
The minimum wage is at its lowest level in 50 years when adjusted for inflation and Congress has not increased it since 1997.
“Republicans are once again showing that they do not share the priorities of most Americans,” Lee added. “The Republican estate tax bill is fiscally irresponsible – costing $280 billion in the first ten years alone – and it would only drive us deeper into debt. And, it only helps the 3 in 1,000 estates that would owe any estate tax. This bill is not about small business owners and farmers.
“More than 80 percent of Americans support increasing the minimum wage. This is an issue of fairness. Democrats will not stop fighting until we pass an increase in the minimum wage,” concluded Lee.
Last week, House Democrats on the Appropriations Committee successfully attached an amendment to raise the minimum wage to the FY07 Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations Bill. The amendment is based on a Democratic bill that would gradually increase the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 over two years. The minimum wage amendment passed in Committee with bipartisan support, but Republican leaders have stopped the Labor-Health bill from coming to the Floor this week as previously scheduled because they fear an attempt to strip the minimum wage increase from the bill would fail. Instead, Republicans scheduled a vote on the estate tax bill.
A minimum wage earner who works full-time all year earns just $10,700, leaving them well below the poverty line. In the United States, 6.6 million people would benefit from a raise in the minimum wage, including 1.6 million who are parents with children under the age of 18.
Roughly three-quarters of minimum wage workers, 4.7 million workers, are adults over the age of 20, and many are responsible for over half of their family’s income. If the minimum wage was equal to what it was at its highest point (1968) it would be $9.05 (as of January 2006).
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