ABC News: Minimum-Wage Hike Battle Heats Up in Senate:
WASHINGTON, July 31, 2006 — Anyone listening to the radio in recent weeks in Albuquerque, N.M., might have heard a man with a voice like a game-show host intoning "Let's play 'Who Deserves a Pay Raise?'"
The "contestants" are a nurse's assistant who works long, hard days and earns $5.15 an hour, and Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., who "just voted herself another $3,300 pay raise, and [is] saying no to increasing the minimum wage."
Versions of this ad — paid for by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — have been running in 10 competitive House districts across the country. But now they may have to undergo some creative editing.
Thanks to a hastily assembled package that passed the House in the wee hours of Saturday morning, vulnerable House Republicans like Wilson can now boast that they've voted in favor of a minimum wage hike. The bill, which passed with mostly Republican support, would raise the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour over the next three years but would also cut estate taxes and extend a host of other tax breaks.
Comments