How McCutcheon Will Make Raising the Minimum Wage Even Harder

[Triana]

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The inability of Washington to raise the minimum wage is a prime example of how that elite donor dominance impacts real-world policymaking. Last week, House Republicans unanimiously voted down the President's proposal to increase the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour over three years. This flies in the face of popular will. A March Bloomberg poll showed nearly three-quarters of respondents backing the President's proposal to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. Yet only 40 percent of the wealthy Americans agree. Those Americans, who our lawmakers hear from the most, largely don't support a minimum wage increase and their preferences hold undue sway in Washington because of a broken campaign finance system.

The implication of the divergence between the public and elites, which Demos explored in Stacked Deck, is why McCutcheon matters so much. A flood of money from a donor class that doesn't see eye-to-eye with the public makes a minimum wage increase even less likely. Political and economic inequality will continue to mutually reinforce.

See the infographic below for more on how the opinions of the donor class shape the policies that Washington pursues.



THE REST of the Story:

http://www.demos.org/blog/4/3/14/how-mccutcheon-will-make-raising-minimum-wage-even-harder

[Autumn]

1. I saw this earlier today. Excellent article.

Thanks for posting it.