Copyright 2000 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.
Chicago
Sun-Times
February 03, 2000, THURSDAY, Late
Sports Final Edition
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 22
LENGTH: 443 words
HEADLINE:
Senate OKs $ 1 minimum wage hike ;
Clinton opposes timeline, size of
tax cuts
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
BODY:
The Senate voted for a $ 1-an-hour increase
in the minimum wage over three years, but President Clinton and Democrats said
that's too long for the nation's 11 million bottom-of-the-barrel workers to
wait.
"That's not the kind of legislation the president can sign," White
House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart said. He criticized the long wait and "a bevy
of unpaid-for tax cuts for the special interests." The proposal calls for $ 18
billion in tax cuts over five years, mostly for small-business owners. Some
increase in the current $ 5.15 hourly minimum seems likely to become law before
Election Day. The Republicans' desire to avoid making the proposal a campaign
issue gives Democrats little incentive to quickly settle for anything less than
what they want: $ 1 an hour over two years and a much smaller tax package.
The minimum wage increase was included in a bill that would overhaul the
nation's bankruptcy laws that the Senate approved 83-14. The House approved its
version of the bankruptcy legislation last May, but it lacked any minimum wage
provisions.
Last November, the House Ways and Means Committee approved a
separate Republican bill that would increase the minimum wage by $ 1 over three
years and includes a $ 30 billion, five-year package of tax cuts. About $ 16
billion of that is a reduction in the estate tax paid by upper-income people who
inherit substantial assets.
The potency of the minimum wage as a
campaign issue was last illustrated in 1996. After initial opposition by many
Republicans, Congress voted to raise the wage from $ 4.25 to its current $ 5.15
in two steps.
This year's Senate bill would increase the wage by 35
cents an hour in March 2000, by 35 cents more in March 2001 and 30 cents in
March 2002.
The language was added to the bankruptcy bill last November,
after Democrats tried -- and failed -- to force their own
version into the legislation. The Democratic alternative would have raised the
minimum wage by $ 1 with two 50-cent increases over 13 months, while also
providing $ 9.6 billion in tax relief and raising other taxes.
Politics
also figured in an abortion provision in the
bankruptcy bill passed Wednesday.
That provision would
prohibit people found to have violated laws protecting abortion
clinics from using bankruptcy proceedings to escape fines and
civil judgments.
The overall bill, supported by credit card companies
and other consumer lenders, would make it harder to wipe out debts by forcing
more people who file for bankruptcy to do so under provisions requiring them to
repay some debts instead of erasing all their obligations after they've
liquidated their assets.
GRAPHIC: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
WIRES
LOAD-DATE: February 03, 2000
