It was just last week that nearly every Senate Republican linked arms and blocked a vote on raising the federal minimum wage. There were more than enough votes in the chamber to approve the popular legislation, but the Democratic majority couldn’t overcome a GOP filibuster.
A growing number of prominent Republicans outside the Beltway are saying their party is making a mistake. As of this morning, the list includes Mitt Romney, who appeared on msnbc (video below).
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney on Thursday morning said he supports an increase in the minimum wage, breaking with many Republicans who have stood against it.“I, for instance, as you know, part company with many of the conservatives in my party on the issue of the minimum wage. I think we ought to raise it,” the 2012 Republican presidential nominee said. “Because frankly, our party is all about more jobs and better pay.”
Evidently, that’s an aspirational goal, because it’s currently not what the party is “all about.”
Nevertheless, Romney’s comments come on the heels of similar assessments from a couple of his former presidential rivals — Rick Santorum and Tim Pawlenty — both of whom also endorsed an increase to the federal minimum wage.
But as is often the case, Republicans endorsing popular ideas away from Capitol Hill seems to have little effect on Republicans on Capitol Hill, who continue to argue that a minimum-wage increase is out of the question.
Indeed, the number of GOP lawmakers calling for reducing the federal minimum wage to zero continues to grow.
Last week, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said he believes the federal minimum wage simply shouldn’t exist, endorsing a line already adopted by some of his Republican colleagues.
In a curious twist, Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) told msnbc the other day that he’s consider an increase, but only if Democrats met a series of Republican demands, including approval of the Keystone pipeline.
That’s a pretty high price for something policymakers should want to do anyway.
In the meantime, congressional Republicans aren’t just at odds with public opinion, their own party’s presidential candidates, and states moving forward on their own minimum-wage laws. They’ve also adopted a line rejected by some private-sector leaders.
In an interview published Wednesday with CNBC, Subway CEO Fred Deluca said he is “not concerned” by the idea of federal minimum wage increase, since it would affect rivals companies just the same and not put anyone at a “particular disadvantage.”“Over the years, I’ve seen so many of these wage increases,” he told CNBC. “I think it’s normal. It won’t have a negative impact hopefully, and that’s what I tell my workers.” […]Deluca even said he would support measures that would raise the minimum wage automatically. Unlike Social Security and many tax code provisions, the minimum wage is not adjusted each year to account for rising prices. “If I were in charge of the government, I would index the minimum wage to inflation so that way everybody knows what they can count on,” he said. “The employees know they’re going to get increases on a regular basis. The management knows that they’re going to have to pay a little bit more.”
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Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."