ThinkProgress reported this morning that congressional conservatives were planning to allow a vote on the minimum wage today or tomorrow, but only if it was coupled with a poison pill provision that enacted Bush’s Associated Health Plans.

New reports indicate that conservatives are ditching one poison pill in favor of another. The AP writes:

Republican leaders are willing to allow the first minimum wage increase in a decade but only if it’s coupled with a cut in inheritance taxes on multimillion-dollar estates, congressional aides said Friday.

The estate tax — aka the Paris Hilton Tax — benefits only the ultra-wealthy. This year, the exemption level is $2 million ($4 million per couple), which means only 5 out of every 1,000 people who die will pay the tax.

Bill Samuel, a lobbyist for the AFL-CIO, said adding the estate tax to the minimum wage “is the mother of all poison pills. It can’t possibly pass the Senate.”

Sen. Edward Kennedy added, “It’s political blackmail to say the only way that minimum wage workers can get a raise is to give a tax giveaway to the wealthiest Americans. Members of Congress raised their own pay — no strings attached. Surely, common decency suggests that minimum wage workers deserve the same respect.”

This afternoon at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Tony Blair, President Bush said he would “make every effort to achieve a lasting peace” in the Middle East. He got started right away. Here are some photos from the Oval Office immediately after the event:

More pictures from this high-level diplomatic summit below the fold: Read more

Sen. John McCain’s name “is conspicuously absent” from a new bill addressing public financing of presidential campaigns; McCain was the lead sponsor of a virtually identical bill last year. McCain’s spokesperson “did not return calls seeking comment…but several people involved in discussions about the legislation said the senator’s absence was related to his widely expected bid for the presidency in 2008.”

At today’s press conference, NBC’s David Gregory noted that, three years ago, the Bush administration predicted that “the invasion of Iraq would create a new stage of Arab-Israeli peace,” but that hasn’t happened.

In response, President Bush proudly declared that American foreign policy no longer seeks to “manage calm,” and derided policies that let anger and resentment lie “beneath the surface.” Bush said that the violence in the Middle East was evidence of a more effective foreign policy that addresses “root causes.” Watch it:

UPDATE: The video is now working.

Transcript: Read more

and the war on terror.” — Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) shares the conservative national security message for 2006.

Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), who last year voted in favor of confirming John Bolton as U.N. ambassador in committee, says he “has not decided how he would vote in committee” this time around. Steve Clemons details Chafee’s aggressive questioning of Bolton yesterday.

Today, the leaders of the House of Representatives will finally allow a vote to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 an hour over two years. It would be the first increase in the minimum wage in ten years. Raising the minimum wage would benefit 7.3 million low-wage workers. Here’s how AP reports the story:

Republican Congressman Howard McKeon, the chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, said Republican lawmakers would embrace the increase to $7.25 per hour and probably attach a proposal…that would make it easier for small business to band together and buy health insurance plans for employees at a lower cost.

Sounds great! A raise in the minimum wage and a bonus for small business.

Actually, the provision that Rep. McKeon plans on attaching to the minimum wage bill is an ideologically driven proposal to enact Association Health Plans (AHPs). The proposal would “allow selective groups of small businesses to be exempt from state regulation – reducing their insurance premiums while raising them for those not in AHPs.” Here’s the impact:

– More uninsured. “A study by Mercer Consulting found that AHPs would increase the number of uninsured Americans by more than 1 million. ”

– Higher costs. “Only about one in five small employers would have lower premiums, while more than four out of five would actually see premiums go up.”

Rep. McKeon and his allies are counting on the fact that progressive members will find the Association Health Plan proposal so repugnant that they won’t vote for the bill raising the minimum wage.

It’s been 10 years. It’s time to stop playing politics and allow a straightforward vote on the minimum wage.