Intentions don’t justify bad ideas

Last Thursday, Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled that a proposed $15 federal minimum wage mandate could not be included in the pending $1.9 trillion stimulus package. Since congressional leaders are using the so-called budget reconciliation process to make it easier to pass the stimulus bill, extraneous measures are highly restricted.

That the minimum wage increase was likely to be stripped out of the package wasn’t particularly surprising. President Joe Biden himself had indicated last month the proposal was unlikely to survive the process.

That hasn’t stopped progressives in Congress from trying in the last few days to salvage inclusion.

Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, and Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, suggested penalizing corporations that don’t pay a $15 minimum wage. They have since dropped the idea.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, DMassachusetts, likewise lamented that the Senate is a deliberative body with rules, procedures and constraints. “We weren’t elected to come here and be a debating society that gives Mitch McConnell a veto on every single piece of legislation that is needed to help American families,” she said.

On Monday, two dozen House Democrats, including Rep. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, likewise appealed to the Biden administration to try to overturn the parliamentarian’s determination. “If we don’t overrule the Senate parliamentarian, we are condoning poverty wages for millions of Americans,” said Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Fremont.

Clearly, progressive lawmakers are highly motivated to pass a federal minimum wage increase.

However, the good intentions and passion of the progressives should not be confused with the soundness of their proposal. The Congressional Budget Office has indicated that, if implemented, the proposal would reduce nationwide employment by 1.4 million workers by 2025. Younger, lower-skilled and less educated workers will be disproportionately impacted.

The prevailing of such a flawed proposal that is not only unnecessary, even in the context of a bloated stimulus bill, but would be a wholly undeserved victory for those eager to expand the reach of the federal government at any cost.