Minimum wage bill not passed in the Senate

Much to the disappointment of many minimum wage workers in the United States, the increase in the minimum wage did not pass the Senate last night. The bill "To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to increase the unified credit against the estate tax to an exclusion equivalent of $5,000,000, to repeal the sunset provision for the estate and generation-skipping taxes, and to extend expiring provisions, and for other purposes" was blocked by a lack of a majority to prevent further discussion. My favorite part of this bill's title is that there is nothing mentioning the minimum wage increase. Many opponents of the bill could not bear the cost of the drop of the estate tax, even if they were in favor of the minimum wage increase. If you are interested in reading the bill and the actions on it, check out the Thomas web site. If you want further analysis of the bill along with more details on the vote, check out the Washington Post article "GOP Bid on Wages, Estate Tax is Blocked: Democrats Prevent Vote on Senate Bill." To find out the costs of the ending of the estate tax, check out the Congressional Budget Office report "H.R. 5970, Estate Tax and Extension of Tax Relief Act of 2006."