The Senate voted this afternoon 47 - 51 against raising the minimum wage to $6.25. 42 Democrats, 4 Republicans (Chafee, DeWine, Santorum, and Specter), and Independent Jim Jeffords (VT) voted in favor of the increase. The minimum wage has not been increased for over 8 years, the second longest drought on record.

It appears Republicans are laying the groundwork to positively spin the possible collaspe of support for an amendment to the budget resolution that would increase cuts to entitlement programs from $35 to $50 billion over the next five years. As of today, it appears the House leadership still does not have the 218 votes necessary to pass the amendment. The House leadership has already scaled back the amendment by dropping a proposal for an across-the-board 2 percent cut to discretionary programs. It remains unclear if there is enough support for increasing the mandatory cuts beyond those originally agreed upon in the resolution this past April, but a delay or cancelation of the vote on the amendment is clearly a sign of weakness for both the GOP leadership's efforts to enact deeper cuts and the Republican Study Committee's efforts to threaten the leadership for control of the House. Undetered, acting-Majority Leader Roy Blunt (R-MO) declared today, "Our chairman, frankly, can do [these additional cuts] without a vote and are moving forward." He added, "I don't think the Conference is divided at all. I think we have a plan. The question is: At what point do we bring that plan to the floor." Yet Blunt did not elaborate on how he thought the leadership would be able to pass the actual reconciliation bill with $50 billion in cuts (whenever they decide to bring it to the floor) if they could not muster the suppoort for an amendment that is merely a verbal committment to pass the cuts. It is possible to use a tactic favored by this leadership group, which is holding the vote open for extended periods until they twist enough individual arms and offer enough consessions and sweateners to get the votes they need. Democracy at its finest!

The Agriculture Committee in the Senate is required under the FY06 budget reconciliation instructions to cut to cut $3 billion from mandatory agriculture programs. One of the programs at risk of being cut was the food stamp program, however today Senate Ag Committee Chairman Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) dropped plans to cut the program by $574 million. They would have achieved their savings in the food stamp program by requiring families receiving non-cash state welfare assistance -- who are currently automatically eligible for food stamps -- to apply separately. This would have brought down the number of families who use the program. Instead, he will reduce the amount of money farmers can get in certain farm subsidy payments that are made in advance. According to CongressDaily, "The change in the percentage of direct payments a farmer can get early in the year raises the savings from $518 million in Chambliss' first plan to almost $1.1 billion. The impact is to deny farmers the use of that money during the production season. Farmers will continue to get the full direct payment promised under the 2002 farm bill minus a 2.5 percent reduction in all farm programs, but making the payment later in the year creates budget savings." NY Times Coverage