Some priorities. Republican Senators feign outrage that the filibuster means it takes 60 votes to confirm Bush appointees to lifetime jobs as federal judges, but they plotted a sneak attack with the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act that, if successful, could mean that it would take 60 votes to raise the minimum wage. How's that? UMRA allows a point of order to rise against legislation that creates new requirements on the states that reach a cost threshold, currently $62 million. One of the few statutes enacted into law that met UMRA's definition was the 1996 increase in the minimum wage, ultimately because states are employers that, like any other employer, would have to apply the min wage increase. (Others include a 1997 reduction in food stamp funds and the 2003 preemption of state laws on prescription drug benefits.)