This afternoon, the Senate Finance Committee approved by voice vote the $8.3 billion "Small Business and Work Opportunity Act of 2007," co-sponsored by Committee chair Max Baucus (D-MT) and ranking member Charles Grassley (R-IA). The bill provides an array of tax breaks, mostly geared toward small business, and is basically offset with provisions that are principally aimed at corporations and wealthy individuals. (See JCT scoring for details). We've been wondering what the minimum wage has to do with tax cuts. Baucus has been making the claim that there aren't 60 votes in the Senate for the minimum wage increase that passed the House last week, 315-116, that a clean minimum wage bill would face a filibuster. Grassley reiterated this questionable point: "a minimum wage hike would likely not pass the Senate without small business tax relief." President Bush has said since the midterm elections that he would sign a minimum wage bill, as long as it included provisions for small business. So a fairer statement would be this one by Baucus, before the vote: By acting today, we can help to create a sounder minimum wage bill. We can help to create a minimum wage bill that can get more than 60 votes and pass the Senate. And we can help to create a minimum wage bill that the president will sign. But the future of Baucus' brainchild is uncertain. Under the Constitution, tax bills must originate in the House, where Ways & Means chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY), who opposes adding a tax measure to the minimum wage bill, has threatened to "blue-slip" (refuse to bring up) the Small Business and Work Opportunity Act of 2007.