House Ways and Means chair Charlie Rangel (D-NY) may be figuring that a public airing of the Senate's $8.3 billion tax package will break the impassse on the minimum wage bill now tied up in conference. Rangel has announced a March 14 hearing that will focus on Senate bill provisions he and Committee ranking member Jim McCrery (R-LA) have long objected to, specifically, those which:

• change the tax treatment of certain leases entered into before March 12, 2004, i.e., very retroactively
• deny deductions for certain government-required payments and punitive damages in civil actions
• enact new limitations on deferred compensation plans
• change the tax treatment of certain financial instruments

Other shortcomings of the Senate bill are examined in an op-ed piece in today's New York Times, echoing Max Sawicky's question, Does a minimum wage increase require new business tax cuts? The op-ed asks: why should the bill extend the Work Opportunity Tax credit for five years, when "small businesses... have never taken advantage of the Work Opportunity Tax Credit in large numbers, but are the most likely to suffer under the proposed minimum wage increase"? [And] "if we don't think that people with low incomes are getting what they need, [why] look to ineffective employer tax credits to try to create jobs [and] burden employers with the costs of a higher minimum wage, most of which won't even go to low-income families"? These questions deserve the hearing they may get on March 14.