The strange thing about the conservative objection to a minimum wage hike is that the hike is everything conservatives believe in. If you give the lowest-paid people a raise, it lowers the amount of money they’re getting from the government for, say, food stamps. It helps ensure they stay off Paul Ryan’s hammock. According to a study by the White House Council of Economic Advisers, a $10.10-an-hour minimum wage would mean a raise for 28 million workers and, says the study, “only 12 percent of … beneficiaries are teenagers.” It’s not just liberal pundits and White House economic advisers who say this. Ron Unz, a California conservative one percenter, wants to raiser the minimum wage to $12 an hour in his state.
Dionne writers that this is the right idea for the right. Via the Washington Post.
Ron Unz, publisher of libertarian journal The American Conservative, argues for a $12 minimum wage.
Thomas Frank revisits what is the matter with Kansas: The Tea Party, the 1 percent and delusional Democrats. Via Salon.
La Porte, Colorado. The car turned left, no signal, the driver clearly distracted. Biker at the head of the pack: “I was screaming at the top of my lungs” for the driver to “just look up.”
Some basic backstory on the controversial U.S. 36 deal. TABOR doomed us to our lopsided road-building “public-private partnerships.” Republicans warned against the lack of transparency in the deal.
More gun news to come from the Colorado Capitol: “A proposal Republicans bring every year would grant legal protections to businesses that use deadly force against intruders. Republicans also want to allow a sales-tax holiday for buying firearms and ammunition. And a Democratic bill would restore the right of some felons to carry firearms.”
Public, business community protest, national media swarm, leading Kansas Republican lawmakers to suspend voting on their anti-gay religious-freedom bill.
Jeffrey Goldberg: You wouldn’t believe what he saw at the Dachau gift shop. Via Bloomberg.
Ta-Nehisi Coates on the killing of Jordan Davis by Michael Dunn. Via the Atlantic.
The desperation of using Monica Lewinsky as a talking point. Via the National Journal.
Ex-Bronco Mark Schlereth tells why the Miami Dolphins’ lack of respect for the NFL locker room code stinks. Via ESPN.
