Political Gamesmanship in Washington

As the old saying goes politics makes strange bedfellows, but who would have thought that the Iraq war would sink the minimum wage bill?

That's exactly what happened last night after President Bush vetoed a controversial spending bill. He opposed the measure because it linked money for the war to a Congressionally-imposed timetable for troop withdrawal. As it turns out, the federal minimum wage hike and a package of tax incentives designed to off-set the increase were also tucked into the measure.

You may recall I predicted in my column last February that the minimum wage bill could turn out to be a case of good intentions gone awry on Capitol Hill. And that's exactly what seems to be happening. But who could have  predicted this bizarre turn of events? It just goes to show that political gamesmanship knows no end in Washington.

In the final analysis, however, it's hard to see how small business owners will lose much sleep over this. In a number of polls most were indifferent to the increase because they already paid their workers more. And while the bill included $4.8 billion in tax breaks, groups like the National Federation of Independent Business said the amount was too little to be meaningful.

So, chalk this one up to politics as usual in Washington.