In the News

President Obama is doubling down on a $10.10-an-hour federal minimum wage as a cause that will lift thousands out of poverty, assist millions in reaching the middle class and help Democrats in the 2014 midterm election.

He’s getting support back home during the President’s Day recess.

“Raising the minimum wage is about bringing back the middle class,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., told a Tuesday media event at Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream on Capitol Hill.

Never underestimate the common touch — and political antennae — of Patty Murray.

In the late winter of 2012,  chairing the Democrats’ uphill campaign to hold the U.S. Senate, Murray held another Capitol Hill news event to hit on the “War on Women” campaign theme.  With help from inept Republican candidates, it resonated and helped Democrats expand their majority.

“Today, more than two-thirds of workers making the minimum wage are women,” Murray argued.

The Republicans may be helping create this year’s Democrats’ campaign theme on the minimum wage.

In 1996, a GOP-run House under Newt Gingrich collaborated with President Clinton to raise the federal minimum wage.  Eighteen years later, House Speaker John Boehner says he opposes any increase in the $7.25-an-hour federal minimum wage and won’t even let it come to a vote.

As Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., pointed out Tuesday, the minimum wage has fallen to a point 20 percent below the poverty level.

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