Democrat + Republican = Big Government

From Michael Peroutka's website:

The Senate recently voted down two proposals to raise the minimum wage. One proposal was by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) who wanted to raise it to $7.25-an-hour. The other proposal was by Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), supposedly a conservative, who wanted to raise it to $6.25-an-hour.

The Santorum minimum wage increase proposal was supported by an overwhelming majority of GOP Senators (37) --- though there was a time not that long ago when the Republican Party opposed a Federal minimum wage. The 1988 Republican Party Platform called increasing the minimum wage "inflationary" and "job-destroying."

The 1984 GOP Platform said: "There are still Federal statutes that keep Americans out of the work-force. Arbitrary minimum wage rates, for example, have eliminated hundreds of thousands of jobs and, with them, the opportunity for young people to get productive skills, good work habits, and a weekly paycheck."

A major problem with the Republican Party is that for the GOP, and the Democrats, the Constitution is a dead letter. The Preamble of the 1992 Republican Party Platform said, in part:

"Abraham Lincoln, our first Republican President, expressed the philosophy that inspires Republicans to this day: 'The legitimate object of Government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot do at all, or cannot so well do, for themselves in their separate and individual capacities. But in all that people can individually do as well for themselves, Government ought not to interfere.’"

But, this view is a prescription for unlimited, un-Constitutional, tyrannical Government, precisely the kind of Government we have today under the control of the Republicans.

In the debate about his amendment to increase the Federal minimum wage, Sen. Santorum said, according to the "Associated Press" (3/8/05): "I have not had any ideological problem with the minimum wage." He added that he voted for the last increase to clear Congress, in 1996.

But, Sen. Santorum, and all the GOP Senators who voted for his measure to hike the Federal minimum wage, SHOULD have had a problem with the minimum wage because it is un-Constitutional! Instead of voting to raise the minimum wage, they should have been voting to repeal it. As I say, please forgive me, but I can’t help pointing out that the Republicans are actually a more dangerous threat to Constitutional government than are the Democrats.

I don't agree with that last line, but I do see eye-to-eye with the general sentiment of Mr. Peroutka's words. Keep in mind, too, that Mr. Santorum is considered by many as one of our most conservative senators. And the question is, why does he have no ideological problem with the minimum wage?