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The leading feature today looks at some policies related to the minimum wage. Later: institutional reform, family-friendly policy, American music, and more.
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Last week, Tom Cotton and Mitt Romney proposed a deal that would couple a minimum-wage increase with expanded E-Verify. John McCormack has some details on the thinking in the Cotton and Romney camps about this proposal:
“This is a labor bill,” a Cotton aide told reporters during a background briefing on Monday. The architects of the bill believe that by tying mandatory use of the E-Verify system to the minimum-wage hike the legislation will tighten the labor market and put upward pressure on wages.
How did Romney and Cotton specifically settle on $10 as the right number for the federal minimum wage — and not, say, $9 or $12? A Romney aide pointed to a 2019 report by the Congressional Budget Office that found that a $10 federal minimum wage likely wouldn’t cost any jobs in its median estimate.
Robert VerBruggen analyzes the bill more here.
Ramesh Ponnuru and Michael Strain think about the policies (and politics) of indexing the minimum wage.
Josh Hawley has his own minimum-wage plan: the “Blue-Collar Bonus.”
Hawley is proposing a three-year program that would increase worker wages in 2021, paid by taxpayers rather than employers.
Those making below $16.50 per hour would receive a refundable tax credit worth 50% of the difference, paid out in quarterly installments. The $16.50 could increase over time, as it would be tied to the Consumer Price Index.
The credit would only apply to 40 hours or less of weekly work.
Only American workers with valid Social Security numbers would be eligible, meaning non-U.S. citizens and undocumented immigrants would be excluded.
Speaking of….Brutal numbers from a Fed governor: “Disaggregating the overall unemployment rate reveals that workers in the lowest wage quartile face Depression-era rates of unemployment of around 23 percent. In part, this rate likely reflects the concentration of lower-wage jobs in service industries that are strongly reliant on in-person contact, or at least in-person work, while a larger proportion of higher-wage jobs are currently being performed remotely or with reduced levels of in-person contact.”
Via American Compass: “7 proposals to make America more family-friendly.”
At the American Enterprise Institute, Alex Brill, Kyle Pomerleau, and Grant Seiter survey existing federal benefits for families and calculate the effects of various reform proposals (such as in Biden’s American Rescue Plan or Romney’s Family Security Act).
Building institutions:
The Public Discourse has a pair of essays about institutional thinking for politics.
Daniel E. Burns says education reform depends upon institutions:
While there are many local and non-elite institutions that can contribute to filling the holes in the modern American psyche that he has penetratingly diagnosed, the single institution best suited to do so is the mission-driven, tech-skeptical K–12 school. The sacred mission that animates the committed leadership class of such a school will likely, although not necessarily, be understood in explicitly religious terms. It will emphasize complete moral formation in a proudly anti-presentist mode, guided by the reading of old books. Thanks to the countercultural universities and colleges discussed above, such K–12 schools should find no shortage of potential teachers and administrators who have themselves already been molded by a similarly formative and tech-skeptical undergraduate or graduate education.
Andy Smarick reflects on the stakes of institutions for political change:
It is helpful, first, to understand institutions as a reflection of needs. “Institution” can be a capacious term. It generally refers to ways of organizing collective action to accomplish shared goals. So it includes norms and traditions (formal and informal rules for guiding how we work together) as well as organizations that carry out specific functions. Societies create and adjust voluntary associations, public bodies, corporations, and sets of behavior to help us lead healthy, happy lives individually and as communities.
Adam Tooze looks at European growth rates.
Dimensional debate: Matt Taibbi and RJ Eskow talk Marcuse.
Another debate: This discussion about Trump between Andrew Sullivan and Michael Anton has gotten some attention.
Justin EH Smith has begun a three-part series on American music.
Three…music...how about Velazquez’s The Three Musicians (c. 1618) to close out this issue?