From Scout:

I shouldn’t have read this first thing in the morning. I’ll be “fuming” all day.

WASHINGTON, July 29 — The House approved an increase in the federal minimum wage on Saturday, but its future was clouded because Republicans tied the pay change to an estate tax cut that had been blocked in the Senate.

In a prelude to a summer of campaigning in the battle for control of Congress, lawmakers clashed bitterly over the Republican decision to link the tax break for affluent Americans to a $2.10 increase in the minimum wage before the legislation was approved after 1 a.m. on a 230 to 180 vote.

The vote came after the House, which is heading home for a five-week recess packed with political activities, easily approved a measure intended to bolster the nation’s pension system.

The maneuver to couple the minimum wage increase long sought by Democrats and moderate Republicans and the estate tax change backed by conservatives left some Republicans uneasy and Democrats fuming.

SNIP

“If the Republicans were serious about raising the minimum wage for the first time in nearly 10 years and extending tax relief for working Americans,” Mr. Reid said, “they would not hold them hostage in their effort to give the wealthiest Americans hundreds of billions more in additional tax giveaways.”

SNIP

Representative Zach Wamp, Republican of Tennessee, said Democrats were upset with the legislation because Republicans had found a clever way to link the two. “You have seen us outfox you on this issue tonight,” Mr. Wamp told Democrats in the floor debate.

Yeah I hope Wamp and the rest of the outfoxing Republicans go forth and brag to their working class constituents on the break about how they are better off now that the Republicans passed this stunt of a bill that will go nowhere. I hope Wamp travels Tennessee to let the little guy know just how how important he can be as a tool to not only bail out the rich but also do nothing Republicans in Congress. I’m sure the working guy (who knows the trick to getting any job done is finding the right tool) will understand all this outfoxing once Wamp explains the whole process to them in an honest forthright manner…which I’m sure he will do. Not