Congress

Normally, in the Senate, controversial bills on the calendar (and at the desk) pile up throughout the year, as risk-averse senators edge away from potentially career-ending floor fights.

There are, however, two times a year when the realization that "this is it" unsticks legislation that has become stuck. The first occurs in the days before Congress goes on its month-long summer recess. The second, in the days before it adjourns for the year.

The first "high-activity period" has come and gone, and it has produced two major public laws:

• the ethics/ "lobby reform" package; and
• the minimum-wage increase.

The second bill would mandate a phased-in two dollar per hour increase in the minimum wage, coupled with more than $5 billion in tax cuts demanded by Republicans.

In the process, the price of goods and services purchased disproportionately by the poor will increase.

But, for fueling outright cynicism, nothing beats the ethics "lobby reform" legislation, which will do for legislators what federal energy policy has done for gasoline: it will dramatically increase the cost of buying them. . . .

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