The War of the Wages; Obama moves left on the economy to change the subject from ObamaCare.
For all of their mutual public admiration, Presidents Clinton and Obama react differently to political trouble. Bill moved to the middle, while Barack always moves left. So it's no surprise that Mr. Obama is responding to his ObamaCare rollout slump by doing his best Elizabeth Warren imitation.</br></br>Mr. Obama returned to his favorite theme of rising income inequality on Wednesday, which he called "the defining challenge of our time." He ought to know since few Presidents have done more to increase inequality than he has. Median household income has fallen since the economic recovery began, while the rich who own capital assets have done very well thanks to the Federal Reserve's focus on reflating stock and home prices. Mr. Obama is the Chief Economist of Nottingham posing as Robin Hood.</br></br>The President's political purpose here is what the pros call rallying your base. Many Democrats are as dismayed as Republicans at ObamaCare's rollout, so the White House wants to change the subject and give MSNBC viewers something else to debate. Mr. Obama didn't have much new to offer that would help the economy or the middle class, so instead he's decided to escalate that hardy liberal perennial, the minimum wage.</br></br>Earlier this year he proposed an increase to $9 an hour from the current $7.25. That has gone nowhere on Capitol Hill and Mr. Obama is less popular than he was, so the White House response is to raise the bidding to $10.10. If his popularity keeps falling, Mr. Obama will be demanding $15 by next November.</br></br>One liberal highlight from last month's elections was when 60% of New Jersey voters approved a state minimum wage hike to $9.25 an hour. Unions now plan to put wage increases of $9 to $10 an hour on the 2014 ballot in at least five states--Alaska, Idaho, Massachusetts, Missouri and South Dakota. The President recently endorsed the bill by Iowa Senator Tom Harkin and Rep. George Miller of California to raise the wage floor to $10.10 by 2015 with automatic indexing for inflation thereafter. Look for Harry Reid to call it up for a Senate vote next week.