In Our View: Murray Fires Warning Shot

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., is fighting a losing battle with hopes of winning the war.

Last week, Murray sought something called "unanimous consent" on a package of worker-friendly bills she has helped introduce in recent months. In the process, she provided a lesson in the inner workings of Washington, D.C., the give-and-take of politics, and the gamesmanship involved with building public support for an idea — all while undertaking the important work of bolstering the middle class.

The bills in question would: Raise the federal minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020; strengthen protection against gender pay disparities; require businesses with more than 15 employees to offer seven days of paid sick leave; and require employers to give workers advance notice of their schedules.

In short, it was a laundry list of progressive ideals as applied to the workplace — never mind that the "unanimous consent" request was dead on arrival. "Truly robust and strong economic growth comes from the middle out, not the top down," Murray said in a speech on the Senate floor. "When workers lack security, when they aren't treated fairly, they can't invest in themselves and their children, spend money in their communities, or move their families into the middle class." Murray also found a powerful ally. Hillary Clinton, when asked about the federal minimum wage while on the campaign trail, said, "Whatever she advocates for, I pay a lot of attention to."

Setting aside the details, merits, and drawbacks of the specific bills, Murray's action supplies some interesting insight into political machinations. As The Washington Post described the strategy in a July article: "Introduce token federal legislation, while pushing corporations to act on their own to improve practices. That lessens business opposition down the road when new laws are eventually proposed, first on the local level, until it works, finally, in Congress."

The ongoing debate over the minimum wage highlights that strategy. With pressure mounting, Seattle and many other municipalities have increased the minimum wage — action at the local level. And earlier this year, Wal-Mart announced wage increases for hundreds of thousands of workers — action at the corporate level. The same strategy for moving a mile just 1 inch at a time proved successful in the rise of approval for gay marriage throughout the country.

And yet the ploy requires political savvy. Republican efforts to defund all or part of the Affordable Care Act — including more than 50 redundantly feckless votes in Congress — amount to little more than head-banging against the proverbial wall. The law of diminishing returns suggests that even supporters of an idea stop paying attention at a certain point.

Murray's attention toward the middle class presages next year's presidential campaign and highlights a crucial issue facing the country. As the title of an analysis last year from Pew Research Center states, "America's wealth gap between middle-income and upper-income families is widest on record." Or, as CNN noted about a Harvard University report earlier this year: "Making the rent is a common struggle for the poor. But it's becoming increasingly difficult among the middle class."

There are numerous other accounts of how the middle class is losing the security that once was one of the nation's strengths. Whether or not Democratic proposals in the Senate would effectively address the underlying issues remains to be vetted and debated in a series of legislative battles. But, as Sen. Murray knows, the war will be a long one.