Congress delivers another blow to working America:

Under a deal worked out between Republicans and Democrats, the wage amendments considered on Monday were all but doomed from the start because they required 60 votes to be adopted. It has been eight years since Congress last increased the minimum wage, which now stands at $5.15 an hour. The Democratic proposal to increase the minimum wage by 41 percent, to $7.25, over the next two years was sponsored by Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts. It was sought by organized labor and opposed by an array of business interests. "The height of hypocrisy will be this afternoon, when those individuals in this Senate say no to a minimum wage increase of $7.25 an hour when this institution voted themselves a $28,500 pay increase over the last five years," Mr. Kennedy angrily declared shortly before the amendment was defeated as 49 members voted against it and 46 voted for it. "Minimum wage has been flat all these years, but not for the members of this Congress."

A minimum wage hike is long overdue, as well as overwhelmingly popular. It rewards workers by making work pay and rewards good companies by paving the high road. It should be a centerpiece of the Democratic agenda, and of the party's case to the American people in 2006.