I smell a bad deal coming down. And it is emblematic of the lack of spine by the Democratic Party and its inability to stand up for principle.

You may be tracking that there is a tug and pull in Congress over an attempt to raise the federal minimum wage. I’m all in favor of raising the minimum wage, which now stands at a paltry $5.15 an hour, the same level it’s been for a decade…at the same time that executive pay is skyrocketing.

But, The Wall Street Journal has this snippet today in a story about the political battle (it’s subscription only):

The last federal increase, signed into law months before the 1996 presidential elections, followed bargaining over tax- and health-insurance-related issues important to Republican conservatives. The same could happen now because the minimum-wage debate is coming to a head even as Republican leaders, already offering concessions to timber interests, are looking for the final Senate votes needed for a compromise on estate-tax relief. While far too early to predict, the party could solve two problems at once by linking the wage and estate-tax issues in an election-year deal.

If it is true that the Democrats will cave on the federal estate tax, shame on them. This has been a sham from the beginning: this is a tax that hits a handful of the very wealthy and its repeal has been championed by a secret cabal of 18 of the richest families in the country, including the Waltons of Wal-Mart.

The minimum wage’s level is a disgrace and should be pushed for on its own humanitarian and economic moral arguments, not granted in return for another give-away to the rich who don’t need another cent.