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The Democrat-controlled state legislature just weakened this landmark law, Connecticut’s “Citizens’ Election Program."

Last week, 72 New York State Assemblymen sent a letter to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver urging him to support a public financing program for primary, general and special election campaigns for statewide offices. Such a program would match modest contributions with public funds, which allows small contributors to have a larger impact and brings more donors into the political process.

A new bill introduced today by Senator Tom Harkin and Rep. George Miller would raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, and more importantly, peg it to inflation so that it would automatically adjust. The proposed wage hike is higher than the $9 per hour proposed by President Obama and is closer to what the minimum wage would be now if it had kept up with the rate of inflation. The bill also increases the tipped wage, which has not risen in twenty years.

Why elected officials are turning away from the economic policies that long guaranteed hardworking Americans the opportunity to join the middle class.