The Republican leadership in Congress has one overriding goal: tax breaks that aim to help the wealthiest Americans.

Their minimum wage bill is a case in point.

With strong popular support for an increase in the minimum wage, the Republican leadership decided to back a bill that would increase the minimum wage by $1 over three years. Democratic leader David Bonior, D-Mich., had a better idea: a $1 minimum wage increase that would be phased in over two years.

But the worst part of the GOP leadership bill wasn’t just its slowness.

The Republican leaders also insisted on tying the minimum wage bill to a tax-cut bill whose major feature was a huge cut in estate taxes. The estate tax only affects the richest Americans: a couple will not pay any estate taxes unless they are worth over $1.3 million.

Minimum wage increases from the GOP bill would add up to $11.2 billion, but over the next decade the proposed tax cuts would total $122.8 billion--$79 billion for these estate tax reductions alone.

Over 73 percent of the tax savings would go to individuals making over $319,000 a year.

"It’s ridiculous that a minimum wage bill supposedly designed to aid low-wage workers would actually give its biggest benefits to the highest income people in the country," said Robert S. McIntyre, director of Citizens for Tax Justice.

One Republican representative--Gil Gutknecht of Minnesota--courageously stood up to the Republican leaders by opposing the tax giveaway.

The problem with the GOP tax cut plan is not just that it takes care of the top tier while neglecting other Americans, but that it strips away government revenues that could be used to build more classrooms, hire more teachers, make sure Medicaid and Medicare are sufficiently funded, and take care of other urgent problems.