On Friday, March 24, Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh vetoed a new $15 minimum wage that would have been implemented by 2022. This makes passing the measure’s future in serious doubt since an override of the mayor’s veto requires 12 out of 15 city council members to vote against and already several who voted for the measure have decided not to support an override.

Economists are now reporting what we all know already - America's economic growth has ground to a halt. Wednesday's report from the Commerce Department was bleak. The expected growth in GDP was 1.1%, but the Commerce Department is now reporting a rate of growth of only 0.1%. This has been felt for a long time by average Americans. According to a Gallup poll, economic problems dominate in the question of the most important problem facing the nation today. This makes the priorities championed by Democrats all the more puzzling. As we struggle to sustain an economic recovery that has been charitably described as "choppy", Democrats continue to push an agenda that is out of touch and fails to solve the underlying problems.

Over the past few days, two articles have exquisitely demonstrated what we already knew and predicted before Obamacare passed - that the health care law would be a disaster and was incapable of keeping the promises made by the Pelosi - Reid Congress that rammed it through. The signs of the collapse of this law are so obvious, even noted single payer advocate Howard Dean is noticing.

President Barack Obama declared April 9 “National Equal Pay Day,” – a date chosen to supposedly mark how long into the new year women have to work to match the male median wage of the previous year. Obama has repeatedly lamented that women earn “up to 23% less on average” than men do; it’s a good talking point for a president who captured more than half of votes cast by women in 2012.

In Tuesday's State of the Union Address, President Obama proposed raising the federally mandated minimum wage to $9 per hour, a 24% increase over the current mandate. In a subsequent conversation, my friend David Guenther of the Texas Public Policy Foundation made a good point about the effects of this if it were to come to pass:

President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) have continuously blamed Republicans for blocking jobs bills. But this is simply not the case. The Republican-led House has passed more than 15 bills that will spur job growth while the Democratic-led Senate has failed to act. Government legislation cannot create jobs but it can help create an environment where private employers create jobs.

The Obama administration has announced it may create a new government department focused on job creation. The new department would be named something along the ilk of the Department of Jobs or Department of Competitiveness. President Obama still thinks he can manage the economy through central planning, simply by creating more bureaucracy to regulate and ‘stimulate’ economic growth.