Posted on 08/02/2006 8:06:55 AM PDT by LM_Guy
Republicans in Congress are playing a cynical game of politics with the lives of millions of hard-working Americans by attaching a long overdue raise in the minimum wage to fiscally irresponsible tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.
President Bush doesn't support an increase in the minimum wage either, and his recent comments on the prosperity of our economy reveal how deeply out of touch his administration is with the lives of working Americans.
While the president and the Republican leadership in Congress are promoting more and more tax giveaways for a small number of wealthy Americans that will only increase the deficit and further undermine our economy, millions of working families are struggling harder and harder to make ends meet. Prices for everyday necessities like gasoline, housing and health care are skyrocketing, and too many hard-working families are struggling — one illness or a pink slip away from disaster.
It's little wonder that the vast majority of Americans say they are worried and stressed about the economy. Families already struggling to get by are being stretched to the breaking point. And for minimum-wage workers, the situation is even more desperate. This week marks 10 years since Congress last increased the minimum wage. Since then, the purchasing power of the minimum wage has fallen by more than 20 percent. Minimum wage workers can't afford health care and can't earn enough to pay for adequate housing for their families anywhere in the country. Even a tank of gas to help a minimum wage earner get to work can cost more than they make in an entire day.
It is unacceptable that hard-working Americans working full time can't earn enough to support themselves. But that is exactly what is happening. A single mother with two children who works at the minimum wage 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year earns $10,700 per year. That's almost $6,000 below the federal poverty line for a family of three.
As the men and, more often, women working at the minimum wage fall farther and farther behind, the Bush administration and the Republican leadership in Congress keep turning a blind eye to their struggles. To add insult to injury, the Republican leadership has repeatedly given themselves a raise. Since Congress last increased the minimum wage in 1996, members of the House and Senate have raised their own pay by more than $31,000.
Yet the White House and the GOP Congress have consistently opposed any effort to provide a fair increase in the minimum wage. It cannot be that in America our nation's leaders take care of themselves, but continually ignore the neediest Americans. It will not be. That is why Democrats in Congress are taking a stand for minimum-wage families. We have vowed that Democrats will do whatever it takes to block a congressional pay increase until we have raised the minimum wage.
The Democratic proposal to raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour would give a family an additional $4,400 a year to spend on rent, child care, health care, college or putting food on the table. More than 5 million more Americans have sunk into poverty on President Bush's watch, and a fair increase for our lowest-paid workers is long overdue.
Raising the minimum wage is a vital step toward putting our economy back on the right track. The promise of the American Dream is that if you work hard, you can earn a decent living for yourself and your family. To build a stronger America, we need to make the American Dream a reality for working families again. In this great nation, no one who works for a living should have to live in poverty.
Contact Sen. Edward Kennedy through his Web site, kennedy.senate.gov/ Sen. Hillary Clinton's Web site is clinton.senate.gov/
Where is the barf alert???
So... how long have you two been having an affair?
And Hillary made millions off the Resolution Trust Corp. a FDIC funded government fund.
Sort of like a mating between Godzilla and Mothra....
Oh dear.
If min. wage earners don't like the fact that they're not getting "rich," then maybe they should have done/should be doing something about it... like going to college or vocational/trade school (basically make oneself valuable to society in some way).
Bigger paychecks should be a motivation to get one's behavior adjusted, but apparently the Dimocraps just don't get "it."
That's my soapbox rant... please drive through.
Interesting that these tax cuts have produced a lot more revenue than previously thought. And the tax cuts have been vital in getting out economy to grow at 4% and producing a couple million new jobs. These senators appear void of any economic knowledge.
"Wait a tic... blimey, this redistribution of wealth is trickier than I thought."
The minimum wage laws keeps pay low. Too difficult for the libs to understand.
"More than 5 million more Americans have sunk into poverty on President Bush's watch" but these are the women whose social security is just $500/mo, not the minimum wagers who do not stay on minimum wage but get raises and promotions. Dems's refused to reform Social Security, remember?
What is scary is that half of America believes this idiocy.
Minimum wage restricts the employment of teenagers and other low skilled indviduals. It also makes illegals a more attractive option, as they're not getting paid "on the books" anyway.
It give some union members a free pay, as their pay is peggeds at x times minimum wage or x above minimum.
All in all, it serves no purpose other than to make noise for commie pinkos.
You didn't put the puke alert on this. Don't tell me you agree with this liberal BS? The only words I have for the senators are: Don't pass anymore minimum wage laws and repeal the ones on the books.
Exactly.
I am so disgusted with the minimum wage disinformation.
From the CATO Institute website (a 2004 report):
Take a careful look at the precise wording of a recent Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report on this: "Slightly over half of workers earning $5.15 or less were under age 25, and about one-fourth were age 16-19.... About 2 percent of workers age 25 and over earned the minimum wage or less."
The key phrase in that report — strangely ignored by both supporters and critics of a higher minimum wage — is "or less." Among 73 million workers still paid by the hour in 2003 (40 percent of us are salaried), only 545,000 or 0.7 percent earned the minimum wage. Three times as many — 1.6 million or 2.2 percent — earned less than the minimum wage.
That is a huge improvement over 1997, when 3 million earned less than the minimum wage. Contrary to a universal confusion between words and reality, those paid the official "minimum" wage are not the nation's lowest-paid workers.
The actual number of workers from poor families is incredibly small.
The disinformation that hiking the minimum wage will help the poor (implying all the poor) is spin at it's best and lies at it's worst.
"Any comments to the Senators ? ;~)"
I see they hold to the common belief that writing should be at the eighth-grade level.
Soundbites.
Dear Hill and Ted,
I see you have no ideas either. I read that ponderous American Dream paper. What a mass of trite, recycled talking points without any proposals whatsoever regarding funding, implementation and the massive government works project to create it.
You are as bankrupt as the Whigs.
Opus
Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it the Death Tax the Republicans want to cut in this bill? You know, the one that makes people have to sell the family farm if the original owner dies.
These farms have a cash value in the millions, but profit margins on crops are so low that the actual income is the same as any 9-to-5 job.
Don't have kids until you have a good enough job to support them, genius.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.