Posted on 01/13/2007 12:04:13 PM PST by SmithL
WASHINGTON, (AP) --
Fending off charges of favoritism, House Democrats say a just-passed minimum wage bill will be changed to cover all U.S. territories — including American Samoa — before it reaches President Bush's desk.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters she has instructed the House Education and Labor Committee to help get the bill changed to "make sure that all of the territories have to comply with the U.S. law on minimum wage."
Her remark Friday followed accusations from Republicans a day earlier that American Samoa, which is not now covered by the $5.15 an hour federal minimum wage, was not included in the law raising the federal pay floor to $7.25 an hour because StarKist has a large cannery in the island chain. StarKist is owned by Del Monte Foods Co., which has its headquarters in San Francisco, Pelosi's district.
"Something is indeed fishy when the federal minimum wage is good for all Americans as espoused by the Democrat majority, yet we exempt a small, in many terms economically struggling island," Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., told colleagues on the House floor last week.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
It's a crackin'
The headline should have been "Dems pledge to buy more votes" - because more people will feel-good about "helping the little guy" with the higher minimum wage and sticking it to that bad old businessman...right? Don't they get it - this will often mean having to let someone go, higher consumer prices, and oh by the way, making illegal immigrants an even more attractive employment option. Fools!
Bullcrap. This is EXACTLY what the Republicans should have been doing all along.
If you what Democrats to become Republicans, just force them to live by their own rules and suffer the consequences.
The next thing the Republicans should do is get rid of all the federal incomes tax exemptions for state a local taxes. Damn it, if people want Democrats taxing them into the poor house then they shouldn't get a federal tax discount from the rest of the country. California and their health care plan, for example, should have the rest of the country subsidizing their social experiments.
Hell, New England would be full of red-states by now if they all had to actually to fully pay for all the programs they support.
You can't live on $7.25 an hour either. There'll just be fewer people employed now. Idiots.
Why do we still call them democrats. They are Communists and they are trying to destroy America. These people are not real democrats.
Amen to that, that was my point.
My point was that the minimum wage hike should be stopped. It is good they finall get around to playing hard ball after they loose but they could have chosen a better cause, IMO.
There will also be inflation as the labor portion of American goods goes up - further exacerbating trade deficits. Also with the plague of mandated health insurance being signed into law by republican governors (democrats soon too) entrepreneurial ventures will be discouraged - who can afford help, health insurance and both sides of social security.
That sound you hear is the economy going round and round - down the drain.
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