Republicans tie minimum wage to tax cut (Will LIBS vote against it?)

The AP via Yahoo! News ^ | July 28, 2006 | Andrew Taylor

[laurav]

I'm sure it's just a coincidence, but the Oprah show today (which I watch on the treadmill) was about raising the federal minimum wage. Two things stuck out for me.

First, they had Morgan Spurlock on (of SuperSize me fame), who did a show on living for 30 days on minimum wage. He did a lousy job of it, buying bottled water, sodas, snacks and whatever else a guy who is used to buying whatever he wants walking down the street in NYC would buy. Shockingly, that doesn't work when you're working for low wages. He was NOT, however, working for federal minimum wage.

Indeed, (and this is the second thing that struck me) in the whole show, which featured people from all over the country, they didn't have anyone who was actualy making $5.15 an hour. I guess that's an easy point to rally people around, raise the minimum from $5.15, but for some one who makes $8.50 an hour and lives in poverty, raising the minimum wage to $7.00 isn't going to change a thing.

Oh yeah, Morgan Spurlock also admitted that until he did the 30-days-at-minimum-wage experiment, he didn't provide health insurance for any of his employees. (to his credit, he decided to, afterwards). But then he had the nerve at some point to say "it's the corporations who don't want to raise the minimum wage." But you know what, Spurlock? Most big companies at least provide health insurance for their employees. Unlike (until recently) you.

[srmorton]

It is definitely a coincidence since this show is a repeat from earlier this year. I had my DVR set to record it, but, since I've already seen it once, I am not going to suffer through it again. I usually love Oprah, but I hate these shows when she is trying to make a political point. Thankfully, she doesn't do it that often.

[LM_Guy]

I guess it is just your point of view of what is rich or not but considering that - 1.3% of all estates are $1 million dollars or more. That says to me were talking rich people.

I am not sure what you define as rich but when your wealth exceeds 98.7% or more of the entire US population you look wealthy to most people.

[Young Scholar]

It certainly appears rich, but remember that as we move to 401(k)s, which can be passed on, from defined benefit pension plans, many people--at least those with the foresight to plan well--will have larger estates ($1 million is a decent-sized, but not huge, 401(k)). Also consider that with property inflation in many parts of the country, ordinary houses can fetch $500,000+.

Together, these mean we will probably see far more estates in the $1 million+ range, even from people with middle-class incomes.