Friday, July 28, 2006
GOP makes conditions on wage increase - Yahoo! News
GOP makes conditions on wage increase - Yahoo! News
Let's make these lawmakers live on minimum wage for a year, and then see if they continue resisting raising it.
I can't see the sense in tying a raise in minimum wage with a reduction in taxes on inheritances on multimllion dollar estates. How does that make sense?
Republican leaders are willing to allow the first minimum wage increase in a decade but only if it's coupled with a cut in inheritance taxes on multimillion-dollar estates, lawmakers said Friday.
...
"It's political blackmail to say the only way that minimum wage workers can get a raise is to give a tax giveaway to the wealthiest Americans," said Sen. Edward Kennedy (news, bio, voting record), D-Mass. "Members of Congress raised their own pay — no strings attached. Surely, common decency suggests that minimum wage workers deserve the same respect."
...
Here comes my favorite part of the article. Doesn't hypocrisy warm the heart?
It was a decade ago, during the campaign year of 1996, that Congress last voted to increase the minimum wage. A person working 40 hours per week at minimum wage makes $10,700, which is below the poverty line for workers with families.
...
Inflation has eroded the minimum wage's buying power to the lowest level in about 50 years. Lawmakers have won cost-of-living wage increases totaling about $35,000 for themselves over that time.
Let's make these lawmakers live on minimum wage for a year, and then see if they continue resisting raising it.
I can't see the sense in tying a raise in minimum wage with a reduction in taxes on inheritances on multimllion dollar estates. How does that make sense?
Republican leaders are willing to allow the first minimum wage increase in a decade but only if it's coupled with a cut in inheritance taxes on multimillion-dollar estates, lawmakers said Friday.
...
"It's political blackmail to say the only way that minimum wage workers can get a raise is to give a tax giveaway to the wealthiest Americans," said Sen. Edward Kennedy (news, bio, voting record), D-Mass. "Members of Congress raised their own pay — no strings attached. Surely, common decency suggests that minimum wage workers deserve the same respect."
...
Here comes my favorite part of the article. Doesn't hypocrisy warm the heart?
It was a decade ago, during the campaign year of 1996, that Congress last voted to increase the minimum wage. A person working 40 hours per week at minimum wage makes $10,700, which is below the poverty line for workers with families.
...
Inflation has eroded the minimum wage's buying power to the lowest level in about 50 years. Lawmakers have won cost-of-living wage increases totaling about $35,000 for themselves over that time.
Comments:
Post a Comment
