Irresistable Quotes

Charlie Dent (R) "Clearly the economy is on everyone's minds, we're seeing very stagnant job numbers, confidence in the institution of government is eroding and now we're going to have a debate on rape and abortion. The stupidity is simply staggering."

Irresistible Quotes

Foster "  Politics as a system of conflict resolution determines the allocation of resources, allocation of values and allocation of authority."

Irresistable Quotes

Joe Scarsborough (R)“Mark it down, this is going to be a turning point in the history of the Republican Party as well. And let those out there chattering, let them chatter away all they want to and scream like hyenas. … This party that killed this background check yesterday — this party is moving toward extinction. A new Republican Party is going to replace it. And this is going to be a vote that people will look back on and say, ‘That party, that extremism, that was unsustainable.’”

Irresistable Quotes

"a developed country isn´t where the poor drives cars, but where the rich uses public transportation".

The Minimum Wage War

The history of the minimum wage begins under President Roosevelt during the Great Depression with the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. It was passed in response to the failure of the free market system to provide a minimum standard of living for the working labor forces. The first minimum wage was a modest twenty five cents an hour. Since its’ beginning, the minimum wage has fluctuated with its real dollar value simply because of the mood of politics.

There are renewed claims that increasing the minimum wage would result in job losses now that the President has put raising the minimum wage to $9.00/hr from $7.25 on his agenda. In recent years, republican have advocated for the elimination of the minimum wage so it no surprise that they are opposed to an increase. However, historically there has been bipartisan support for the increases including one such increase under Bush Jr.

The argument republicans are making against raising the minimum wage is that it will result in a loss of jobs. It reminds me of the argument that cutting taxes creates economic growth which was disproved by an in-depth study provided by the Congressional Research Service CRS Report R42020 published last year. The republicans were so upset by the findings and conclusions of this report, they ordered it be taken out of public view or face possible defunding for their agency.

There are new studies coming out of our educational institutions that have examined the effects of minimum wage increases. They conclude there is no evidence of any loss in jobs. In fact, there is strong evidence that increasing the minimum wage results in a strong reduction in employee turnover which adds a cost savings to the employer in replacement cost savings. An increase in pay can lead to increases in productivity as well. There is also no evidence that the increase in wages is offset by passing it on to customers when our free market system has a far greater influence on consumer prices. By raising the minimum wage, there is a ripple effect to those who previously sat just above the minimum wage. This money reaches the population that is most likely to spend it thus stimulating the economy. We are lulled into believing that it is only the teenage worker who is affected by the minimum wage when they only represent 16% of the minimum wage workers.

The raising of the minimum wage is a part of the movement we hear about called ‘making work pay’ concept. It works in tandem with the federal Earned Income Credit as well as some of the living wage mandates scattered throughout the country. The concept is to create an environment where it pays to work at lower wages as long as those wages can translate into something you can live on. The Political Economic Research Institute did a study on living wage mandates throughout the country in 2004. They concluded “the weight of the accumulated evidence indicates that living wage laws have an important impact on the living standards of a modest number of beneficiaries, while diffusing the costs broadly among city service contractors and the general public.”

I have frequently discussed the taxpayer being forced to subsidize poverty wages of the working poor by government programs such as Food Stamps and Medicaid. We the taxpayers are paying for companies who are reluctant to pay their employees a living wage. It is a back door subsidy while companies like Walmart and Tyson Foods reap record profits. There are those who hate government pushing for an increase in the minimum wage and yet they are the same who condemn government for helping the working poor.

As the disparity of wealth in our country continues to grow, it is important to understand the value and necessity of establishing minimum standards of living for the working poor. There needs to be a bottom line to keep companies from cost shifting standard of living cost onto the taxpayer in the form of government assistant programs. Between 1973 and 2007, the value of the minimum wage fell 22% while at the same time corporate profits rose more than 50%. We can surmise that from 2007 to present that the gap has only widened. As our country’s economy moves forward at a slow pace and we witness the American Dream dying in front of us, we should consider those who struggle to meet the basic essentials of living as our most vulnerable workers.

 

Brenner, Mark D. The Economic Impact of Living Wage Ordinances. 2004. Political Economy Research Institute, UMass Amerst. Retrieved from www.peri.umass.edu/fileadmin/pdf/working_papers/.../WP80.pdf

Jeannette Wicks-Lim and Robert Pollin. MAKING WORK PAY: COMBINING THE BENEFITS OF THE EARNED INCOME TAX CREDIT AND MINIMUM WAGE. April 2012. Political Economy Research Institute University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Retrieved from http://www.peri.umass.edu/fileadmin/pdf/published_study/PERI_WorkPay.pdf

Why We Cannot Pass a Budget

"With the exception of reconciliation legislation, it effectively takes 60 votes to consider any legislation in the Senate so it really does not matter whether the resolution has been adopted; if you have 60, you can consider the legislation, if you don't, you can't.
The bottom line is the budget process set out in the Budget Act works pretty well when the Congress can agree on budget policies. When they cannot, no process in the world can make things work smoothly, but Congress muddles through and does what absolutely has to be done (like keeping the government from shutting down or defaulting on the debt). Not having a budget resolution in place is a symptom of the inability to reach agreement – not the cause of Congress not being able to accomplish things."

Irresistable Quotes

Mark Mckinnon(R) former aide to Bush and McCain comments on his party “ Nothing on taxes. Nothing on gun control. Nothing on climate change. Nothing on gay marriage. Nothing on immigration reform (or an incremental, piece-by-piece approach, which will result in nothing). It's a very odd situation when the losing party is the party refusing to negotiate. It may be how you disrupt, but it is not how you govern, or how you ever hope to regain a majority.”