Reject an Election Year Stunt
Posted by Tracy Russo on August 3, 2006 at 04:16 PM
(Governor Dean sent the following e-mail to urge Democrats across the country to urge the Senate to reject the shameful giveaway to ultra-wealthy Republican donors and have a fair vote on the minimum wage.)
Dear Fellow Democrat,
Here's the question that the right-wing extremists who control the Republican Congress will put before the Senate:
"Over seven million Americans can have a raise of $2.15 an hour by raising the minimum wage, but only if we give a tax cut to 7,500 ultra-rich people at a cost of $753 billion dollars."
It's despicable, it's wrong, and we need to stop it.
Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist has said that this will be the only vote he will allow on a minimum wage increase this year.
Enough is enough. Contact your Senators and tell them to reject this shameful bill by signing this petition:
http://www.democrats.org/realminimumwage
Democrats have been fighting for a minimum wage increase, but Republicans won't allow a straight up-or-down vote on it.
Now Frist and his right-wing allies say they will allow a vote on the minimum wage -- but only in the form of a bill that includes a huge giveaway to ultra-wealthy Republican donors.
We want folks to do well, but America shouldn't have to sacrifice billions of dollars to give only a small group of millionaires a tax break while millions of hard working Americans - some with two or more jobs - are barely able to make ends meet.
What's more, the Republicans' so-called minimum wage increase contains provisions that would actually strip wages from over a million people in seven states where they earn that state's minimum wage in addition to their tips.
This isn't responsible government -- and we're not going to take it.
Let your Senators know that they should reject it:
http://www.democrats.org/realminimumwage
This is the kind of sad, twisted game that the Republican-controlled Congress has played for years.
We have troops at war without proper armor, a faltering reconstruction on the Gulf Coast, and a president openly defying the laws they pass -- and the Republican Congress gives us things like this.
Republicans have managed to find time to vote multiple times on raising their own salaries, though -- to the tune of over $35,000 during the 10 years since the last time they raised the minimum wage. Democrats, on the other hand, are opposed to Congressional pay increases until there's an increase in the minimum wage.
The Republican leadership's priorities are backwards and out of the mainstream. Even one moderate Republican Senator called the tactics around the minimum wage bill "unbecoming of the Senate".
It's up to the rest of us to stop this right now. Sign this petition opposing this sham bill:
http://www.democrats.org/realminimumwage
I'm tired of a do-nothing Republican Congress that plays games with people's lives.
There's work to be done, and it's clear that the Republicans won't do it. But we're going to take these issues to the people and in less than 100 days Americans will have an opportunity to change course.
Thank you for being a part of making it happen.
Governor Howard Dean, M.D.
P.S. -- Here are some simple facts that can't be ignored:
- Someone working full-time for the $5.15 federal minimum wage makes just $10,700 a year. A single mom with two kids who works full-time for the minimum wage is about $6,000 below the poverty line.
- The federal minimum wage has been stuck at the same rate since 1997. Since then, Republican leaders have raised the salaries of Senators seven times. Salaries of lawmakers have gone up by $35,000 -- almost three times the entire yearly income of someone on minimum wage.
- The real value of the minimum wage is more than $3.00 below what it was a generation ago, and right now has its lowest buying power in over 50 years.
- The minimum wage is the lowest it has been in over 50 years relative to the average wage.
- Raising the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour adds up to more than one year of groceries, over 9 months of rent, a year and a half of heat and electricity, or full tuition for a community college degree.
Please do what you can to help call attention to this vitally important issue.
The world's richest and most powerful country must do better.
Comments (11) «
In the meantime, why not exempt all income at or below minimum wage levels from all taxes - federal, state, local, FICA, Medicare, etc. That would immediately put cash in the pocket of those who need it most, instead of syphoning it off to the bureucrats.
It doesn't suprise me at all that this is happening. The republican moto seems to be "if you can't win, lie, cheat, and steal." What does suprise me though (well, not really) is the lack of coverage this is getting in the media. I saw coverage of this on the evening news in Sacramento, CA, on 2 different stations...both of which neglected to mention that this bill was tagged with a tax break for the extremely wealthy. They made it look as if the bill was only a raise in the minimum wage.
We all know that this is a trick. The single track republicans surely see this as a win-win situation. If the bill passes they get their estate tax that they have been trying so hard to get through, and if it doesn't they get election year propoganda. The republicans will point fingers at democrats for rejecting it as the elections draw nearer, claiming demo's are against working families.
If the public doesn't know that this bill is about throwing pennies at the poor and $100 bills at the rich, it's going to work and cost democrats votes. People will not realize that they have been duped untill after the elections have happened and the smoke clears (this sounds familiar). So please, democrats, get some media time and get the word out about this (I'm sure Jon Stewart would be happy to help). This could very easily work to your advatage during the elections, the truth is on your side.
It's a true shame that despite the public outcry for action, the GOP is still doing their best to "outfox" the Democrats during their senate meetings. The GOP has proven that it cares not about the average man, but more so pushing their own political agenda designed at building their elite base and "sticking it" to the Democrats. However this is just one more stone in the Republican House of Horror, people have had enough. In 06' and 08', people are going to remember this. They are going to remember that the Democrats stood for integrity and the average man, while the GOP stood for nothing but greed and politic.
Just 3 more months.
I do NOT agree that we should increase the minimum wage. This is sticking your head in the business sand. Wake up and look around. There are tons of illegal aliens which are working for less than minimum wage.
If the minumum wage is raised it simply forces more Americans to be unemployed and encourages more illegal aliens to be hired.
If the minimum wage is raised enough, jobs will flow overseas.
Let the free market determine the payscale. You cannot legislate high wages.
Lets be the moderate Democratic party and not the old leftist party. There is a lot of room to the left of the extremist republican party. Lets not forget being business smart. Lets go back to being Clinton democrats.
Done, Tracy. Great job getting this up! Thanks for all that you do. I just got a call from DNC and donated $150 because there will be a match. Wish I had more.
Forward!
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What I would like to see the Democrats do, in a really big way, is challenge the electronic voting machines.
o Demand and fight for public scrutiny of the code.
o Demand and fight for paper receipts.
o Demand and fight for scutiny of voter roll purging.
Democracy is in serious trouble. The Republicans own the voting machines. 2000 and 2004 were not accidents. It will happen again and again until the margins spread more.
I've been a Democrat all my life, but I will not vote for any candidate of any party that doesn't take the electronic voting machine problem seriously. Read up on it and effect some change or this party will go the way of the Whigs.
Michael Muller
Montague, MA
Done!
Basically,I did a two-part.First,I told the Republicans that We The People were on to the game and that's why they will lose.Then,I warned the Democrats NOT to be intimidated into falling for this trick and that we will get the increase when we take back Congress.
Step One: Check. The Senate voted down cloture, effectively shelving this travesty of a bill - for now.
Step Two: Don't let the voters forget that the GOP tried to poison even this necessary increase in the minimum wage. Frist may even help with this. He changed his vote to 'no' at the last minute so he can resubmit this tripe as a package at a later date. We need to keep this in the voter's minds. I must assume that Frist plans to bribe, extort, trick, and otherwise twist a few more votes before we can put this behind us with the mid-term elections.
Good thinking dm2342! You are absolutely spot on!! And it's time for all Democrats to start thinking this way!! Trying to create a more comfortable yet still sub-par standard of living for those who occupy what should be temporary or entry level jobs, diminishes our efforts to encourage people to advance themselves through the oportunities created through higher education.
Mary-Anne! Great, solid comments! Kudos to all Democrats who buck the Party line on this issue! To do so takes not only rationale sound thinking... but courage as well. Again, nice job!
Mary-Anne: CEO salaries are approximately 200 times those of other employees of companies.
these assholes are regularly canned with golden parachutes for spectacular incompetence. What your idiotic argumemt comes down to is that MacDonalds employs people out of the goodness of their corporate heart and, if that becomes slightly more expensive, they'll have to let all those 'fries with that' people go.
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