Minimum Wage

By David Swanson

"Jacked: How 'Conservatives' Are Picking Your Pocket (Whether You Voted for Them or Not)" is a short book by Nomi Prins that makes an excellent education for those remaining Americans who still do not understand that right-wing politicians take from those who work and give to those who live in luxury off the sweat of others.

At the end of World War II, corporations paid half the cost of the federal government. They now pay 7 percent, and many of them pay 0 percent. Unless you are very wealthy, you pick up the tab, and the tab has grown. The federal government now spends more than what it spends on everything else on the military alone, and that cost keeps rising.

By David Swanson

John Bowe's terrific new book called "Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy" takes the reader on a journey ending in the question I've placed above this essay.

I figure the conversation went something like this last night in Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn's office after the Senate voted to increase the Federal Minimum Wage:

Media Flak Jane: OK, the boss was one of only three Senators to vote against the first minimum wage increase in a freakin' decade. How do we perfume this pig?

Media Flak Bill: Say he was drinking before the vote?

Jane: Can't. We've been using that for his support of the troop escalation.

Bill: Self-medicating?

Jane: Good point. He is a doctor.

Bill: Wait, how about this: We say he voted against giving the working poor a raise to "protect the salaries of low-income families."

The majority of Senate Republicans filibustering and delaying the passage of a new minimum wage law may be heartless, but they're not dumb. They know that bumping the minimum wage to $7.25 per hour is enormously popular with the American people and they're also aware that it passed by huge numbers in the House of Representatives, with 80 Republicans voting in favor of helping the working poor.

So why the stalling? Why put off the inevitable with over 100 nonsensical amendments, while already voting once against ending debate on a clean minimum wage bill?

It had been a long week in the Senate and it took Ted Kennedy (D-MA) finally blowing a gasket on Thursday and torching Republicans for their standard Simon Legree act in blocking a minimum wage increase for the tension to become apparent to the entire nation.

But it's important to note that, as the Senate leader on this issue -- and its chief proponent for years -- Kennedy had a lot of time in front of the microphone and most of it was spent trying to diplomatically cajole his GOP colleagues into doing the right thing.

Here are some notes and quotes from Senators fighting Republicans last week to get an increase in the Federal Minimum Wage. Ted Kennedy (D-MA): Wage hike not normally linked to tax cuts

"Only once in 1996 did we pair a minimum wage increase with tax cuts. Previous increases had strong bipartisan support, despite the lack of tax cuts. In 1989, the minimum wage was raised with no tax cuts and passed by a margin of 89 to 8. In 1977, with no giveaways, an increase passed 63 to 24. We have seen what has happened. "Only one time -- it didn't happen in 1938, 1949, 1955, 1961, 1966, 1974, 1977, 1989 --only in 1996. And look in the last 10 years what has happened in terms of the reduction of taxes for corporations and for small businesses. In corporations, it is $276 billion in tax breaks; small businesses, $36 billion; and no raise for minimum wage workers.

Almost two weeks after a bill to raise the Federal Minimum Wage easily passed the House of Representatives, the legislation has arrived on the Senate floor, with debate started yesterday and a vote expected by the end of the week.

The measure to raise the minimum wage for the first time in a decade has been a long slog for Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) who brought the legislation to help the working poor before the previous, Republican-controlled Congress three times, only to see it shot down by the GOP on each occasion.

So who do want to be President?

Out of Iraq and Back to the American City By Dennis J. Kucinich, Democratic Candidate for President of the United States - 10th Annual Wall Street Project Conference - Sheraton New York & Towers, Monday, Jan. 8, 2007
We are losing our nation to a philosophy of war and destruction. It is time for policies of peace and construction. It is time for the philosophy of peace, nonviolence and economic justice. This was the philosophy of Dr. King, Gandhi, Jesus, Fredrick Douglas, A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin, Fannie Lou Hamer, Sojourner Truth, Cesar Chavez, and Jesse Jackson.

We are all united with the philosophy which birthed the New Deal, the New Frontier, the Great Society, the dreams of social and economic justice which could be called forth by those who were ready to stand up, to speak out, to march, to demand, to testify about the good news...

Another unfortunate milestone in the reign of George W. Bush and the recently-deposed Republican Congress was reached on Saturday when the federal minimum wage set a new record for the longest period without a raise since its establishment in 1938. As of December 2, the $5.15-per-hour wage rate has remained unchanged for nine years and three months.

Not surprisingly, the prior record also occurred under Republican administrations, when the minimum wage rate remained stagnant from early 1981 until April of 1990 under Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

“For nearly a decade, the prices of everyday necessities like gas, food, and prescription drugs have skyrocketed, while the paychecks of minimum wage workers haven’t increased a cent," said Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) over the weekend. "Year after year, the Republican Congress has blocked all attempts to raise the minimum wage, while voting a pay raise for themselves almost every year."

An American working 40 hours per week at the current minimum wage makes only $10,712 a year, which is less than $900 a month to cover housing, health care, food and all other living expenses. And, given that most workers being paid minimum wage do not receive health benefits, that salary would barely cover the cost of buying medical insurance alone, much less other necessities.