Where I Stand: Minimum Wage
This to me is a simple issue of humanity and common sense. Why should a hard-working person, who works a 40 to 50-hour week, live near the poverty line? It has always been interesting to me that Republicans make a lot of hollow noise about the ethics of hard work and self-reliance and yet they consistently battle any move by Democrats to raise the minimum wage.
The issue came to the table again in early 2005 in the form of a bill to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 per hour to $7.25, over 26 months. If you guessed that it was defeated, on a straight party-line vote, with Democrats for it and all Republicans voting against it, you would be correct.
This is once again an example of the hypocritical creed central to being a Republican. They talk of family values but show at every turn that they do not value families. They're strongly anti-choice, but don't give a damn about how children survive once they're actually here.
It is hard to think of anything – save health insurance – that cuts more to the core of a family's quality of life than the issue of what minimum salary an employer should have to pay workers.
The minimum wage should continue to go up to whatever level is required to ensure that people who work hard and play by the rules get to have at least minimal financial security. All voters need to remember that Republicans are not friends of working Americans and they need to carry that knowledge into their polling place in every election.
As Air America Radio's wonderful Randi Rhodes says "stop voting against your own interests, people!"
The issue came to the table again in early 2005 in the form of a bill to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 per hour to $7.25, over 26 months. If you guessed that it was defeated, on a straight party-line vote, with Democrats for it and all Republicans voting against it, you would be correct.
This is once again an example of the hypocritical creed central to being a Republican. They talk of family values but show at every turn that they do not value families. They're strongly anti-choice, but don't give a damn about how children survive once they're actually here.
It is hard to think of anything – save health insurance – that cuts more to the core of a family's quality of life than the issue of what minimum salary an employer should have to pay workers.
The minimum wage should continue to go up to whatever level is required to ensure that people who work hard and play by the rules get to have at least minimal financial security. All voters need to remember that Republicans are not friends of working Americans and they need to carry that knowledge into their polling place in every election.
As Air America Radio's wonderful Randi Rhodes says "stop voting against your own interests, people!"
posted by Bob Geiger at 5/11/2005 02:50:00 PM
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