Boehner's new Minimum Wage proposal

[BillORightsMan]

A package GOP leaders planned to bring to a vote Friday or Saturday in the House also would renew several popular tax breaks, including a research and development credit for businesses, and deductions for college tuition and state sales taxes, said a spokesman for House Majority Leader John Boehner
(remind me again....who exactly is running against this guy? -Ed.).

~snip~
The maneuver is aimed at defusing the wage hike as a campaign issue for Democrats while using its popularity to spur enactment of the Republican Party's long-sought goal of permanently cutting taxes on millionaires' estates.

~snip~
"It's outrageous the Republican Congress can't simply help poor people without doing something for their wealthy contributors," said Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio.

~snip~
"We weren't going to be denied," said Rep. Steve LaTourette, R-Ohio, a leader in the effort.

Read the rest at Mandate, My Ass

imbillorightsmanandiapprovethismessage

Oh Yeah, in CD14
WE NEED LEW!
If you can, HELP OUT LEW anyway you can think of.

LaTourette is a rubberstamp that MUST GO!!! Lew is an attorney and prof at CWRU...

A few years after graduating from law school, I was
commissioned in the United States Navy Reserves as an officer in the Judge Advocate General Corps.

We're gonna need as many lawyers as we can get on our side when the Dems retake congress and John Conyers gets subpoena power.
LEW KATZ FOR US CONGRESS OH-14

[geiger]

1. It was bound to happen...

...they are the Party in control, after all.

Not to diffuse the importance of what you are pointing out, I am of the belief that the minimum wage is another one of those "non-issue" issues.

Where I live, and the types of jobs that are available, employers are short of workers, and are having to offer more money and benefits for entry level jobs, due to market forces.

Miminum wage, I don't think, should be legislated, and, as a small business owner, I don't think it has any business on the ballot either. People love to criticize WalMart for the way "they treat their employees," but I can tell you from hard experience how hard it is to get good help at the rate I can afford when I look at my balance sheets.

It's the people with years of experience and training that are getting screwed over in this economy, not minimum wage workers.

[Schmajo]

2. Two (or more) points

1. There is, always will be, some portion of the work force that has to work for minimum wage. The same forces that hold down wages overall (globalization, illegal foreign workers, union-busting, etc.) operate to assure that some workers always will be on the lowest rung of the ladder.

2. The 'free-market' beliefs that oppose minimum wage legislation also apply to employment discrimination laws, employee health and safety regulation, and even child labor laws. Should we ditch these worker protection provisions as well? Would business voluntarily abide by these restrictions?

3. Yes, the state constitution is not the best place to codify minimum wage laws. However, under the current circumstances (Republican/business domination of Ohio government), it is the one viable way effectively to pursue this issue.

4. Having it on the ballot will help get the 'right' people to the polls in November.

5. Raising the minimum wage will put positive pressure -- to some extent -- on business to raise the wages of others.

[geiger]

3. To address your points...

1. There is, always will be, some portion of the work force that has to work for minimum wage. The same forces that hold down wages overall (globalization, illegal foreign workers, union-busting, etc.) operate to assure that some workers always will be on the lowest rung of the ladder.

RESPONSE: a--neither Party had the courage, very recently, to deal with the issue of "illegal" immigration, although they put on quite a phony fanfair; b--union busting is illegal, also, but the real force at work is the exporting of jobs, which noone is or probably can stop, thus we need to find new products, services, energies....; c--the biggie, globalization: this Country, our Country, continues to ignore international law, international agreements, international protocols, unless it suits the political agenda du jour, thus we have no credibility when it comes to telling/advising/trying to strong-arm "less enlightened" countries on such issues as civil rights, human dignity and fair wages.


2. The 'free-market' beliefs that oppose minimum wage legislation also apply to employment discrimination laws, employee health and safety regulation, and even child labor laws. Should we ditch these worker protection provisions as well? Would business voluntarily abide by these restrictions?

RESPONSE: a--(discrimination)Much of the work force is already exempt (e.g., businesses with less than a certain amount of workers, Members of Congress), and the business people I know have enough enlightened self-interest to behave in terms of not discriminating as it applies to civil rights (at the very least, diversity in your work crew is a good thing when you are trying to relate to multiple constituencies/markets);b--(safety) the Bureau of Workers Comp basically forces safety provisions because if you want workers comp, which is required by law, you have to "play ball," about safety compliance by both employer and employee now; d--(child labor)as Hillary Clinton would put it, our "young people" today have no work ethic (put aside the notion of children working, except on the internet, but that's a different topic).

But, of course, I am not saying we ditch our commitment to any of these civil rights protections in our own country or any other for that matter

3. Yes, the state constitution is not the best place to codify minimum wage laws. However, under the current circumstances (Republican/business domination of Ohio government), it is the one viable way effectively to pursue this issue.

RESPONSE: I say, don't try to legislate the way people conduct their private business, ESP. when the laws won't apply to them anyway (how much of Ohio business is small employers anyway? does anyone have the statistics on this--I know it's the overwhelming majority, and the law wont apply to them anyway). You just piss them off. We need to be looking for ways to making it easier for businesses to survive. There are so many expenses and market forces beyond any one business' control; just filling out tax forms every month is onerous. There's even a private initiative out there right now, JUMP START, to help encourage economic development in northeast Ohio, but it's for businesses that can generate at least a million dollars a year in revenue. I think we need to be encouraging the mom and pop bread and bacon businesses in a tangible way. It's very hard, to stay in business, with such market volatility.

4. Having it on the ballot will help get the 'right' people to the polls in November.

RESPONSE: I know there are some people out there espewing this logic, but even our very pro-Labor senatorial candidate Sherrod Brown has conceded that he's not sure if it will help or hurt. I think if, on the ballot, it will boomerang, as did all prescriptive initiatives in the last Ohio election. In the last election, for example, the galvanized right couldn't even hold back stem cell research (Issue 1), but they did squash the stuff that had to do with telling them someone else was going to decide how they should think.

5. Raising the minimum wage will put positive pressure -- to some extent -- on business to raise the wages of others.

RESPONSE: then we need to publish the data and provide the talking points to make the case, at every level possible. I haven't seen it.

[BillORightsMan]

4. Didn't mean to start a Min Wage War

Rather, I wanted to point out the ABSOLUTE DISDAIN LaTourette and the rest of his criminal GOP brethren have for the middle and working class. It completely BAFFLES me that anyone but the very extremist hard right would vote for a group whose very policy is to "drown government in a bathtub".

When you get some time, read through
Rush, Newspeak and Fascism: An Exegesis by David Neiwert (pdf - 87 pgs. - I'm about halfway through)
Though the focus is on the definition of fascism, there are several good sections that describe how various Hard Right extremist groups have built allies in the GOP and pushed their agenda into mainstream media and "moderate" conservative think tanks.

Indeed, what fascinates Berlet about the interaction of the sectors is watching “the transmission belt —
how stuff gets essentially a trial run in the Christian right or even the far right, and the messages will get refined, and then they’ll be picked up by these intermediary groups and individuals, and refined some more, and then there’ll be a buzz that’s created, and then that gets media attention in the mainstream press."

[geiger]

5. I am not trying to start a war

I am trying to engage some of the most important activists in Ohio in some substantial and important discussion.

This is important; don't trivialize debate when so much is on the line. It's how our Country got started.

[BillORightsMan]

6. War on Minimum Wage

Thanks Poli, for the observation. I am ALL FOR dissecting and debating the alleged virtues and demons of increasing minimum wage. In fact, when the CEOs of the transnational "alleged" American companies have seen their compensation go from x40 of the average worker's compensation in the 1980's to OVER 400x NOW, and when you add in INFLATION, a minimum wage salary IS NOT OVER the federal poverty limit!

What's wrong with this picture?

I'm all for DEBATE and if needed I will SOURCE my observations with the dreaded "F" word: FACTS.

My open here was to illustrate the GOP's massive disinformation-distraction HYPOCRACY campaign on this issue and their COMPLETE AND TOTAL DISDAIN for the workers here in Ohio.

RUBBERSTAMP DEWINE MUST BE DEFEATED!

Start a new thread specifically about the min wage argument, if you so choose.

What I'm sayin' is that the HYPOCRACY of these GOP WORDS vs. their ACTIONS must get sunshine! I'm (mostly) preachin' to the choir here, but WE NEED TO ENGAGE VOTERS and SPELL OUT THE GOP HYPOCRACY.

COINGATE. Taft's approval rating. Blackwell's dominionism. Boehner's ties to influential big bizness and Tom DeLay. Noe. Ney, Abramoff and HAVA. http://www.acluohio.info/publications/ohio_pa_briefing_paper.pdf">10 Problems with the Ohio Patriot Act

The ODP ain't doin' it. Strickland ain't doin' it.
Zack Space is doin' it!
Dennis is doin' it!
Tim Ryan is doin' it! <-- GREAT video!

The GOP MUST be exposed to the average run-of-the mill voter who HAS NO CLUE what is going on.
The corporate media is NOT going to fairly cover our candidates. I'll wager they'll do the exact OPPOSITE!!!
It's up to US to spread the message.

Ask everybody "Are you safer today than you were five years ago?"


"An informed citizenry is the only true repository of the public will.. . .
The People cannot be safe without information.
When the press is free, and every man is able to read, all is safe."
-Thomas Jefferson

[BillORightsMan]

7. Republicans DENIED

http://www.retiredamericans.org/">Senate Blocks Estate Tax Cut/Minimum Wage Increase, Passes Pension Bill

On Thursday night, Senate Democrats blocked a Republican bid to combine an estate tax cut for the wealthy with a minimum wage increase for low earners. The measure was “the product of election-year politics and clever -- critics say devious -- legislative packaging that has been dubbed the ‘trifecta*,’" according to The Washington Post. In the same bill, senators had to vote not only on the minimum wage and estate tax, but also on a laundry list of narrowly targeted tax breaks. In the end, GOP leaders fell three votes short of the 60 needed to cut off debate and bring the three-part bill, H.R. 5970, to the Senate floor. The final Senate vote on whether to limit debate was 56-42, after Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN), who supported the package, switched his vote, enabling him to seek another vote later.

*GOP "trifecta" is:

• tie the estate tax (paris hilton tax),
  
• keeping the deduction for sales tax,
  
• getting rid of or reducing the Minimum Wage for workers that receive Tips, with a "raise" in the minimum wage
  

STICK THAT IN YER PIPE AND SMOKE IT "not be denied" LATOILETTE!
:grr:


Frist will live to fight another day, until he's a lame duck GOP when Harold Ford takes his seat.
Could be DeWine will will also try to do as much damage to The Constitution and peoples' rights in his ALSO limited time in the Senate.

SHERROD BROWN FOR US SENATE
:patriot:
FOR THOSE KEEPING SCORE AT HOME:
We need SIX Senate seats:

1. Brown v DeWine (OH)
   
2. Ford v Bob Corker (Won primary yesterday w/ 48% GOP vote) (TN)
   
3. Casey v Santorum (PA)
   
4. McKaskill (primary Aug 8) v Jim Talent (MO)
   
5. Radnofsky v Hutchison (TX)
   
6. Tester v Burns (MT)
   

Don't forget Ned Lamont v loserman and the GOP "winner" in CT on Aug 8.

These are seats the DEMS can WIN!
For more info go to The Green Papers and U.S. Elections