Has Ralph Nader commented on Obama's Executive Order raising the minimum wage?
He wrote an open letter last year.
Dear President Obama,
June 25th marked the 75th anniversary of the federal minimum wage law in the United States, known as the Fair Labor Standards Act. When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed this legislation, his vision was to ensure a “fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work” and to “end starvation wages.”
Seventy five years later, there are 3.6 million Americans working for pay at or below the federal minimum wage. More extensively, thirty million low wage workers are making less today, adjusted for inflation, than they did 45 years ago in 1968. They are working for a minimum wage that does not even reach the federal poverty line for a family of three and they cannot afford basic necessities like food, housing, transportation, and health care.
<...>
Not to mention that increasing wages could help spur on a lagging economic recovery. The Wall Street Journal’s story on June 24, “Slow-Motion U.S. Recovery Searches for Second Gear,” discussed how the slow pace of recovery has left businesses and consumers wary. The Economic Policy Institute, in examining Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Congressman George Miller’s (D-Calif.) legislation to increase the minimum wage to $10.10 by 2016, estimated that increasing the minimum wage above $10 per hour would provide $51 billion in additional wages during the phase in period for consumers to increase their spending for their livelihoods.
When Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act into law, he showed courage in the face of the Great Depression as well as considerable opposition and criticism from businesses. Is it not time, after four and a half years, for you to leave your mark, to show Americans what type of President you want to be remembered as, and to be a leader on this issue? Millions of workers throughout the country deserve a minimum wage that, at least, catches up with 1968.
http://www.timeforaraise.org/2013/06/27/ralph-nader-to-president-obama-its-your-sole-decision/
President Obama went one step more and included workers with disabilities, who have been excluded since 1938.
BOOM: Obama signs order to raise minimum wage for federal contractors...disabled workers included!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024489919
I want to thank our President. Doubly.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024497604
= new reply since forum marked as read
He still has time.
Sid
...are, for example, the folks who give Obama no credit for being the most pro-LGBT president in history. They give Obama no credit for anything and their goal is to actually get Republicans elected. They masquerade as Dems, but they're really not.
Those yappers are NOT to be trusted.
At. All.
I brush them off, like dirt off my shoulder:
"You know Pro, I have seen a list of Obama's accomplishments that include items millions"
...is responsible for policy and signs bills into law.
Nader has never been an elected official. This ("Instrumental in the passing of the following legislation:" is bogus to claim as an achievement.
That would be like the NRDC claiming that the administration's new rule for trucks is one of its "accomplishments." It would be like any of the organizations fighting to help pass the health care law claiming that it's one of there "accomplishments."
If the Republicans truly are "the cruelest, most extremist, most corporate-controlled party in history", then why the fuck is there a couple sentences attacking them, and paragraphs attacking Democrats? Why spend so much more time attacking the lesser of evils?
But that's OK, Ralph will disappear again around late November. Then he'll come back out around February 2016. To launch more attacks on Democrats. Then he'll disappear again around late November. Then he'll come back out around February 2018....Nov disappear, Feb 2020 reappear, Nov disappear.......
It's almost like there's some pattern at work. Golly, I wonder why that is.
But I guess you'd rather go into crouch-and-defend mode than actually take an open mind about the content.
Okay you win. Things are just ducky. Democrats have made such great headway against GOP obstructionism. Corporations do not have enough power over the political system. Democrats should continue to turn to Big Money to drive their agenda.
I might be able to take opinions like yours more seriously if you actually talked on the subjects at hand, Like if you actually gave your opinion about whether or not Big Money has influenced Democratic positions and behavior too much. Legitimate basis for differences of opinion there.
But noooo. Instead this dissing of critics of the Democratic Status Quo always degenerates into inane American Idol personality chatter.....Ohhhhhh...Ralph is a jerk. Therefore nothing he says has any merit...Ohhhhh, even when he is calling the GOP evil, he is not supportive enough of Democrats, so therefore he must be a GOP stooge.
gimme a break.
Green Tea Party Loser Idiot #1:
Peace & Freedom Tea Party Loser Idiot #2:
Vote for Democrats.
Winning elections is important — therefore, advocating in favor of Republican nominees or in favor of third-party spoiler candidates that could split the vote and throw an election to our conservative opponents is never permitted on Democratic Underground. But that does not mean that DU members are required to always be completely supportive of Democrats. During the ups-and-downs of politics and policy-making, it is perfectly normal to have mixed feelings about the Democratic officials we worked hard to help elect. When we are not in the heat of election season, members are permitted to post strong criticism or disappointment with our Democratic elected officials, or to express ambivalence about voting for them. In Democratic primaries, members may support whomever they choose. But when general election season begins, DU members must support Democratic nominees (EXCEPT in rare cases where were a non-Democrat is most likely to defeat the conservative alternative, or where there is no possibility of splitting the liberal vote and inadvertently throwing the election to the conservative alternative). For presidential contests, election season begins when both major-party nominees become clear. For non-presidential contests, election season begins on Labor Day. Everyone here on DU needs to work together to elect more Democrats and fewer Republicans to all levels of American government. If you are bashing, trashing, undermining, or depressing turnout for our candidates during election season, we'll assume you are rooting for the other side.
But I don't equate support for blind unquestioning loyalty.
Such jostling is part of the DNA of Democrats in general, and at DU. It's why the popcorn stand does so well here.
NOT!!!!
