By Holding Minimum Wage Hostage, Senate Republicans Cost Workers $750

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/05/25/by-holding-minimum-wage-hostage-senate-republicans-cost-workers-750/

By Holding Minimum Wage Hostage, Senate Republicans Cost Workers $750

by Mike Hall, May 25, 2007

On Jan. 10, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to raise the federal minimum from $5.15 an hour, where it had been stuck since 1997, to $7.25 an hour. But Senate Republicans killed the bill Jan. 24 and set off a 134-day minimum wage hostage crisis.

Finally yesterday, Senate Republicans released their hostage when they approved a supplemental Iraq war spending bill that included the wage hike. It’s estimated the increase will raise the pay of some 13 million workers who earn less than $7.25 an hour and another 7.4 million who earn a bit more but are likely to see their pay increase.

In a nutshell, here’s what happened since the House passed the bill more than three months ago. With Bush’s blessing, Senate Republicans engaged in filibuster, insisted on massive tax breaks for businesses, refused a House compromise on the tax breaks and even balked at going to a conference with the House to hash out a deal.

A bit of simple math shows the following: The delay tactics cost minimum wage workers $750. (The raise comes in three steps—the first is a 70-cent-an-hour increase, or $5.60 a day, for an eight-hour day, comes to $750.40 for 134 days.)

The final wage package trimmed the Senate Republicans’ tax breaks for businesses from $8.3 billion to $4.8 billion, but even that multibillion-dollar giveaway doesn’t satisfy the Bush administration.

Although a White House spokesman said Bush would sign the spending bill with the attached wage increase, he said the tax breaks were “not sufficiently focused on the economic concerns” of business. But on the other hand, since when has the Bush administration been sufficiently focused on the economic concerns of working families?

[youngdem]

1. And Dems dipped their hands in American Soldiers' blood by voting FOR IT.

Honestly, which is worse?

Repukes are disgusting, unprincipled, selfish assholes. It's what they do.

We are supposed to have principles. Instead, we were bribed into further support of this war for a meaningless $2.10, which by the way has LESS spending power than $5.15 did when it passed(when you consider inflation on the items the poor spend their money on - rent, energy, food, healthcare, education, automotive repair,etc).

So, good going there Congressional Dems. I'm sure the soldiers who die for this meaningless minimum wage increase will be ok with that. :eyes:

Nice that we have kids dying in Iraq now for a minimum wage increase in America. Seems almost as stupid as the reasons Bush got us there in the first place.

If Dem leadership really cared about the American people and not about their own political hide, they would end this war by refusing to fund it, and take the $150 BILLION we are spending on it each year and invest that in education and healthcare for the people that won't get much mileage at all out of this pathetic minimum wage increase.