From Katrina vanden Heuvel's The Notion:
The GOP just shafted the working people of America. By rejecting an attempt to raise the minimum wage, the Republican-controlled Senate showed that it is far more interested in lining the pockets of its campaign contributors than – as Paul Krugman wrote in a New York Times op-ed on Monday – arriving at a "new New Deal" and working to "rebuild our middle class." The 52-46 vote was eight short of the 60 needed for approval. (The measure drew the support of eight Republicans --four of these are up for reelection in the fall.)
Sen. Edward Kennedy's amendment would have raised the wage from the current $5.15 an hour to $7.25 – the first raise in a decade. "The minimum wage," as economist Gwendolyn Mink, makes clear, is supposed to guarantee an income floor to keep full-time wage-earners out of poverty. But today, the federal minimum wage guarantees abject poverty for workers... nearly $6,000 per year below the federal poverty line for a family of three."
But the vast majority of Republican Senators, several of them millionaires several times over, don't care about poverty or the well-being of their working class constituents, What they really care about is that they're sitting pretty, having voted themselves another raise --to $168,500 --on January 1.
Even the not-exactly-populist Wall Street Journal points out, "While the minimum wage has remained frozen, lawmakers' salaries have risen with annual cost-of-living increases keyed to what is given federal employees. And last week's vote in the House Appropriations Committee followed a floor vote days before in which the House cleared the way for members to get another increase valued at thousands of dollars annually." So, while Congress will soon make close to $170,000 a year, hardworking full-time minimum wage workers make just $10,700 annually.
One group that did important work to end this inequity is the Let Justice Roll coalition--a fast-growing program of more than 70 faith and community groups. The coalition labored mightily to target senators who were critical to passing this legislation and preventing it from being weakened by Republican's bogus charges of "class warfare." (For the true definition of class warfare, check out my Dictionary of Republicanisms. "Class warfare, n.: any attempt to raise the minimum wage").
For millions of families, this callous vote means another day of choosing between rent and health care, putting food in the refrigerator or gas in the car. Meanwhile, a Big Oil CEO makes $37,000 an hour. Want to talk about class warfare?
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This is from todays Mercury News. God knows these good people are only interested in providing jobs, their bottom line has nothing to do with it
ReplyDeletePosted on Wed, Jun. 21, 2006
Business panel IDs 'job killers'
WORKER PROTECTION BILLS IMPERIL ECONOMY, IT WARNS
By Steven Harmon
Mercury News Sacramento Bureau
SACRAMENTO - A business coalition is warning that California's economy will be ``devastated'' if measures requiring more stringent environmental standards, higher wages and worker protections are approved by the Legislature.
The Coalition for California Jobs, a group that includes manufacturers, anti-tax groups and business owners, listed 32 proposed laws on its fourth annual ``Job Killer List'' Tuesday.
The list, said Allan Zaremberg, president and CEO of the California Chamber of Commerce, is intended to remind Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to be vigilant against measures that could reverse the state's recent strong economic growth.
``These job killers would reverse that trend,'' Zaremberg said at a press conference at the chamber's Sacramento office. ``Individually, these job-killer bills would have an impact on the California job climate. But collectively, they would be devastating to California's economic growth.''
Democrats, who authored all 32 bills on the list, and labor advocates accused the group of stoking unfounded fears to protect corporate profits.
``It's big-business scare tactics,'' said Art Pulaski, California Labor Federation chief. ``They're just creating more myths about this. The fact is they don't like any bill that improves the working conditions for working people.''
Emissions issue
Among the measures the business group opposes are a pair -- AB 1835 and SB 1162 -- that would increase the minimum wage and provide automatic cost-of-living increases.
Another measure, AB 32, would require certain companies to report their greenhouse emissions to a state agency. Coalition members argue it would drive manufacturers out of the country and into developing countries with lower standards, which would result in higher global emissions throughout the world.
``To roll back carbon emissions to 1990s levels by 2020, we'd have to reduce carbon emissions by 40 percent,'' Zaremberg said. ``That would drive up the cost of energy, electricity and oil and reduce the ability to have the energy needed to drive our economy.''
Assemblywoman Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, the author of the emissions bill, said the business group is being shortsighted in opposing measures that would not only improve the environment but would also create tens of thousands of new jobs.
``The entire concept of investing in 21st-century industries that deal with climate change and pollution has so many Silicon Valley venture capitalists excited,'' she said. ``They're investing millions of dollars in technologies to find and create solutions.''
``Unfortunately,'' she added, ``it's a change from the status quo, and the chamber resists any change.''
Job losses
Jack Stewart, president of the California Manufacturers & Technology Association, said high regulations and taxes have helped drive 375,000 higher-paying manufacturing jobs out of the state, to be replaced by nearly 500,000 lower-paying jobs.
``If our goal is to produce low-end service jobs, keep right on doing what we're doing,'' Stewart said. ``If we want to create high-level, middle-class jobs, we need to address these job killer bills.''
A study by the Public Policy Institute of California debunks the notion that jobs have left the state due to public policy.
``We find that job loss due to interstate relocation,'' the report said, ``is small across virtually all industries.''
The 32 bills are at various steps in the legislative process and, if approved, would still need the signature of the governor, who has been particularly sensitive to business concerns.
Contact Steven Harmon at sharmon@cctimes.com or (916) 441-2101.