tazmanian weasel

Senate GOP Blocks Minimum Wage Hike

Helen Dewar, The Washington Post, July 12, 2003

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45193-2003Jul11.html?nav=
hptoc_p

Senate Democrats yesterday launched a new drive to raise the minimum
wage but ran into a roadblock from Republicans, who sidetracked a
major foreign operations bill so it could not be used as a vehicle for
votes on the wage proposal and other Democratic initiatives.

Democrats argued that a minimum wage increase, last approved by
Congress seven years ago, is long overdue and complained that
Republicans were refusing to allow the Senate even to consider the
issue.

Republican senators contended Democrats were trying improperly to
piggyback their own domestic agenda onto an important and broadly
supported bill authorizing diplomatic and foreign assistance
operations.

The Democrats' proposal would raise the hourly wage floor from $5.15
to $6.65 in two annual steps: by 75 cents immediately after the bill
is signed into law and by another 75 cents a year later.

The impasse cast a cloud over prospects for legislation that Democrats
had targeted with their proposals: a bill to authorize $24 billion
over the next year for State Department operations, foreign aid and
international programs and President Bush's Millennium Challenge
Account to help countries committed to democratic reforms.

The Senate has not passed a foreign aid authorization bill since 1985
and has sometimes not gotten around to reauthorizing State Department
programs, relying instead on year-by-year spending bills. Both
Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Foreign Relations Committee
Chairman Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) had made passage of the combined
measure a high priority for this year.

When Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) tried to offer his minimum wage
proposal as an amendment to the bill yesterday morning, he found that
the bill was no longer there. Apparently under pressure from a
conservative colleague, whom Democrats identified as Sen. Don Nickles
(R-Okla.), Frist put the bill aside and scheduled the 2004 defense
spending bill as the next order of business for the Senate.

"Until we can work this out, we won't bring it back up," said Frist
spokesman Bob Stevenson.

But Kennedy and other Democrats vowed to keep pressing for the minimum
wage increase and other Democratic initiatives, including legislation
to strengthen federal hate crimes laws, until they prevail, although
suitable vehicles are scarce. Kennedy has used such tactics in the
past to force a vote on minimum wage proposals.

Another proposal, aimed at blocking the Labor Department from
redefining who qualifies for overtime pay, could be offered as an
amendment to a domestic appropriations bill next week. It was not
clear when the other proposals might be brought up.

The minimum wage was last increased in 1997 under a two-step process
approved by Congress in 1996.

In a speech to the Senate, Kennedy said that minimum wage employees
working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, earn $10,700 a year, or
$4,500 below the poverty line for a family of three. The value of the
increase that Congress approved seven years ago has eroded to the
point that their wages are worth less now than they were before the
last increase, he added.

During those seven years, members of Congress have raised their own
pay by $21,000, Kennedy said. "It's shameful that members of Congress
have raised their own pay . . . without giving the nation's
lowest-paid workers any increase at all," he added.

Kennedy said nearly 7 million workers would benefit directly from the
proposed increase.

Republicans did not respond publicly to Kennedy but have argued in the
past that hard-pressed employers will eliminate jobs to offset the
cost of minimum wage increases.
"We are going to
fight them and impose our will on them and we will capture or, if
necessary, kill them until we have imposed law and order upon this
country,"
-- Viceroy Paul Bremer, explaining how America is going to 'hearts
and minds' the subjugated people of Iraq

Not dead, in jail, or a slave? Thank a liberal!
Pay your taxes so the rich don't have to.
For the finest in liberal/leftist commentary,
http://www.zeppscommentaries.com

david hartung

It seems that the Republicans have finally done something right on the
domestic scene.

tazmanian weasel

Yup. Let's keep those Americans poor, frightened, docile and dependent!


"We are going to
fight them and impose our will on them and we will capture or, if
necessary, kill them until we have imposed law and order upon this
country,"
-- Viceroy Paul Bremer, explaining how America is going to 'hearts
and minds' the subjugated people of Iraq

Not dead, in jail, or a slave? Thank a liberal!
Pay your taxes so the rich don't have to.
For the finest in liberal/leftist commentary,
http://www.zeppscommentaries.com

robin*

Why don't you hand your paychecks and tax returns to a homeless shelter, Mr.
Lib?

tazmanian weasel

"We are going to
fight them and impose our will on them and we will capture or, if
necessary, kill them until we have imposed law and order upon this
country,"
-- Viceroy Paul Bremer, explaining how America is going to 'hearts
and minds' the subjugated people of Iraq

Not dead, in jail, or a slave? Thank a liberal!
Pay your taxes so the rich don't have to.
For the finest in liberal/leftist commentary,
http://www.zeppscommentaries.com

steve canyon

Well Zepp isn't an American citizen, but he sure is poor, frightened,
docile and dependent!

steve canyon

It's Zepp that's whimpering about some problem. I say that it's
Zepp's responsibility to do something about it.

What?

You say that Zepp can't even vote?

Too bad.

Why is that?

Did The USA reject his application for employment?

Hmmmmm, wonder what the problem was.....

robin*

Because I don't think they deserve my hard earned money. It's my money, not
their's.

You going to answer the question this time?

steve canyon

People that the economy doesn't need should learn how to make
themselves worth something. It's their responsibility, nobody else's.

robin*

You have to find a way to make it on your own. Most failures suffer because
of bad decisions they've made all through their miserable lives.

It's not right to expect other people to finance that failure, those bad
decisions.

What RIGHT does the shopping-cart pushing wino have to my hard earned
income?