Shame on the GOP Congress

For a decade, the federal minimum wage has lingered down at $5.15. States with no minimum wage have to comply with the federal law. In some states, the state sets a higher wage, and in Washington right now that is $7.63. It started climbing a few years ago when voters approved an annual hike based on the increase in the consumer price index. Now, Washington's is the highest in the nation.

The summer session of Congress has seen a lot of movement on the minimum wage. Some of this has to do with the Democrat Party deciding in many states to help boost voter turnout by placing on the ballot initiatives that would increase the state minimum wage. This isssue is red meat for blue voters. Now, perhaps hoping to blunt these Democrat efforts, the GOP Congress has pushed a minimum wage vote. But the catch is that it is tied to a huge tax cut for the super-wealthy. Republicans who vote for the bill would get to go home for Labor Day campaigning able to brag about both increasing the minimum wage and cutting taxes for small business owners, while Democrats might be forced to vote down one of their favorite issues. For a decade, lawmakers have squelched an increase in the minimum wage while increasing their own pay seven times.

It's shameful.

It doesn't take an idiot to figure out that it is darn near impossible to live on $5.15 per hour and one full-time job these days. And, we all know the Congress has passed plenty of tax cuts in the last five years, and President Bush has signed them all. All of them.

Here is a bit of propaganda from the Democrat Party:

So here's the question that the right-wing extremists who control the Republican Congress will put before the Senate:

"Over seven million Americans can have a raise of $2.15 an hour by raising the minimum wage, but only if we give a tax cut to 7,500 ultra-rich people at a cost of $753 billion dollars."

It's despicable, it's wrong, and we need to stop it.

Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist has said that this will be the only vote he will allow on a minimum wage increase this year.

Enough is enough. Contact your Senators and tell them to reject this shameful bill by signing this petition:

http://www.democrats.org/page/petition/wage/fqypvs

Thanks!

P.S. -- Here are some simple facts that can't be ignored:

• Someone working full-time for the $5.15 federal minimum wage makes just $10,700 a year. A single mom with two kids who works full-time for the minimum wage is about $6,000 below the poverty line.
• The federal minimum wage has been stuck at the same rate since 1997. Since then, Republican leaders have raised the salaries of Senators seven times. Salaries of lawmakers have gone up by $35,000 -- almost three times the entire yearly income of someone on minimum wage.
• The real value of the minimum wage is more than $3.00 below what it was a generation ago, and right now has its lowest buying power in over 50 years.
• The minimum wage is the lowest it has been in over 50 years relative to the average wage.
• Raising the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour adds up to more than one year of groceries, over 9 months of rent, a year and a half of heat and electricity, or full tuition for a community college degree.

Please do what you can to help call attention to this vitally important issue.

The world's richest and most powerful country must do better.

That last section says to please do what you can to call attention to this issue. Simply put, it is among the most important issues before us today -- what we do for the workers of America to help people live a comfortable life is essential. That is what the Democratic Party has stood for since the 19th Century, and it is what the Democratic Party must continue to stand for today.

This is what I can do. What can you do?

-- Ellensburg, Wash.