House Finally Allows Minimum Wage Vote, Attaches Poison Pill
House Finally Allows Minimum Wage Vote, Attaches Poison Pill
Today, the leaders of the House of Representatives will finally allow a vote to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 an hour over two years. It would be the first increase in the minimum wage in ten years. Raising the minimum wage would benefit 7.3 million low-wage workers. Here’s how AP reports the story:
Republican Congressman Howard McKeon, the chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, said Republican lawmakers would embrace the increase to $7.25 per hour and probably attach a proposal…that would make it easier for small business to band together and buy health insurance plans for employees at a lower cost.
Sounds great! A raise in the minimum wage and a bonus for small business.
Actually, the provision that Rep. McKeon plans on attaching to the minimum wage bill is an ideologically driven proposal to enact Association Health Plans (AHPs). The proposal would “allow selective groups of small businesses to be exempt from state regulation – reducing their insurance premiums while raising them for those not in AHPs.” Here’s the impact:
– More uninsured. “A study by Mercer Consulting found that AHPs would increase the number of uninsured Americans by more than 1 million. ”
– Higher costs. “Only about one in five small employers would have lower premiums, while more than four out of five would actually see premiums go up.”
Rep. McKeon and his allies are counting on the fact that progressive members will find the Association Health Plan proposal so repugnant that they won’t vote for the bill raising the minimum wage.
It’s been 10 years. It’s time to stop playing politics and allow a straightforward vote on the minimum wage.
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If I were asked how the Democrats can turn the tables on the Republicans with regard to this minimum wage bill, I would argue they need to point out the hypocrisy evident in the GOP’s tax cutting strategy. By giving small businesses tax cuts to offset the wage increase, they are actually enacting a subsidy that is ultimately funded through taxpayer generated revenues…in essence they are creating a new tax funded social program…even though they repeatedly espouse the need to cut back on such funding. The measure would ultimately becomes an added burden for the already struggling middle class while at the same time shielding corporations from sharing in the cost of the much needed wage increase.
read the full article here:
http://www.thoughttheater.com
July 28th, 2006 at 10:56 amNo,katy,I didn’t forget to change my name.
July 28th, 2006 at 10:57 amUltimately, it’ll be almost impossible to raise the incomes of the low-wage, low-skilled American workers with massive immigration from Mexico and other Third World countries It’s supply and demand in action. Seal the border, expel all of the illegal aliens and change the insane immigration policy!
July 28th, 2006 at 10:57 amI still don’t understand how these attachments are allowed when they don’t have anything to do with the origional bill. Can someone please explain this. I thought attachments had to be addressing the origional bills subject.
July 28th, 2006 at 10:58 amA bit nasty sliiping in the other bill at the same time
July 28th, 2006 at 11:00 amI really think its about time to have Nobel peace prize winners running goverments not morons
I really think its about time to have Nobel peace prize winners running goverments not morons
The Nobel Prize winners are too smart to get saddled with that job.
July 28th, 2006 at 11:02 amSmall Business owners are NOT required to offer any health insurance coverage to employees! I bet the GOP will attach other nefarious poison pills to the minimum wage legislation regardless!
July 28th, 2006 at 11:04 amTypical republican strategy. This is all designed for the upcomming elections. It puts Democrats in a “damn if you do – damn if you don’t” position. Yes, minimum wage earners will earn more per hour but will loose overall because the cost of health care for small business will either rise sharply or be dropped all together. Havn’t we seen this type of strategy before? I seem to remember a guy named Murtha calling for a troop redeployment and republicans immediately took a vote on a complete withdrawl which was overwhelmingly defeated. Nevertheless, republicans immediately spun the vote to portray Democrats as weak and unorganized. I see no difference here. Anytime you hear of republicans “giving” something to the average worker…..be afraid. There is always “something attached” to it.
July 28th, 2006 at 11:08 amDemocrats should be using Republican language – “Republicans are not going to allow an up-or-down vote on the minimum wage increase”. I’m all for using Republican tactics which 1) are honest and 2) have worked.
July 28th, 2006 at 11:20 amGood post #9, PLC
July 28th, 2006 at 11:58 amThis is exactly what Dems should be doing.
Druggie Limpblow was ranting yesterday about Chicago
mandating a $10/hr minimum, saying ‘No one works for that
anymore. It’s just the Dems trying to cry & whine who are
always ‘anti-business’.
Let’s play the game the way they do!
Democrats need some poison pills of their own. How about legislation for federal funding of stem research called “The Ronald Reagan Life Legacy Act.”
It would be fun to watch Congressional Republicans vote against it.
July 28th, 2006 at 12:06 pm11 AvengingAngel
July 28th, 2006 at 12:11 pmBingo! I don’t want us doing the “no child left behind – except in actually improving schools and education” or other name-only acts. But a name like “The Ronald Reagan Life Legacy Act†perfectly reflects reality and challenges.
Republicans hate the poor. Plain and simple. They pretend to be Christians by attending church and voting to allow prayer in schools, but when it comes to caring for their fellow man, the Republicans would rather push them down and walk over them then lend a hand.
July 28th, 2006 at 12:12 pmA common Republican argument against raising the minimum wage is ‘that it will hurt small businesses’. Showing just what hypocritical bungholes they are, they add an amendment that they know would be a burden on small business employers. And they are doing it deliberately. What a surprise.
July 28th, 2006 at 12:15 pmDruggie Limpblow was ranting yesterday about Chicago
mandating a $10/hr minimum, saying ‘No one works for that
anymore...”
Comment by Zimzone — July 28, 2006 @ 11:58 am
just what did he mean by that? or was it just another blatant, pulled-from-his-ass lie? … oh…
Democrats need some poison pills of their own. How about legislation for federal funding of stem research called “The Ronald Reagan Life Legacy Act.â€
Comment by AvengingAngel — July 28, 2006 @ 12:06 pm
EXCELLENT! i LOVE it! sending that one along…
July 28th, 2006 at 12:20 pm13
July 28th, 2006 at 12:20 pmAn example, from my church. A local right wing fundamentalist came to our church services one morning a while after the shootings at Columbine. He was getting signatures on a petition to have a plaque put up in our local school saying “Thou shall not kill”. Over 30 out of about 75 of our congregants in attendance that day signed the petition. I refused. During that same service, the pastor announced that we had to cancel the Sunday School program because we did not have a teacher and not one of those petition signers offered! I was livid (I was the advisor for our youth group at the time) and made my complaint known to the pastor. A while later our congregation passed a policy to prohibit any political activity on church grounds (amen!).
The way this bull shit bush administration works I am suprised they didn’t put a sell off everything to DUBI attachment to this bill..If Delay were still in there they would atleast slip that in the night before the vote…Blessings
July 28th, 2006 at 12:21 pm#11- A.A.- Love it! And if Nancy Reagan came on board, she could do an ad campaign called “Just say yes.” Righties would spontaneously combust.
July 28th, 2006 at 12:24 pmHow about “Religious Freedom Protection Act” which prohibits the government from performing or prohibiting any strictly religious ceremony (can you say “marriage”).
July 28th, 2006 at 12:27 pmI just got an email from the American Cancer Society asking me to email my Congressman to oppose the bill. The Association Health Plans would be exempt from state laws mandating insurance companies pay for annual cancer screenings. No coverage for annual mammograms, etc. So there’s your Hobbesian choice, raise the minimum wage, end minimum cancer detection screenings. Rethugs are sickos.
July 28th, 2006 at 12:31 pmDems need to pass legislation that declares Republicans in government and in the work place to be in violation of discrimination laws since we all know that Republicans are racist, chauvenistic, hate filled, pro-murder, pro-death, pro-torture, pro-slavery, pro-sex crime, extortionist, criminal thugs that hide behind very thinly veiled political correctness called “Conservativism.” There is no denying this. Everything the virus known as Republicans touch is destroyed and ruined, even their own families.
July 28th, 2006 at 12:37 pm#19 PLC,
That’s a BRILLIANT idea.
July 28th, 2006 at 12:44 pm11. Just this morning I remembered the article I read about Armitage, and I really believe, if Reagan was alive and well, and he criticized in any way this administration, they would have had NO PROBLEM sliming him too.
July 28th, 2006 at 12:44 pmHouse Republicans Attach “Poison Pill” to Minimum Wage Increase…
Yet another example of conservatives jerking around with ordinary people….
July 28th, 2006 at 12:44 pm17. Sharon, you do realize that our bridges and highways are being sold to the highest bidders, like China….
July 28th, 2006 at 12:46 pmthe Republicans would rather push them down and walk over them then lend a hand.
The story of the good samaritan in the bible is lost on these holier than thou fools.
July 28th, 2006 at 12:50 pmTurn it around on them. You don’t want to be running on a platform of not raising the minimum wage. So call the bluff, rally the dems to vote for it.
It’ll pass, people will get a bit of a boost.
It’ll cause short-term harm with these AHP’s.
But, immediately, AND I MEAN IMMEDIATELY go on the offensive against the AHP’s. When asked why you voted for them, say that the law didn’t work as intended.
Attack them as a reason why we need nationalized health care. Use the AHP’s and Part D as Exhibit’s 1 and 2 in why we can’t trust Republicans with our health care.
And then amend the campaign promises so as to attach minimum wage increases to the overall inflation rate.
July 28th, 2006 at 2:14 pmby the way, I love naming the stem cell bill the Ronald Reagan Life Legacy Act
wonderful phrasing.
July 28th, 2006 at 2:16 pm[...] Ah, but not to be fooled by this fient at moderation by the captains of the sinking ship who are floundering as they face re-election this fall. Think Progress is reporting that the leadership is attaching a “poison pill” – an amendment on another matter designed to force members who support a minimum wage raise to vote against the bill – to ensure its defeat despite significant suport in the House. …the provision that Rep. McKeon plans on attaching to the minimum wage bill is an ideologically driven proposal to enact Association Health Plans (AHPs). The proposal would “allow selective groups of small businesses to be exempt from state regulation – reducing their insurance premiums while raising them for those not in AHPs.†Here’s the impact: [...]
July 28th, 2006 at 2:23 pmI’m with Jerry. That puts it in their own terms, and tells the truth at the same time.
When the research results in cures and corrections that the human race has only dreamed of, the Greedy Old Pigs have every right to refuse treatment. I would encourage that use of their religious “principles”.
July 28th, 2006 at 2:29 pmBannedByHisOwnMother
It was Ronald Reagan and the Republicans that set the trend that not only gave the last batch of illegal immigrants amnesty and the right to stay in the USA, but encouraged millions more to do the same . Why? Unlike Dems, who might have attempted to do so out of compassion, it was purely because greedy lowlife Republicans wanted to bust all the Unions up by flooding the market with cheap “illegal” labor. You’re either lying about who is promoting illegal immigration or you’re just ignorant about the facts. I suspect both. The progressives in this country have always been against flooding the market with cheap labor because DEMS/PROGRESSIVES are PRO LABOR/PRO UNION/PRO LIVING WAGE JOBS FOR AMERICANS/PRO FAMILY. Its the GREEDY, LOW LIFE, SCUM BAG, REPUBLICAN CONSERVATIVES, that will sell their next of kin down the road and their children’s legacy for profit. Republican/Conservatives are the lowest form of life that exists. Btw, TED BUNDY, the Serial Killer/Murderer was a Republican. That says it all. The list of current and recent Republican Murderers/Rapists/Thieves far exceeds any list of such within the Democratic party. The Republicans control the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court, and the Executive Branch. Anything and everything that is currently wrong in the UNITED STATES is 100 percent the fault of Republicans and their insane/evil/greedy/lowlife constituency. It will be poetic justice when you Republicans eventually get committed to retirement homes because your own children can’t stand the sight of you. And that day is coming with more certainty than the Rapture! But knowing that inevitability, Republicans are undoubtedly attempting to destroy the planet so they can drag everyone down with them, including their own children and grandchildren. Overpopulated cannibalistic Rats have more loyalty than Republicans.
July 28th, 2006 at 3:26 pmOh, now it’s getting even better: they’re tying the minimum wage increase to a repeal of the estate tax and making some of Bush’s tax cuts permanent.
July 28th, 2006 at 3:30 pmWhy not set an annual maximum wage – say 1000 times the annual minimum wage? Above that, all income, earned as well as from investments, would be taxed at 100%. The budget would be balanced in about ten weeks and the Social Security fund would be floating in cash.
July 28th, 2006 at 4:14 pmAs I report over at Angrybear, the GOP also wants to tie a repeal of the Estate Tax to this proposal. Of course, the GOP is not cutting taxes – just shifting them to the youngsters. Hear that all you hard working 20 and 30 somethings – they are raising your taxes – unless you are Paris Hilton.
July 28th, 2006 at 4:31 pmI heard that the other attachment (coercion) to this minimum wage bill will be the extension of tax credits for the wealthy including the Paris Hilton inheritance tax elimination.
July 28th, 2006 at 5:18 pmKeep in mind that this $2.10 increase is over three years, and we just learned of the most obscene profits by oil companies – profits earned in part on the backs of those earning $5.15/hour.
We wage-earners and retirees, poor and middle-class will feel the impact of those energy prices (and profits), and how they will increase the price of everything from toilet paper to peanut butter, to a far greater degree than the wealthy.
If the government were truly interested in helping small business owners, entrepeneurs, and other independents, they would hammer out universal health care and remove the burden of health care from business. And they would impose a windfall profit tax on their friends, the oil barons to help finance it.
[...] ThinkProgress reported this morning that congressional conservatives were planning to allow a vote on the minimum wage today or tomorrow, but only if it was coupled with a poison pill provision that enacted Bush’s Associated Health Plans. [...]
July 28th, 2006 at 6:03 pmIf the minimum wage had been pegged to inflation 10 years ago, then there would be no need to argue about raising it now! House and Senate members get automatic pay raises each year, so the same should happen for min. wage! It would be like $8.00 an hour now, so the Congress has caused this problem by waiting so long to raise it!
July 28th, 2006 at 11:24 pmWith due respect to those suggesting the Democrats propose their own legislation. You’re missing the fact that this Congress (Senate and White House included) DO NOT allow Democrats an opportunity to propose amendments or other legislation. If they do, it is only because it is self-serving and the amendment usually means nothing. So, the Democrats have rightly been complaining that this government no longer is a two-party organization…the Repukes do not allow the minority party to participate in OUR government.
July 29th, 2006 at 12:36 am#41- Reyes- That is a very good point. And when the Democrats suggested raising the minimum wage, the Republicans made it clear that there was NO WAY that they would let that happen. Until they started to understand just how tenuous their chances for re-election were becoming. So… FLIP-FLOP! Now they are all for it, as long as they get those tax cuts they were denied earlier. So they will take credit for putting up the wage increase bill, and either way, they win. Sneaky, sleazy Bastards, the lot of them.
July 29th, 2006 at 2:31 amTHIS IS A BILL TO KILL
IN
COMMITTEE
!!
July 29th, 2006 at 12:40 pmNew to this blog…I should not be surprised that Republicans would pull this kind of stunt.
July 29th, 2006 at 12:40 pmThis is NOT a vote on raising the minimum wage. This was a vote to:
(1) REDUCE ESTATE TAXES for the very, very wealthy permanently (from 50% to 25%)
(2) OVERRIDE STATE REGULATIONS on health insurance plan minimum coverages
(3) REDUCE BUSINESS TAXES
….and most remarkably…
(4) REDUCE ACTUAL WAGES FOR MINIMUM-WAGE SERVICE JOBS (by counting “tips” as part of the “minimum wage” paid by the employer)
Let’s be very clear that this bill was NOT a bill to raise the minimum wage. It was a bill to help those who are already wealthy and to help employers.
The argument will be won by the side that controls the language.
(By the way, see HR 2429 of the 109th Congress. This was a bill sponsored by 144 Representatives to raise the minimum wage to $7.25 by mid-2008. It was one page, 3 sections, and dealt only with raising the minimum wage. By contrast, HR 5970 which was voted on last night exceeds 600 pages of which 1 page is raising the minimum wage. Did the Democrats have a proposal? Yes, HR 2429! And its fate? buried in Committee)
July 29th, 2006 at 11:24 pmcorrection to my post #46…item (1) should read:
(1) REDUCE ESTATE TAXES for the very, very wealthy permanently (from 55% to 30%)
July 29th, 2006 at 11:45 pmI’m awfully confused, according to #46 (point 4), tips will be counted as part of the minimum wage. The reason I’m confused is this is exactly the way we roll in texas already. Waiters get 2.15 an hour, plus tips. If you don’t make the 2.15, the company you work for is required to pay you up to the state minimum wage (5.50). In my experience, 3 such discrepancies and your ass is looking for a new job. You also don’t get overtime pay if you work in the food or “entertainment” business (includes being a popcorn hustler at a movie theater), but thats probably just a texas thing. If anyone could clear up how the new law would differ with the old one I’d be interested in the details.
July 30th, 2006 at 12:17 am[...] How can normal people allow this piece of legislation go through without feeling guilt and not being able to look in the mirror. Read more about how the repeal of the estate tax hurts America. The raising of the minimum wage will help millions but….not really. [...]
July 31st, 2006 at 1:19 am48 – It differs because many states have passed laws that don’t count tips there. My own state of Washington is one of them and my gf benefits from it. It’s about time someone caught on that she was making way too much money. I mean she only has to work 50 hours a week to get by. That must be stopped!
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